Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team falls to defending OVC champs

In the locker room following the Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team's road loss to Ohio Valley Conference leader SIU Edwardsville on Wednesday night, the players came up with four concepts that they felt needed to improve: communication, urgency, focus and alertness.

There were glimpses of each from the Redhawks during their game against defending OVC champion UT Martin on Sunday afternoon at the Show Me Center, particularly as they tried to claw back from a 17-point third-quarter deficit.

But Southeast couldn't overcome it and dropped its second straight, losing 84-74 to the Skyhawks.

"I think it comes on us to take it upon ourselves to make those things happen, so when we talk about the communicating and the focus and the alertness and all the effort and the heart and playing like we know how to play, I think it's just more so we have to come out and we have to do that," Southeast sophomore guard Hannah Noe said. "We can't just keep talking it. We have to do it. I think that if we focus on those things and we finalize those things and we do those things, when it comes to game time, we'll be better."

The Skyhawks improved to 12-7 overall and 5-1 in the OVC as they won their fifth game in a row. It was the first conference loss at home for the Redhawks, who fell to 12-9 and 5-3 in the OVC.

Southeast Missouri State's Bri Mitchell goes after a loose ball with UT Martin's Jessy Ward during the third quarter Saturday, Jan. 24, 2016 at the Show Me Center.Fred Lynch

"I think UT Martin has separated themselves because of their history, their rich history. I think SIUE has separated themselves because they have one of the toughest players to defend and she can do so much," coach Rekha Patterson said. "But when you're going against the best teams, you can't just have all those lapses. Maybe against a team of equal talent or lesser talent you might be able to get away with that. But when you're playing against a really talented basketball, your effort level has to be on 10 for the entire game, because if it is, it'll allow for [some of] those lapses for you still to work through it."

The Redhawks shot 42.2 percent in the game and knocked down 10 3-pointers (34.5 percent) after making 11 combined over the last four games. They outrebounded UTM 41-33, outscoring them 14-3 on second-chance points, and finished 10 of 13 at the free-throw line. They turned the ball over 16 times, but 12 came in the first half , which ended with the Redhawks trailing 41-34.

"You'd think you put yourself in a position to win, but then defensively you can't give up 84 and you can't put them at the free-throw line as many times as we did, knowing that they're a really good free-throw shooting team," Patterson said.

UTM shot 46.7 percent from the floor and was 12 of 28 from 3-point range. The Skyhawks made 16 of 19 free-throw attempts.

UTM extended its lead to as much as 54-37 on a Myah Taylor jumper with 5 minutes, 21 seconds left in the third quarter.

Southeast Missouri State's Bri Mitchell takes a shot as UT Martin's Haley Howard defends during the second quarter Saturday, Jan. 24, 2016 at the Show Me Center.Fred Lynch

From that point, Southeast scored 13 of its 16 third-quarter points to trim the deficit to 60-50 heading to the final 10 minutes.

The Skyhawks' lead remained in double figures until Erin Bollmann knocked down a jumper with 7:41 remaining to cut the lead to eight. It was part of an 8-0 spurt that was helped by three UTM turnovers.

A 3-pointer by Noe cut it to 69-67 with 3:41 left. UTM's Haley Howard, who finished with a game-high 25 points, answered with a triple.

Bri Mitchell knocked down a jumper to cut it to three, but UTM went on a 5-0 run for an eight-point lead with 2:00 to play.

The Redhawks pulled within six on a pair of free throws by Johnson -- she was 6 of 6 from the foul line -- but never any closer.

"Something that kind of sparked us to get us going was our defense," Noe said. "We started playing as a unit and talking more, communicating more on the defensive end. I think we maybe waited too late to try to come back. We were already down by quite a bit, so I think if maybe we learn from this one andÂ…if we start the first quarter communicating and playing as a unit and talking more on the defensive end and getting stops like we were, I think it'll carry over more to the second quarter, more to the third quarter, to where we're not trying to climb our way back in when we're at that fourth-quarter stretch."

UTM scored the first five points of the game, but the Redhawks knocked down 3-pointers on three consecutive trips down the floor to take a 9-5 lead. They made their first four attempts from beyond the arc to take their largest lead at 14-7 with 4:58 left in the first.

The teams were tied at 23 at the end of the first quarter. UTM went ahead 28-25 in the first minute of the second quarter and led the rest of the way.

"We might have relied on the energy of those shots, so as soon as the shots weren't going in we kind of backed off and weren't talking as much," Bollmann said. "I think that no matter what's going on we need to stay positive and stay communicating with whatever's going on."

Patterson stressed to her team to value possessions against talented teams like UTM and the need to play hard defense for more than 8 to 10 minutes of a game.

"Just a simple desire to make them have to go to two to three to four to five options, and then when the shot clock gets down to 10, really sitting down and making them take tough shots," Patterson said about the defense. "We proved that we're capable of doing that, and that's why we were able to get back in the game. But why during that stretch when they went on that run and they pushed it, why did we have a hard time getting stops then?"

The Redhawks return to action at 2 p.m. Saturday when they host Austin Peay.

"We're right there," Johnson said. " Â… We know what we have to do. We've just got to go out and do it."

UT MARTIN 84, SOUTHEAST 74

UT Martin 23 18 19 24 -- 84

Southeast 23 11 16 24 -- 74

UT MARTIN (84) -- Haley Howard 25, Jessy Ward 17, Katie Schubert 8, Chelsea Roberts 8, Emanye Robertson 5, Shy Copney 13, Myah Taylor 8. FG 28-60, FT 16-19, F 13 (3-pointers: Howard 2, Ward 5, Schubert 2, Roberts 1, Taylor 2. Fouled out: none)

SOUTHEAST (74) -- Erin Bollmann 16, Hannah Noe 10, Brianna Mitchell 6, Connor King 5, Imani Johnson 18, Ashton Luttrull 11, Deja Jones 5, Kaley Leyhue 3. FG 27-64, FT 10-13, F 16 (3-pointers: Noe 3, King 1, Johnson 2, Luttrull 3, Leyhue. Fouled out: none)