Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team falls to Morehead St.

~ Morehead St. hit a 3-pointer in the final minute to overtake the Redhawks 62-59.

The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team held a two-point lead over Morehead State when the Eagles took a timeout with 24 seconds remaining and possession of the ball.

On the ensuing play, Morehead State's Shanice Parker hit her fourth 3-pointer of the game with 13 seconds remaining to give the Eagles the lead back in a game that featured 11 lead changes, and Morehead St. went on to defeat the Redhawks 62-59 Monday night at Ellis T. Johnson Arena in Morehead, Ky.

"Being up two, I mean, what they were doing most of the game was really attacking the basket well, and that's something I thought they were going to do," Southeast coach Ty Margenthaler said. "I think we did a great job of taking that away from them, and then they just kicked it out to an open player and we recovered to her but she just happened to knock it down. I felt we executed with what we wanted. Of course I didn't want to give up the 3, but we took away the drive, which they'd been successful on."

Parker's basket was the Eagles' eighth 3-pointer of the game.

The Redhawks made their first seven field goal attempts and took a 21-11 lead with 9 minutes, 46 seconds remaining in the first half.

"We started out playing really well -- with a ton of energy and making shots," Margenthaler said. "We got a nice little lead so I was excited about that. I was proud of the way we started, but I knew, of course, it's a long game, knew they were going to make a run."

Southeast made 3 of 12 field goal attempts the remainder of the half. The Eagles used a 12-2 run to tie the game 23-23 with 5:12 to play and took a 32-29 edge into halftime.

Southeast was hurt by four turnovers in the final five minutes.

"That really hurt us," Margenthaler said. "Then we had some difficulties getting open, just struggled being strong and cutting hard and just wanting the basketball. The turnovers were really the key that got them back in the first half."

The lead changed eight times in the second half.

"Really to just sum it all up, we just didn't do enough of the little things right," Margenthaler said. "Getting the right stops at the right time or maybe a rebound at the right time."

Margenthaler also noted that Southeast had a few open 3-point attempts during the second half that could've changed the game. The Redhawks went 3 of 14 (21.4 percent) from behind the arc, but Margenthaler did not think they were bad shots.

"You make one of the shots that we had -- we had three wide open 3-pointers when we were leading [that could have] put us up by five -- it would've sealed the game," Margenthaler said. "They made the shot they needed to, and unfortunately we did not."

Jordan Hunter led Southeast with 18 points on 7 of 10 shooting and Allyson Bradshaw added 14.

Guard Kara Wright was out of the starting lineup for the second straight game. The sophomore, who averages 9.3 points per game scored four points on 2-of-2 shooting.

"We need her to get more than two attempts a game, and unfortunately the last two games she's averaging about two attempts a game," Margenthaler said. "I think the defense is defending her pretty well, but she needs to be a little more aggressive and look for her shot as well."

Southeast's leading scorer Olivia Hackmann, who averages 9.8 ppg, didn't score. She got in foul trouble and played just 13 minutes.

Morehead St. (9-10, 3-3) finished with three players in double figures: Almesha Jones scored 20, Terrice Robinson had 15 and Parker had 15.

Southeast (5-13, 1-4) is back at the Show Me Center for its next two games. The Redhawks play Eastern Illinois at 3 p.m. Saturday and SIU Edwardsville at 6:30 p.m. Monday.

Hillary Lively did not play for the Redhawks after suffering an ankle injury last week in practice. Margenthaler is hopeful she will be able to play Saturday.