Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team falls to SIUE on Senior Night

The final home performance of the season for the Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team made senior Erin Bollmann feel a little sick after the game on Wednesday night.

Southeast Missouri State coach Rekha Patterson talks to her team during a timeout in the third quarter.

It wasn't just that Bollmann and fellow senior Connor King's last chance to play at the Show Me Center resulted in an 89-75 loss to SIU Edwardsville, but that it had occurred in front of the team's largest home crowd of the season, with 1,540 people in attendance, and that the result came because the Redhawks didn't play with the type of effort that they'd had most of this season.

"Pretty disappointed in the way we played," King said. "We're a lot better than that. And we had a really great crowd -- probably our best crowd ever in my career -- and to not show them how hard we can work and how hard we can play is disappointing. But they can come back next year because I can promise you it's going to be different. They're going to play hard."

The Redhawks held their last lead of the night at 19-17 with 2 minutes, 12 seconds remaining in the first quarter. The Cougars closed out the period on a 9-2 run to take a 26-21 advantage into a pivotal second.

Southeast was limited to just one field goal as it was outscored 27-5 in the second quarter and trailed 53-26 at halftime.

Southeast Missouri State's Erin Bollmann grabs a rebound away from SIUE's Shronda Butts, left, Sydney Bauman and Amri Wilder during the fourth quarter Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016 at the Show Me Center.Fred Lynch

The Cougars, who were coming off an 86-50 loss to UT Martin, shot 60 percent from the field in the first half and were 5 of 6 from beyond the arc.

"I think you have to give credit to SIUE and their coaching staff because they got beat by UT Martin and this game mattered to them," Southeast coach Rekha Patterson said. "They had to find a way to come back."

The Redhawks committed 10 of their 14 first-half turnovers in the second quarter. They were held scoreless until freshman forward Dolapo Balogun split a pair of free throws 3:01 into the quarter.

Southeast's lone field goal of the frame came as part of a 3-point play for King with 3:12 left in the half.

The Redhawks were 1 of 10 from the field after going 8 of 14 in the first quarter.

Southeast Missouri State's Imani Johnson drives to the basket against SIUE's Amri Wilder during the third quarter Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016 at the Show Me Center.Fred Lynch

"When we would get the ball where we wanted it to go -- which wasn't often because they wouldn't let you get it there -- we would settle," Southeast coach Rekha Patterson said. "Whereas they go through you, we would try to go around, and I can't fight officials when we're not being tough and tonight we just weren't being tough. You call timeouts and you talk about, 'Guys, there are no Xs and Os. It's about heart right now. It's about toughness.'

"We got punched in the face that second quarter and we were wobbled, and like we were down for a little bit. Good news is we fought in the second half, but when you dig yourself that much of a hole it just takes a whole lot. You need some 3s to start falling for you a little bit or you need to get some and-1s and that just didn't happen for us in the second half."

SIUE pushed its lead to 29 -- its largest of the game -- 21 seconds into the second half. The Redhawks got as close as 19 in the third after a basket by freshman guard Corneisha Henderson and trailed 76-51 going to the fourth.

"At that point there was no small adjustments that could be made, there was no Xs and Os that could be changed," King said of the halftime message. "It was all about whether or not we were going to show [Patterson] that we had it in us and that we had heart and we had effort and we had the toughness. She knew and she believed that it was in us, but it was up to us to come out in the third quarter and show it right there."

Southeast got within 80-66 with 3:40 remaining in the contest after a 9-0 run and pulled within 12 on a Bri Mitchell layup with 1:05 left, which was as close as things got.

Southeast shot 44.7 percent from the field in the second half while SIUE shot 31.3 percent in the final 20 minutes.

The Cougars improved to 16-12 and 11-4 in the Ohio Valley Conference.

Southeast dropped to 15-13 and 8-7 in conference.

Patterson's greatest disappointment came from her team's lack of toughness and not making the effort plays like diving on the floor for loose balls.

"That is who we are," Patterson said. "At the very beginning of the season everybody was like, 'Oh my God they're playing with so much energy, they're playing so hard,' Why? Because that ball mattered. We didn't have that tonight. I don't know why. I told our team I felt like we played like we were just so happy to be in the OVC tournament, not realizing that you're playing for a chance to finish fourth or maybe even fifth. Like if you win that could happen.

"But again, I've got 18- to 22-year-olds that I'm dealing with, I've got a group that's never been to the conference tournament, and so we are slowly changing the culture."

The Redhawks clinched a spot in the Ohio Valley Conference for the first time since 2009 on Saturday. The tournament is held in Nashville on March 2-5.

"I think it shows that home or on the road, crowd energy or not, at the end of the day what it comes down to are the things that you can control," King said. "It comes down to effort, it comes down to intensity and it comes down to heart and toughness, and those are four things that on road wins like Tennessee Tech in particular, we had, Morehead [State], when we came back and win these games, those are things that we had on the road and those are things we had in the six home games that we won in conference. I think it shows that Nashville's a neutral site, so it's all about us. It's not about who we play. It's not about who's there and who's not. It's all about us and what we bring to the table."

Southeast closes out the regular season at Austin Peay on Saturday. Tip-off is set for 4 p.m. in Clarksville, Tennessee.

"That's the good thing. We get a chance to regroup," freshman guard Adrianna Murphy said. "We have one more game left to prepare us for Nashville. That's what it's about. Playing together and getting that chance to be that tougher team, and we have one more opportunity before we head on the road [for Nashville]. It's going to be tough going against a great team, but it's going to be a test and it's going to be nice to see how we react, how we get back up from this loss."

SIU EDWARDSVILLE 89, SOUTHEAST 75

SIUE 26 27 23 13 -- 89

Southeast 21 5 25 24 -- 75

SIU EDWARDSVILLE (89) -- Gwen Adams 11, Shronda Butts 26, CoCo Moore 11, Donshel Beck 13, Sidney Smith 3, Erin Kelley 3, Lauren White 6, Amri Wilder 7, Sydney Bauman 9. FG 31-67, FT 21-32, F 21. (3-pointers: Butts 3, Smith, Kelley, Wilder. Fouled out: Beck.)

SOUTHEAST (75) -- Erin Bollmann 14, Connor King 6, Bri Mitchell 12, Adrianna Murphy 11, Ashton Luttrull 4, Dolapo Balogun 1, Corneisha Henderson 8, Deja Jones 4, Imani Johnson 13, Hilma Mededovic 2. FG 26-62, FT 20-26, F 26. (3-pointers: Johnson 2, Murphy. Fouled out: King, Murphy, Henderson.)