Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team hits road for third game

The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team and coach Rekha Patterson had little time to dwell on the Redhawks' first win of the season and Patterson's first career win.

Southeast will play its third game in five days when it heads to Huntsville, Alabama, today to face Alabama A&M. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.

The Bulldogs are off to an 0-2 start after going 6-24 and 5-13 in the Southwestern Athletic Conference last season in coach Semeka Randall's second season at the helm.

"Coach Randall obviously does a good job in having them playing hard," Patterson said. "They're going to be somewhat similar to what we saw [Monday], and we've got to go on the road, so we've got to do a better job of rebounding the ball, for sure.

"[They are] teams that don't necessarily shoot it that well from the perimeter, but if they do a great job on crashing, then that field-goal percentage is going to be pretty good. So we've got to block out, play sound defense, get the rebound and then go down and execute and finish in the paint."

Southeast improved to 1-1 on the season with a 78-66 win over NAIA Harris-Stowe on Monday night in the Redhawks' home opener.

The Hornets had 23 offensive rebounds but only finished with 14 second-chance points. They shot 35.1 percent.

Alabama A&M had 13 offensive rebounds in its 96-44 season-opening loss to Alabama and shot 27.1 percent from the floor. The Bulldogs shot 35.7 percent in a 76-59 loss to Murray State.

Senior Janie Myles led Alabama A&M in scoring in both losses. The 5-foot-11 Myles had 14 points on 7-of-12 shooting and 11 rebounds vs. Alabama.

"I think No. 20 is the one that is a driver, and she attacks, and she could cause a bit of a mismatch problem for us because of her athleticism," Patterson said. "But we're just going to have to play team defense. It's not just going to be up to one person to stop her, but she will definitely be a huge part of our game plan."

Myles did not play against the Redhawks last year, when Southeast defeated the Bulldogs 66-38 in its season opener.

A&M shot just 22.2 percent in last year's meeting, including 1 of 18 from 3-point range.

Southeast was led in scoring by guard Olivia Hackmann, who had 19 points on 8-of-15 shooting with eight rebounds and four steals.

Forward Erin Bollmann, in her Southeast debut after transferring from Three Rivers College, had 10 points on 5-of-9 shooting and 13 rebounds off the bench against the Bulldogs.

Patterson credited Bollmann with providing production off the bench against Harris-Stowe.

The Redhawks had five bench points in their season-opening loss to SLU and Bollmann went 0 for 6 from the floor. She had 11 points, 12 rebounds, five steals and a block as Southeast got 27 points from its bench.

"I didn't say anything to her before she went in the SLU game, and I said [Monday], 'I'm going to try something different,'" Patterson said about Bollmann. "I gave her three goals. I said, 'I want you to run the floor, I want you to crash the boards and I want you to play hard,' and she says, 'Coach, I got you.' And I think she did it."

In each of their first two games, the Redhawks haven't been able to knock down many shots to start the second half.

In the loss to SLU, Southeast scored just two points in the first 4 minutes, 9 seconds of the third quarter as the Billikens pulled away for good.

Against A&M, the Redhawks went 4:43 without scoring after hitting a 3-pointer 1:16 into the second half. Their second field goal didn't come until there was 2:46 to go in the quarter.

Patterson said Southeast got the shots it wanted in both games but couldn't capitalize.

"So far it is a trend. We may have to practice going hard and then sitting down 15 minutes," Patterson said, noting that there was an extended 20-minute halftime Monday. "And then having to get yourself going again. We may have to practice that, and we may have to do something different, but we'll work on it. I'll take those shots every day.