Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team loses to UMKC

~ The Redhawks rallied in the second half but ultimately fell 69-64 to UMKC

Southeast Missouri State sophomore guard Allyson Bradshaw had a career scoring performance but it wasn't quite enough to lift the Redhawks to victory.

Bradshaw, a Notre Dame Regional High School graduate, scored a career-high 18 points but host Missouri-Kansas City squeezed out a 69-64 win Monday night.

Bradshaw scored 13 second-half points as Southeast rallied from a nine-point first-half deficit. She hit 4 of 6 3-pointers and 7 of 10 field goals overall.

Senior center Courtney Shiffer's free throw with just under two minutes remaining gave the Redhawks (1-1) a 59-58 lead.

But Kim Nezianya scored five straight points to give the Kangaroos (1-1) the lead for good.

UMKC held the biggest advantage of the night for either team at 19-10 with just over seven minutes left in the first half.

Southeast, which had its only lead in the opening period at 2-0, forged a late 23-23 tie before entering the intermission down 25-23.

UMKC scored the first four points of the second half to go ahead 29-23 but Southeast cut the deficit to 35-34 after Bradshaw made her third 3-pointer of the second half with under 17 minutes to play. A Bradshaw jumper three minutes later gave Southeast its first lead, 38-37, since it was 2-0.

From there the game turned into a back-and-forth affair. The lead changed hands 17 times and was tied five times. A 3-pointer by senior forward Bailie Roberts put Southeast up 58-56 with under four minutes left, but UMKC tied it at 58-58.

Shiffer's free throw with 1 minute, 57 seconds left put the Redhawks ahead 59-58.

UMKC got consecutive buckets from Nezianya, the first a conventional three-point play and then a layup following a defensive stop.

Southeast fell behind 65-59 but cut the deficit to three points on a 3-pointer by freshman guard Kara Wright with 34 seconds remaining.

The Redhawks also got within three at 67-64 on a drive by freshman guard Dru Haertling from Jackson High School.

But Eilese O'Connor hit four free throws in the final seconds to ice the victory.

"Our start was very slow tonight," Southeast coach Ty Margenthaler said in a release. "We knew what was coming at us and we game planned for it, but we didn't show enough focus and toughness on the road.

"We had a couple lapses on defense down the stretch and put them at the line too much at the end."

Southeast senior forward Brittany Harriel and Roberts finished with 12 and 11 points, respectively.

Shiffer grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds off the bench. She also had six points, five assists and two blocks.

Nezianya, a senior forward, led UMKC with a career-high 23 points and added 11 rebounds.

Southeast shot 43.3 percent from the field, while UMKC shot 43.5 percent.

The Redhawks hit 10 of 19 3-pointers and held the Kangaroos to 2 of 7 from beyond the arc.

UMKC made 13 of 18 free throws compared to Southeast's 2 of 4. The Redhawks had a 38-36 rebounding advantage but committed 18 turnovers to 11 for UMKC.

Southeast remains on the road to face 25th-ranked Kansas Wednesday in an 8 p.m. tipoff.