Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team rediscovers winning touch at Show Me Center

~ The Southeast women rolled past Division II Illinois-Springfield 72-56

Southeast Missouri State coach Ty Margenthaler pointed out a specific stat that he wanted his team to think about before the start of Thursday night's game at the Show Me Center,

"I kind of brought back the Southern Illinois game, the Missouri-Kansas City game, the games that I want them to remember that they had the success in," Margenthaler said, "and we had 13 and 18 assists."

The Redhawks had 24 assists and shot nearly 30 percent higher than they had just two nights before and cruised to a 72-56 victory over Division II opponent Illinois-Springfield.

"That just shows that we had great ball movement," Margenthaler said. "We hit shots. ... When you make shots everything is just a little bit easier, and tonight was a night that we really shot the ball well."

Southeast trailed just once on a layup by Poplar Bluff graduate Courtney Knuckles 46 seconds into the game. Kara Wright tied it 2-2 with a jump shot and gave the Redhawks their first lead with a 3-pointer 30 seconds later.

The Prairie Stars pulled within one point with 15 minutes, 35 seconds to play in the first half, but the Redhawks went on a 17-4 run. Jordan Hunter capped the spurt with a 3-pointer for a 24-10 lead with 8 minutes left in the half.

Southeast extended its lead to 23 points before entering the break ahead 40-21.

"I thought our movement was much, much better, and I think it opened up early when Kara got in the paint and made a couple 10-foot jumpers," Margenthaler said. "I think that just gave our team confidence and then we just kind of expanded from there, which is really nice."

The Redhawks started the second half with a 6-0 run that gave them a 25 point lead, but that was broken up with a 3-pointer by Knuckles -- the first of many between both teams.

Wright and Hunter hit back-to-back 3s for a 55-24 lead, before the Prairie Stars responded with one of their own.

Allyson Bradshaw restored the 28-point lead with a 3-pointer just nine seconds later -- Southeast's largest lead of the night.

"We did extra shooting after practice yesterday -- before and after with the coaches -- and that really helped us, got us our confidence back," Wright said, "because we knew we didn't shoot so well against SLU, so it feels good to come in shooting almost 50 percent."

Southeast shot 49.1 percent in the game -- a large improvement from the 21.6 percent it shot against Saint Louis on Tuesday -- and knocked down 11 3-pointers in the win.

The Redhawks were outscored 27-15 over the last 14:41, which concerned Margenthaler.

"My goal to challenge them was to hold them to 45 [points], just to kind of do small little goals, and we didn't get to that point," Margenthaler said. "But overall I thought our energy was pretty good. I thought our ball pressure was decent. The defensive end when we get into conference play is going to have to pick up. The one area that I'm a little concerned with right now is that I feel away from the ball we were a little stagnant, we kind of relax a little bit and a team that cuts a lot and moves a lot like tonight, they'll get you on some cuts."

Illinois-Springfield's Meredith Marti led all scorers with 15 points followed by Megan Bergerud with 13 points. The Prairie Stars made eight 3-pointers in the game.

Bradshaw, who had a team-high four 3-pointers, and Patricia Mack both finished with 12 points and Wright scored 11.

Hunter finished with eight points and had a game-high seven assists. Mack finished with six assists, which impressed Margenthaler.

"I thought she did a great job around the middle seeing opposite to shooters and also ducking down low like to Brittany [Harris] or to Connor [King] -- she had a couple inside shots in there," Margenthaler said.

Margenthaler was pleased that several players came off the bench and scored.

Olivia Hackmann, who didn't start and played just 12 minutes because she's been sick, scored eight points and made two 3-pointers. Kenyada Brown finished with six points in 14 minutes.

Southeast, which had lost seven of eight, improved to 4-8 and snapped a two-game losing streak.

"The one thing I'm really happy for is just to see the team in the locker room smile," Margenthaler said. "They want to do well. They want to win -- we all do. But just to have them see that again and know that they are a good basketball team, they are good, just stay together. It's one game, just take this day by day."

Southeast has a break before it returns to action Dec. 21 against Missouri State in Springfield, Mo.

"I think it'll be great to get our legs back under us," Bradshaw said. "Right now, at this point in the season even our off days we're still getting in the gym, you know, shooting and stuff. But without having a game for awhile we can relax, just really focus on us."