Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team resumes quest to make OVC tournament

~ Redhawks are currently 10th in the conference standings

The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team played a strong game when Tennessee-Martin visited the Show Me Center on Jan. 16.

Southeast fell a bit short of upsetting the defending Ohio Valley Conference regular-season and tournament champion but will get another crack at it Saturday.

The Redhawks (10-15, 4-8), who revived their hopes of making the OVC tournament with Monday's 67-62 home win over SIU Edwardsville, visit UTM (11-14, 6-5) for a 4 p.m. tipoff in Martin, Tenn.

Southeast is 10th in the 12-team OVC with four conference games remaining -- three on the road. The Redhawks are two games out of eighth place, which is the cutoff for the OVC tournament field.

"We're still alive," said second-year Southeast coach Ty Margenthaler, whose squad has posted the program's most wins since the 2008-09 season and has matched the program's OVC victory total from each of the previous three years. "We have to go in there with a lot of confidence."

The Skyhawks are only tied for sixth in the OVC after they were tabbed the preseason favorites. A Southeast victory Saturday would move the Redhawks within 1 1/2 games of UTM.

"They're still having another good year," Margenthaler said.

Southeast led virtually the entire first half in the earlier meeting with UTM. The Redhawks, after trailing a good part of the second half, regained a two-point lead with under four minutes left.

But UTM, which has won the past two OVC tournament titles, outscored Southeast 16-3 over the final 3 minutes, 9 seconds to pull away.

In the end the Redhawks simply didn't have enough answers for UTM's spectacular backcourt duo of juniors Heather Butler and Jasmine Newsome, who have been stars in the OVC since they were freshmen. They combined for 59 points against Southeast -- 35 in the second half.

"Two great guards," Margenthaler said.

Butler, the OVC preseason player of the year and the league's leading scorer at 21.8 points per game, recently set the NCAA record for consecutive games with a made 3-pointer, breaking the previous mark of 69. She leads the OVC with 78 3-pointers.

UTM's big star in the first matchup with Southeast was Newsome, the reigning OVC player of the year and the OVC's No. 2 scorer with a 21-point average who leads the league in assists and steals.

Newsome poured in a season-high 36 points -- three off her career high -- 24 in the second half while adding nine assists and four steals.

UTM also got a big performance from senior forward Rickiesha Bryant, who had 14 points, a career-high 14 rebounds and four blocks. She leads the OVC in field-goal shooting at 66.2 percent.