Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team resumes search for first OVC win at JSU

Editor's note: The year of Southeast's last 0-4 conference start has been corrected.

Southeast Missouri State women's basketball coach Ty Margenthaler remains patient with his team as it seeks its first Ohio Valley Conference win of the season.

The Redhawks (7-10, 0-4 OVC) are off to their worst start in the OVC since the 1996-97 season when they started conference play 0-4. They will try to snap their four-game losing streak on the road against Jacksonville State today.

Tip-off is set for 5:30 p.m. from Pete Mathews Coliseum in Jacksonville, Alabama.

"I do believe in this basketball team, and I do believe we can turn it, and we're going to do everything we can to try and get that done," Margenthaler said. "[Today's] Game 1 for us again. We have that 1-0 mentality, and you've really got to have that mentality and kind of forget about the past. We can't control the past four games, but we can control tomorrow night, and that's what we're going to work hard to do."

Southeast is one of two teams that are winless in conference play -- the other is Murray State at 0-3.

Jacksonville State (11-5, 2-2 OVC) is coming off a 78-73 overtime win against the Racers, which is the largest margin its conference games have been decided by.

The Gamecocks sustained three-point losses to Austin Peay and Eastern Illinois, and defeated SIU Edwardsville 72-69.

JSU senior guard Candace Morton leads the team with 12.9 ppg while junior guard Destany McLin averages 11.9 points and 7.2 rebounds.

Six-foot senior center Miranda Cantrell averages 9.4 points and 6.9 rebounds.

Guards Briana Benson and Courtney Strain, a senior transfer from Auburn, are JSU's top 3-point threats.

Benson has connected on 30 of 79 from long range and Strain has made 24 of 68 attempts.

"They're athletic. They transition very, very well," Margenthaler said. "They have really good guards -- strong guard play. They like to get to the rim, but they also can shoot the basketball. They've got a very good transfer out of Auburn that can really shoot the basketball and stretch the defense out a little bit. We know we have our hands full. It's always tough to win on the road, but we're really looking forward to it. It's a big one for us, like every game is from here on out, and I just really hope that we can play better on both ends of the court."

Margenthaler's biggest concern is the offense. The Redhawks are last in the conference in field-goal percentage, free-throw percentage and 3-point percentage.

They're shooting 37.1 percent on the season from the field, 59.7 percent from the charity stripe and 25.9 percent from behind the arc.

"What we did was we went back and assistant coach Cameron Tucker watched the past four games in our league, and we studied every offensive possession because we have that little issue right now, so our responsibility is to talk about it, define it and execute it," Margenthaler said. "What we found out -- it's eye-glaring -- is we need to get a few more ball reversals. We need to be a little more patient. *... That's a focus that we're going to have the remainder [of the season] because when we get two or three ball reversals it's amazing the difference in our shooting percentage. We have good shooters, and I believe I gave them confidence by seeing it, watching it, talking about it, and now we've just got to move forward."

The Redhawks are coming off a 57-54 loss at home to Eastern Kentucky in which they had a chance to tie or take the lead with a pair of free throws in the final minute and had a chance for a game-tying 3-pointer in the final five seconds.

Their last three losses have been by seven or fewer points.

"We've got to execute better. We've just got to be a little more patient," Margenthaler said. "We've got to move the ball a little bit better than we're moving it. *... We're getting a good shot early in the shot clock, but we want a great shot, and that's something that we've really been harping on and talking about it. The last two ballgames at home I don't think we took a lot of bad, bad shots, but I think we could've got a great shot. That's what we're going to harp on to get great shots and not get empty possessions on the offensive end."