Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team routs William Woods in non-conference finale

With about six and a half minutes remaining in the second quarter of the Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team's final non-conference game of the regular season, the Redhawks found themselves tied up with NAIA William Woods.

Southeast (7-6) limited the visiting Owls to three points the remainder of the half, took a 24-point lead into halftime and rolled to a 94-58 win at the Show Me Center.

A basket by center Kennedy Volkart, who finished with a team-high 13 points for William Woods, knotted the game at 26-all.

The Redhawks answered with a basket by senior forward Connor King and led the rest of the way. King's basket sparked an 11-0 run that was only snapped with a free throw by Volkart with 3:58 left in the half.

The Owls' (8-3) only other FG the remainder of the half came when Volkart scored in transition with 3:08 to go.

"I thought our energy, our communication, our intensity level increased, and I would like to point out Connor King and Erin Bollmann for that," Southeast coach Rekha Patterson said. "They communicated through that and then we were able to get some things in transition. But defensively we started to pressure the ball more and not allow easy post entries, and again, play as a unit and we're going to have to do that going forward."

Southeast scored the final 13 points of the half and scored in a variety of ways -- a putback by Erin Bollmann, a lob to Imani Johnson, a 3-pointer by Hannah Noe, a couple of free throws and a transition basket for Ashton Luttrull. Johnson, who finished with 14 points, scored in the post in the closing seconds to put Southeast up 52-29 at the break.

The Redhawks' lead never dipped below 23 and they extended it to as much as 39 on a transition bucket by freshman Corneisha Henderson with 5:36 remaining.

Southeast Missouri State's Erin Bollmann drives against William Woods' Kennedy Volkart during the second quarter Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2015 at the Show Me Center. (Fred Lynch)

All 13 available players -- senior Olivia Hackmann remains sidelined with a Jones fracture in her foot -- saw action and scored against the Owls. The 94 points was a season high for Southeast, whose bench erupted each time a teammate that doesn't see a lot of consistent playing time scored, even when the game was well out of reach of William Woods.

"Everybody's been in that position. Very few kids come in as freshmen and get significant minutes and so all of us have been there," King said of the bench reaction. "We all know what it's like to bust your every single day in practice and never really get to see it pay off in the game, so for us to see it pay of for them is so exciting because you know they're just having the time of their life, and we love to see that."

Southeast outrebounded the Owls 54-31 and scored 13 second-chance points on 24 offensive boards. William Woods had three second-chance points and only five offensive rebounds.

The Owls shot 37.3 percent in the game and were 7 of 18 from beyond the arc.

"We did a better job today than we have recently of finishing the possession with a blockout and a rebound, which is something that we have worked on, too," said King, who tied a season high with 11 rebounds, "so I think head to toe it was one of our better defensive games."

Bri Mitchell led five Redhawks that scored in double figures with 17 points. She was 4 for 4 from 3-point range after going 1 for 10 from beyond the arc in the previous nine games she'd played in.

"Bri, 4 for 4, I'll take that every day," Patterson said. "I didn't expect that, but she was mentally ready to make shots. You've got to know that the shot is going in."

Southeast shot 44.4 percent and were 9 of 22 (40.9 percent) from 3-point range.

Sophomore guard Kaley Leyhue knocked down 3 of 8 3s and finished with a career-high 11 points.

"Happy for Kaley," Patterson said. "Man, she's been struggling and she's been getting in the gym extra on her own, and I'm happy for her to be able to come in off the bench and have a career high tonight."

Bollmann and Deja Jones each finished with 10 points. Jones had eight rebounds.

The Redhwaks begin Ohio Valley Conference play at 2:30 p.m. Thursday at home vs. Belmont.

"Now it's 0-0 and the fun begins," Patterson said, "And we have a tough test to start conference play when you've got the team with the best record coming in and then you've got the reigning OVC tournament champions right after that, so we will have our hands full and we need all the fan support that we can get."