Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team runs winning streak to four games

The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team went into Western Hall in Macomb, Illinois, to face Western Illinois and did what no other Redhawks squad had been able to do.

Southeast's 89-85 victory Tuesday marked the first win for the team at Western Illinois and improved its record to 4-1, which is the program's best start since its last winning season in 2008-09.

First year coach Rekha Patterson's couldn't hide the pride and excitement in her voice after her team handed the Leathernecks only their second loss of the season.

"Listen, any win that we can get, I will take," Patterson said. "When you are rebuilding the program and you are changing the culture, you work every day to go out and give your best, and you live with those results. But Western Illinois is a great team. They're coached well, they play with great pace. They know what it is they do and they do it well. So proud of my team. They believed, they were tough, they found ways -- multiple ways -- to win despite all the distractions. Just proud of them."

The Redhawks, who never trailed by more than two points in the game, held a 22-17 lead at the end of the first quarter. They scored the first five points of the second quarter to take their largest lead at 27-17 with 8 minutes, 48 seconds left in the first half.

The Leathernecks answered with a 15-4 run capped by a Michelle Maher 3-pointer to regain a 32-31 advantage with 3:07 to go before halftime.

Olivia Hackmann knocked down a pair of free throws and a 3 to push the Redhawks' lead to four, but WIU hit two triples in the final 57 seconds of the second quarter to take a 38-36 edge into the break.

"At halftime I like to listen to them because they're the ones that are playing. We all said the same thing," Patterson said of her halftime message. "We talked about how we've got to cut down our turnovers and our transition defense has to be better and we've got to continue to be tough. [We said that] we're on the road. They're going to get calls. We may not get calls. They're going to make 3s, but we've got to be tough. Tough. No matter the situation we've got to be tough."

Hackmann, who went 2 for 13 from the field in the first half, tied the game up with a jumper 14 seconds into the second half.

That shot sparked a 15-2 Southeast run, with Hackmann scoring the first nine Redhawks points in the first 2:34 of the third quarter.

Freshman guard Adrianna Murphy knocked down the first 3 of her career and a layup by sophomore forward Deja Jones capped that spurt and put the Redhawks up 50-40 with 6:20 left in the third.

"One of my coaches said the quote of the night at halftime was, 'You know what? We've got another half to go,'" Patterson said. "That's what O [Hackmann] said, and she believed that she was better than 2 for 13; and I wanted to get her touches early to start that second half to get her going, and she responded amazingly. Then she wanted the ball at the end of the game. I told her, 'Hey, I want you to have the ball so when they foul, you knock down the free throws,' and she wanted that opportunity."

WIU rattled off 10 straight points to retie it at 50, and it was later knotted at 60 on a jumper by senior forward Erin Bollmann with 43 seconds left in the third.

Murphy drained a 3-pointer as time expired to put the Redhawks up 63-60 going to the fourth.

WIU's Maher, who finished with a career-high 29 points, hit a 3 and knocked down two free throws to put the Leathernecks up 65-63 in the first 19 seconds of the fourth quarter, but Southeast sophomore guard Hannah Noe knocked down a 3-pointer 11 seconds later and the Redhawks never trailed again.

The game was tied one last time at 68. The Redhawks held a 3-point lead when Bollmann was whistled for a flagrant foul, Maher split a pair of free throws and Taylor Mcclintock hit a jumper to tie it with 7:49 left.

Patterson said the flagrant foul call "didn't faze" her players, and after a Jones free throw with 7:15 left made it 69-68, the Redhawks led the remainder of the way.

Southeast was 10 of 13 from the free-throw line in the final 3:09 to hold on for the win.

WIU, which entered Tuesday's contest second in the nation averaging 13.5 made 3s per game, was 7 of 38 from 3-point range in the first half and 5 of 18 in the second.

The Redhawks shot 42.9 percent in the game, and they were 52.2 percent from beyond the arc, knocking down six 3s in each half.

"We were tough," Patterson said. "We knew that they were going to shoot 3s. We knew they were going to make 3s. But what we had to do *... was limit their shots. Make them take contested shots, get the rebound and then let's come down and execute our offense because they still had to defend us as well."

Southeast out-rebounded WIU 55-39. The Redhawks turned the ball over 19 times, but only six in the second half.

Hackmann tied her career-high of 26 points. She made all six of her free throws and now hasn't missed from the charity stripe in the last two games. She was 8 of 23 from the floor and 4 of 9 from behind the arc.

Murphy started in place of junior guard Bri Mitchell -- who did not make the trip with the team due to a mild foot sprain -- and finished with 13 points, 12 assists and eight rebounds. After committing four turnovers in the first half, she only had one in the second.

"I thought that she provided us with a calmness," Patterson said. "Yes, she pushed. Yes, she got other players shots. But she was never rattled. She was never rattled no matter what happened, and I think that's kudos to her, but it's also kudos to the other four on the floor. They understood who they were playing with. But she definitely stepped into that role and did an amazing job."

Jones also had 13 points, on 5-of-7 shooting, and nine rebounds. Noe finished with 11 and was 3 for 4 from 3-point range.

Bollmann had 10 points, seven rebounds and four blocks, and King had seven points and eight rebounds. All nine players who saw action scored for the Redhawks.

"Everybody on our team played a role," Patterson said. "Even if it was a young lady that did not get in a game. They got us ready for the game the night before. They showed us exactly how they were going to play, and we were able to go out and see it and defend it."

The Leathernecks dropped to 3-2 with their only other loss coming to nationally-ranked Iowa in overtime.

The Redhawks will take a four-game winning streak to the UTEP Thanksgiving Classic in El Paso, Texas. Southeast plays Idaho State at 5:30 p.m. Friday and either UTEP or UC Riverside on Saturday.

"They believed. In those timeouts they looked me in the eye and they believed," Patterson said. "We talked about time and score and understanding what it is we're trying to do, because if they understand they know that, they'll go out there and do it. They understood what it took -- 'We've got to get stops,' or 'We've got to come down and execute our offense.'

"Obviously there's a lot of stuff that we can continue to grow and get better, and we will, but they believed. They bought in and they wanted to win, and they were willing to do whatever they had to do to win."