Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team secures first OVC win

The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team got a taste of something that it hadn't in awhile Saturday night at the Show Me Center -- winning.

The Redhawks maintained a double-figure lead for most of its game against Tennessee Tech, withstood a comeback from the Golden Eagles and eventually came from behind in overtime to pick up their first Ohio Valley Conference win of the season.

Southeast also snapped a five-game losing streak with its 68-66 overtime defeat of visiting TTU to improve to 8-11 and 1-5 in conference play.

"I just want us to remember this feeling because we kept remembering the feeling of losing, and we weren't liking it," Southeast junior forward Erin Bollmann said. "So I want everybody to feel this and want to carry this on because it's great."

Southeast led by as many as 15 in the contest, with 13 minutes, 33 seconds remaining in the game, before the Golden Eagles steadily erased it.

The game was tied four times in the final five minutes and remained even at 59-59 at the end of regulation.

TTU (5-14, 2-4 OVC) took its first lead of the game with 2:58 left in the five-minute overtime period, and its largest and final lead was 63-60 with 2:12 to play.

With the shot clock winding down and still trailing by three, Southeast senior guard Yelena Rosado knocked down her only 3-pointer of the season to tie it up with 53 seconds left.

The Golden Eagles then turned it over on consecutive possessions that led to steals and free throws for Bollmann and senior forward Hillary Lively. The Redhawks made 3 of 4 to take a 66-63 lead with 24.2 seconds left.

"I actually told [Rosado] to shoot that ball. She was not going to shoot," senior guard Jasmine Robinson said. "She was trying to give it to me, and I told her to shoot it. And I'm glad she shot it because she made it, and that was a big turn for us. And we came back and got a steal. And came back and got another steal. It builds like that. Like she said, it's contagious. *... When that happened, I knew we were going to win then."

Robinson was whistled for her fifth foul on the Golden Eagles' next possession. TTU's Yaktavia made one free throw to cut it to two before senior guard Allyson Bradshaw gave the Redhawks' a four-point advantage with 10 seconds left with a couple free throws on the other end.

TTU scored a layup in the final seconds as Southeast held on for the win.

"For the last five games we had mistakes that we corrected," Robinson said. "It took five games unfortunately, but now we see we've got it. Now we see we know what to do and how to keep it going."

The Redhawks opened the game on a 12-2 run over the first six minutes. TTU pulled within three points when they scored seven unanswered, but it was as close as the Golden Eagles got in the first half.

Southeast used a 10-0 run that featured two 3-pointers by freshman guard Hannah Noe and a pair of jumpers from Bollmann to extend its lead to 29-14 with 5:05 remaining in the half.

Southeast Missouri State's Connor King cheers after her teammate makes a free throw in overtime against Tennessee Tech Saturday, Jan. 17, 2015 at the Show Me Center. (Glenn Landberg)

The Redhawks shot 46.4 percent from the field in the first, were 4 of 6 on 3-point attempts and 7 of 7 from the charity stripe, which helped them build a 37-24 halftime advantage.

They scored three more points in the first half than they did in the entire game in a loss to Jacksonville State on Wednesday, and it was the first time in OVC play that they'd held a lead at halftime.

"We was moving it, and when when we see we're making shots actually, it makes us want to make another shot and make another shot and get the extra pass or look inside," Robinson said. " *... Everything was just in order. Like I said, from top to bottom everything was perfect. That's what made us shoot like that in the first half."

Southeast last held a 15-point lead when it was 45-30 with 13:33 to play before a 9-0 Golden Eagles' run pulled them within six points. The Redhawks never saw its lead return to double-figures as TTU continued to chip away at the lead.

The Redhawks shot just 28.6 percent in the second half and were 0 of 8 from 3-point range, which Southeast coach Ty Margenthaler credited to TTU switching its defense.

"There were times out there where we were confused," Margenthaler said. "We didn't know what they were in. We didn't have great communication, and we got in a little foul trouble. [Allyson] struggled with fouls the whole game, so we had Hannah Noe. I thought we kind of kept our composure. Our goal was to win every media timeout. We did that in the first half. We won two in the second, we lost one, then we won the overtime one. It's just small little goals we're trying to set."

Bollmann led Southeast with 18 points, 10 rebounds, a block and a steal in her first start of the season. Lively had 11 rebounds.

Robinson, who finished with 14 points, wasn't disappointed that the team let its lead slip away.

"I'm actually glad that happened because it tested our character. It really did," Robinson said. "It showed that we can actually come back, fight and still win after they took the lead. *... I'm glad they did that because I think it tested our character, and for us to come out and play like we did, it showed that we can actually beat some people even though we had a lead and they cut it off and then we still won anyway."

The Redhawks host SIU Edwardsville (10-9, 5-1 OVC) at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Show Me Center.