Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team set to face defending conference champs

Southeast Missouri State women's basketball coach Rekha Patterson told her coaching staff that the Redhawks' next opponent, UT Martin, would feel like a person that had just gotten their hair done and got all dressed up with a nice outfit and shoes.

No, the Skyhawks won't be wearing anything other than their usual uniforms when they come to the Show Me Center for today's 2 p.m. game, but the defending Ohio Valley Conference champions will have the confidence that comes with being all gussied up.

"No matter who is in their program, that's how they are," Patterson said. "I think winning breeds confidence and so they're a confident basketball team, even though they lost the Player of the Year from last year."

OVC Player of the Year Ashia Jones was dismissed from UTM's team over the summer, but the Skyhawks still have plenty of weapons.

They enter today's contest on a four-game winning streak. They're 11-7 overall and 4-1 in the OVC.

UTM dropped its conference opener to Eastern Kentucky (70-61) before defeating Morehead State, Tennessee Tech, Jacksonville State and Eastern Illinois.

The Redhawks (12-8, 5-2 OVC) also lost to Eastern Kentucky (56-55) and are coming off an 80-73 loss to OVC leader SIU Edwardsville.

"They will be difficult to match up with because they all can do so many different things," Patterson said. "They can shoot the 3, they can score in the post, they can put it on the floor. They're going to press you and try to get you to turn it over. They're going to play some zone where they trap you and try to get you to make bad passes and they capitalize on those mistakes. So we're going to have to be fundamentally sound. We're going to have to take care of the basketball, defend as a team, obviously defend the 3."

The Skyhawks have three players averaging double figures -- 5-foot-9 freshman G/F DaiJia Ruffin, 6-0 senior forward Haley Howard and 5-8 junior guard Jessy Ward.

Ruffin's averaging 14.1 points and 5.7 rebounds on the season, Howard's averaging 12.9 points and 5.2 rebounds and Wards's averaging 12.0 ppg. All are averaging double figures in OVC action, too.

UTM's 175 3-pointers on the season is the most of any OVC team. The Skyhawks are shooting 35.6 percent from beyond the arc in their 18 games. They're shooting 31.2 percent from 3-point range in conference.

Howard and Ruffin have each knocked down 10 triples in conference while Katie Schubert's drained 10.

Ward's knocked down 54 on the season. Howard (31), Schubert (31), Myah Taylor (22), Roberts (21), and Ruffin (10) are all threats from 3.

"There's going to be a lot of screening action," Patterson said. "They will run some isos for Howard or Ruffin to dribble penetrate, then if you help off them that leaves somebody wide open for a 3. It's a whole lot easier to make those 3s when your feet are set and nobody's guarding you. So they do that, but they play to the mismatches wherever they are on the floor."

Patterson said Ruffin will be similar to other perimeter players in the OVC because of her ability to take people on one-on-one at the 4 spot, and that Howard, who transferred from Butler and averaged 3.5 points last season, brings experience to the court.

"She's a difficult matchup because if you put a post on her she'll step out and if you put a perimeter player on her she'll go into the post, so we're going to have our hands full," Patterson said of Ruffin. "But they're so much more than just her. They've got the transfer in from Butler in Howard, who you can tell is a seasoned player and can tell that even though she redshirted that year she sat out and was going against really good teammates."

The Skyhawks rank No. 1 in the conference in steals and turnover margin. They've averaged 13.4 steals over the last five games (9.4 on the season) and have a plus-8 turnover margin, forcing 22.6 turnovers per game while committing 14.6.

UTM will use a full-court 1-2-1-1 press to try to force and capitalize off steals and a 1-3-1 half-court trap to force teams to play side to side rather than attack the middle, Patterson said.

Patterson said her team would look at film from its Wednesday loss to SIUE and hopefully learn from missed opportunities.

"I think we'll put ourselves in a situation where we're not going to quit," Patterson said. "We have to continue just to get better. it really doesn't matter about who the opponent is -- everybody says this. It's, is the Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team improving from game to game? ... Yes, we play hard, I think we play tough, we play together. Now that we're doing those things on a consistent basis, now it's time to do those plus add play smart.

"If you don't play smart against UT Martin with their weapons, they'll definitely hurt you."