Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team set to face UT-Martin

For the Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team to secure its first back-to-back wins in Ohio Valley Conference action and chip away at the gap between it and the eighth and final spot in the OVC tournament, the Redhawks will have to go through the best.

Southeast (9-15, 2-9 OVC) is currently tied for 10th with five games remaining, and hosts frontrunner UT-Martin (15-9, 11-0 OVC) at 6:30 p.m. today at the Show Me Center to kick off a two-game homestand. The Redhawks host Murray State as part of a doubleheader Saturday.

"We know what's ahead of us, and we don't like the position that we're in at this point in the standings, but we also know that we have been in a lot of close games...and we're battling and our team's staying together," Southeast coach Ty Margenthaler said. "They're a tight group, and we feel like this is a big week."

The last time the Skyhawks and Redhawks met -- Jan. 24 in Martin, Tennessee -- Southeast was routed 96-55. The 41-point margin is the largest for UTM this season.

"The biggest thing that stands out right away is we've got to take care of the basketball. We had 22 turnovers that ballgame, and you just can't do that against an explosive offensive team because anytime you make a mistake like that they're going to counter and they're going to score," Margenthaler said. "Definitely turnovers are a huge factor, and then just going into that ballgame with the belief that we can win the basketball game and compete right away. I thought we did a much better job in the second half of getting shots to go in. But again, it's a little easier when you're down 20 to have that. We've got to start the game out strong on the defensive end and the offensive end as well, but the big thing's going to be taking care of the basketball."

Southeast junior forward Erin Bollmann finished with 20 points, five rebounds and five steals in that contest. Bollmann, who averages 11.5 points in conference action, scored 22 in the Redhawks' win against Eastern Illinois on Saturday.

"[The thing] I really like with Erin, definitely on the offensive end, is that she's wanting the basketball. She's being very aggressive, she's talking out there, and by her doing that she's playing with a lot of confidence," Margenthaler said. "She wants to score and she wants to take the big shots. She's going to the offensive boards pretty well for us, and that's really been a bonus the last few games, and I think our scoring production has gone up because of that. And I think that gives some other players confidence to go ahead and do that same thing. I think just by her being vocal in practice and demanding the basketball in games is giving us a little bit of a boost."

Senior guard Jasmine Robinson averages 11.2 ppg in OVC games. She was named the conference's Newcomer of the Week on Tuesday for the second time this season. Robinson scored a career-high 24 points and had seven rebounds in a road loss to Murray State on Thursday. She had 10 points in the victory against EIU.

The Skyhawks, who average a league-best 80.2 points per game, are coming off a one-point victory over second-place SIU Edwardsville on Saturday. The win marked the first time in program history that a team started conference play 11-0.

UTM boasts a player who is likely to be named the conference's player of the year in sophomore forward Ashia Jones. She's averaging 28.5 ppg and put up 30 against Southeast to lead five players in double-figures.

The Skyhawks shot 59.7 percent from the field and were 10 of 18 from behind the arc against the Redhawks.

"They don't change much. They do what they do well," Margenthaler said. "We're going to have to rebound the basketball, we're going to have to be very strong and we're going to have to throw different things at them, I believe, to try to keep them off a little bit. The bottom line is we're going to have to score. We're going to have to score with them. We can't score in the 60s, we're going to have to score in the 70s, maybe mid-80s to have a chance."