Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team set to take on high-scoring Morehead State

The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team has had its fair share of offensive outbursts during coach Rekha Patterson's first year at the helm, but no one in the Ohio Valley Conference has scored like the Redhawks' latest opponent.

Southeast (9-6, 2-0 OVC) will face the conference's top scoring and stealing team in Morehead State. Tip-off is set for 7:15 p.m. at Johnson Arena in Morehead, Kentucky. Southeast remains on the road for a game at Eastern Kentucky at 3 p.m. Saturday.

The Eagles (6-9, 0-1 OVC) average 84.3 points and 11.8 steals per game, which rank in the Top 12 in Division I college basketball.

"They run a 1-2-2, three-quarter court press," Patterson said. "... They like for you to make bad passes and they're athletic and quick and so they jump those passes. They'll trap you and make you turn the ball over if you're not prepared for it. They'll also go man-to-man full court and make you have to work, and they will aggressively pursue the basketball."

MSU sophomore forward Ariel McKee ranks No. 1 in the OVC in eighth nationally with 3.47 steals per game. Freshman guard Miranda Crockett is third in the OVC with 2.7 steals per contest.

The Eagles, who beat Southeast 64-59 last season, have scored 100 or more points four times this season. They average 21.9 points off turnovers per game.

"You've got to be ready for it," Patterson said. "We have a plan to execute versus their press. I feel very fortunate that you've got two point guards in Adri [Murphy] and Bri [Mitchell] who bring great speed to our program and are sometimes difficult to press because of that. But they're going to be going against young ladies who have great speed as well. We're going to have to use ball fakes, pass fakes, however, I do want to attack the press. I don't want to just break it and bring it back out. We talked about shot selection and what shots we want to get once we do break the press.

"But with the way they play no one is ever going to be out of a game because they give you so many opportunities to get back in the game if you're down just because of the number of field-goal attempts they're going to take and how fast they play."

MSU has lost its last two games, dropping a 93-78 decision at UC Santa Barbara and opening conference play with an 83-79 loss at Murray State.

The Eagles had five players score in double figures vs. the Racers. Murray State forward Ke'Shunan James finished with 32 points (5 of 7 from beyond the arc) and 12 rebounds.

MSU forced 16 turnovers and scored nine points off those.

"They didn't press Murray as much as they have pressed people before, but again, that game was on the road and sometimes you just have to make adjustments based on home and road," Patterson said. "Murray State had a girl that they gave a lot of attention, so that changed their normal game plan."

Five Eagles average double figures with two more close behind.

McKee averages 15.7 ppg and 7.6 rpg, and Crockett, who has been named the OVC's Freshman of the Week five times this season and the last three weeks, averages 13.9 ppg and 7.7 rpg.

Shay Steel (14.0 ppg, 5.7 rpg), Brianna McQueen (11.8 ppg) and Kayk Tate (10.0 ppg) also average double figures. Aaliyah Wells and Natalie Greenwell each average 9.9 ppg.

Greenwell leads the team with 30 3-pointers at a clip of 33.7 percent.

"It's not like they just have one kid who is going to do everything," Patterson said. "Now, they also have players who are capable of putting up big numbers. ... So you can't just focus in on one. We have to play extremely hard and extremely tough and as a unit. We've got to do it together. We can't just rely on our one-on-one defense to be able to stop them because they've got really good dribble penetration. But it will be a team effort because they are balanced."

The Redhawks take a three-game winning streak to MSU. They're off to a 2-0 start, with wins over Belmont and Tennessee State, for the first time since the 2002-03 season.

"Being able to be tough on the road, tough minded," Patterson said of her message to the team. "Understand that the reason we had success those first two conference games was because we played extremely hard, extremely tough and we played together."