Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team still in hunt for OVC tourney despite loss

~ The Southeast women lost 63-61 to Tennessee Tech but still can make tournament

With 11 seconds remaining, and trailing Tennessee Tech by two points Monday night, the Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team took a timeout and prepared to take the final shot of the game -- one that would hopefully send it to overtime.

Southeast senior Patricia Mack put up a shot in the lane in the final seconds, but it bounced off the rim and was secured by a Tennessee Tech player to hand the Redhawks a devastating 63-61 loss at the Eblen Center in Cookeville, Tenn.

"Felt good about what we were running, and they were defending pretty well but Trish still had a pretty ... it was a tough, contested shot, but it was a decent shot to try to tie the game," Southeast coach Ty Margenthaler said.

Southeast trailed the Golden Eagles 60-52 with 3 minutes, 15 seconds remaining in the game. A conventional three-point play by sophomore Connor King and back-to-back baskets by Mack cut the deficit to one point with 53 seconds left.

Tech's Diamond Henderson hit a pair of free throws to extend the lead to three, but King knocked down two of her own with 19 seconds left.

The Redhawks went into a full-court press, and when they were unable to come up with a steal, fouled Henderson, who made one of two free throws for the Golden Eagles (11-16, 8-6 OVC).

"Our effort for 40 minutes was tremendous," Margenthaler said. "I thought we executed. We executed plays. We defended the way we should defend and kept a good basketball team in the 60s, low 60s, so everything that way I was pleased with. We just didn't shoot the ball. We didn't shoot the ball well. We outrebounded them. We only had nine turnovers [in the second half]. We did everything the right way to win a game, but the only thing we didn't do -- we shot 29 percent, and you're not going to win the game shooting that low of a percentage."

The Redhawks were 17 of 58 from the field and were 3 of 17 from behind the arc.

Two of those 3-pointers came in the first 2:14 of the game and helped give Southeast an 8-2 lead.

Southeast trailed by as much as 22-14 with 7:48 left in the first half, but outscored the Golden Eagles 21-10 over the rest of the half. Southeast senior Jordan Hunter hit the Redhawks' final 3-pointer of the game with 24 seconds left in the half to take a 35-32 lead into the break.

The Redhawks shot just 23 percent (7 of 31) from the field in the opening 20 minutes, but their 18-of-21 shooting from the free-throw line kept them in it. Southeast was a perfect 14 of 14 from the line in the final 8:10 of the half.

Senior Patricia Mack scored 12 of her team-high 17 points in the second half. She played the entire 40 minutes and finished with 18 rebounds.

"She did everything she could and played really hard," Margenthaler said. "She got hot down that stretch and we kept feeding her and kept feeding her, and she kept scoring and kept keeping our team on her back. I was really proud of her effort, but unfortunately we need more than one player. And it was just one of those nights where we played good defense, but the ball just wasn't going in the hole, unfortunately."

Brianna Mitchell was the only other Redhawk in double-figure scoring with 11 points in 18 minutes off the bench.

Henderson led the Golden Eagles with 27 points -- including 18 in the second half -- and also had seven rebounds.

"She's good, but that's the one thing we didn't do a really good job on," Margenthaler said. "She can't go left to save her life, and unfortunately we let her go right all the time, and the players knew it, not to let her go right, but she did. I thought Kara [Wright] did a good job in the second half, started making her go left, and when she was going left she wasn't scoring, but by that point it was a little too late."

Molly Heady and Candace Parson had 11 points apiece for Tech.

Southeast dropped to 9-19 overall and 5-10 in the OVC, but the Redhawks were not eliminated from OVC tournament contention with one game left. Murray State defeated Morehead State on Monday, which aids the Redhawks, but they will need some help from other teams on Thursday as well.

"I want to win games. Our players want to win games. And we know we've still got a process a little bit, and still it's early in -- third year -- but it's frustrating," Margenthaler said. "I know Murray beat Morehead, which that would've been huge for us to get the win. Even with a loss it still helps us, but there's some things that have to happen Thursday I think to get in."