Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team stumbles vs. OVC leaders

The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team was already undersized against the visiting UT Martin Skyhawks on Wednesday night at the Show Me Center.

So when Redhawks starting forward Connor King left the game for good just 13 seconds into the second half after holding the Ohio Valley Conference's leading scorer, sophomore forward Ashia Jones, to six first-half points, it didn't make the task any easier for Southeast.

Jones exploited the smaller Southeast squad, scoring 23 second-half points to secure a 78-60 Skyhawks win. UT Martin improved to 12-0 in the conference.

"We came out in the second half pretty strong, made some shots and then getting stops," Southeast coach Ty Margenthaler said. "I told the team at halftime, 'Ashia's going to go off. She's going to get hers. There's no question about it. She's too good.' I knew they were going to start going high-low. The one thing that she was doing -- we were definitely trying to force her to go to her left, well, she's made some good adjustments and she's a very good basketball player, so she was going left very, very well from the top of the key.

"We were fouling and fouling and fouling in that situation, so we decided to put [guard] Jasmine [Robinson] on her, and I thought Jasmine did a tremendous job defending her. We were bringing the double-teams. I thought our rotations were very, very good. The one thing that we struggled at, again, our effort was there, they were in position, but the guard weak-side rebounding was small. That's where [forward Tiara] Caldwell can get off and get some offensive boards, and they took advantage of that. But we made them miss, but that second and third opportunity really hurt us with their size advantage."

King had stitches after being elbowed in the chin, and there was concern she could have suffered a concussion. The Redhawks' leading rebounder finished with four points and five rebounds in 16 minutes.

Southeast already faced a 16-point deficit to start the second half.

Southeast Missouri State's Connor King works against UT Martin's Tiara Caldwell to pull down a rebound in the first half Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2015 at the Show Me Center. (Glenn Landberg)

The Skyhawks opened the game on a 13-2 run and led by as many as 20 points with 4:38 remaining before halftime.

UTM connected on 6 of 11 attempts from 3-point range in the first half while Jones had just three field goals in the first 20 minutes.

Southeast's defense limited the perimeter play in the second half, not allowing a 3-pointer, but couldn't slow Jones, who finished with 29 points and eight rebounds. She made 13 of 16 free-throw attempts, all in the second half.

Guards Katie Schubert and Jessy Ward finished with 13 and 11 points, respectively.

"They're a tough team to play against because they're good in all aspects of it," Southeast senior guard Allyson Bradshaw said.

The Redhawks were able to cut it to 10 points twice in the second half.

Bradshaw knocked down her fourth 3-pointer and senior guard Jasmine Robinson immediately came up with a steal and scored to make it 56-46 with 11:21 to go.

After a pair of Jones free throws, Bradshaw pulled it back to 10 with a layup with 10:06 to go, but the Redhawks never got any closer.

UTM outrebounded Southeast 39-28 in the contest, including nine offensive rebounds in the second half. They had 22 second-chance points in the game.

The Skyhawks also had 21 points off Southeast's 16 turnovers, 13 off 10 first-half turnovers.

"I thought our kids did a good job, I thought we did a much better job taking care of the basketball in the second half, and did a much better job of taking better shots and not rushed shots," Margenthaler said.

Bradshaw led Southeast with 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting. She connected on 4 of 8 3-point attempts.

"I think she made a few early and that gave her some great confidence," Margenthaler said. "Every time Ally makes a shot or two early in the game, she feels much, much better. And she was doing both things -- she was driving really well, finishing around the rim. She was making some shots. This is probably the fourth game where we're really consistently making extra passes, and make or miss we're getting good shots, and that's all I can ask for at this point. I'm glad for her, and it's really good to see our top 3 guards in double digits."

Junior guard Olivia Hackmann finished with 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting and made 2 of 4 3s. Robinson finished with 10 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals.

Southeast (9-16, 2-10 OVC) hosts Murray State on Saturday at the Show Me Center. Tip-off is set for 3:30 p.m.

"If we can play that close with the No. 1 team in the league, we know we can play with anybody," Bradshaw said. "It's just getting to the end and winning some games to give us that extra boost of confidence."