Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team tops Belmont in OVC opener

Southeast Missouri State sophomore guard Hannah Noe had just finished talking about her team's mission to protect its home court when redshirt freshman forward Imani Johnson chimed in, "We wanted to make a statement."

Southeast, which was picked to finish last in the 12-team league in the OVC preseason poll voted on by coaches and sports information directors, accomplished both when it knocked off Belmont 81-74 in the Redhawks' Ohio Valley Conference opener Thursday afternoon at the Show Me Center.

It was the first time the Redhawks have claimed a victory in their conference opener since the 2006-07 season and their first win over the Bruins since they joined the OVC in 2012.

"It is hard to do what we do. It's hard to win, so whenever we have success I'm going to celebrate our success," Southeast coach Rekha Patterson said. "We haven't won a conference opener since [2006]? That's a long time.

"They don't know how to win, right? So we're learning how to win. When we win we absolutely celebrate wins. When we're on the road and we win, we go get some ice cream."

Southeast (8-6, 1-0 OVC) held a 17-12 lead at the end of the first quarter and went into halftime with a 36-34 lead after closing the final 2 minutes, 20 seconds of the half on a 10-4 run.

The Redhawks pushed their lead to 50-45 with a 3-pointer by freshman Corneisha Henderson with four minutes left in the third.

The Bruins regained the lead 54 seconds later. Forward Frankie Joubran sank a free throw, Belmont recovered a loose ball near the sideline after she missed the second and guard Darby Maggard drained a 3. A quick miss by the Redhawks led to another Maggard 3 to put Belmont up 52-50 with 3:06 left in the quarter.

A putback by sophomore forward Deja Jones sparked an 11-0 run to close the quarter, capped with a 3-pointer by Johnson in the final minute, and gave the Redhawks a 61-52 lead going to the fourth.

Southeast Missouri State players cheer from the sideline during the game against Belmont Thursday, Dec. 31, 2015 at the Show Me Center. (Glenn Landberg)

Johnson scored and was fouled 1:14 into the final quarter to push Southeast's lead to double figures, but her free-throw was no good. Johnson joked after the game that her "heart was broken," because she'd made her first 29 free-throw attempts of the season prior to that.

After a Belmont 3 cut it to eight on the next possession, Johnson got a runner to fall and put the Redhawks up double figures until the final 34 seconds of the game. She finished with 15 points -- 13 in the second half -- in 16 minutes off the bench, and was 2 of 2 from beyond the arc.

"I played a little cat and mouse with her there, [subbing out] offense and defense with her, in that second quarter because I felt like she could help us but I didn't want her to pick up that third foul," Patterson said. "Then she went back in and she was composed and she knew how they were going to be guarding her, and so she was able to take her time and go finish and get to the free-throw line."

The Redhawks pushed their advantage to as much as 16 with Noe's fourth triple of the game with 4:29 to go, but back-to-back Belmont 3s cut it to 10. Sierra Jones knocked down a 3 with 21 seconds remaining for the final score.

Belmont (8-6, 0-1 OVC) shot 41.5 percent from the floor and made 11 of 24 3-point attempts. Five Bruins scored in double figures: center Sally McCabe (17), Maggard (14), forward Kylee Smith (12), Jones and guard Natalie Cohlmeyer (10 apiece).

"I really thought this -- Darby Maggard only had 14 points, but she had seven assists. She played a really good game, but I thought the key was that they weren't able to get into a rhythm offensively," Patterson said, "and Bri Mitchell and Adrianna Murphy pressuring her, us changing our defenses, I think that allowed for them not to become comfortable. We needed to make them uncomfortable.

"And honestly I can't take too much credit for that. I watched Maryland vs. UConn and granted, Maryland didn't win the game, but they made UConn have to do some things different because they kept mixing it up. UConn is efficient offensively; Belmont is efficient offensively, and you can't keep giving them the same looks, so I thought that was huge. I thought us battling on the boards was huge, and then we took care of the ball."

Mitchell had a career-high 23 points on 8-of-15 shooting and she was 7 of 8 from the free-throw line. She added four assists, four rebounds and did not commit a turnover in 28 minutes.

Southeast Missouri State's Adrianna Murphy passes to a teammate during the second quarter against Belmont Thursday, Dec. 31, 2015 at the Show Me Center. (Glenn Landberg)

"Having Adri and Bri playing together allows for her to be able to come off the wings sometimes better than off the top of the key, and she's not forcing things. She's not," Patterson said. "She's playing with a great pace, she's engaged and she's able to drive and find people, too, and that opens up a lot of things because people have to respect her ability to get in the paint and then for her to be able to stop and rise up and hit those shots, that's huge."

Noe finished with 12 points and shot 50 percent from beyond the arc in 38 minutes of action while Erin Bollmann had 11 points.

Henderson scored a career-high nine points in 13 minutes off the bench.

"She stepped up big time," Johnson said. "She's always had energy whether she's been on the bench. She's always the loudest person that I hear so her showing that on the court just made us a different team."

The Redhawks take a two-game winning streak into Saturday's contest against defending OVC tournament champion Tennessee State. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m.

"You have girls that are going to score maybe a lot, you have girls that are maybe not going to score at all, but it's like the fact that everybody has each other's back," Noe said of the team's mindset. "When we're on the court no matter who's scoring, no matter what's happening, we are all playing together and making those things happen. Even the girls on the bench that may not even get in a minute of the game, they are on the bench cheering their butts off the whole entire game. That's so big for all of us because you feed off each other's energy, and I think that right now we're not worried about who gets their points or who gets this, who gets that. It's more so, 'Let's get this win as a team.'"