Southeast tries to regroup at home against nationally ranked Baylor

~ The Bears are the highest-ranked Division I team to play at the Show Me Center.

The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team was hoping to enter tonight's contest with a full head of steam.

That won't be the case, but coach John Ishee was confident the Redhawks could regroup by the time the highest-ranked Division I opponent in program history visits the Show Me Center.

Ishee knows the Redhawks (4-2) will have to be on top of their game to make things interesting when they face 10th-ranked Baylor (5-0) in a 7:30 p.m. tipoff.

"It's exciting. It's not every day that you get to play at home against a top 10 team," Ishee said. "I know we'll be ready, and we'll have to be. We'll have to play our very best to be competitive."

Southeast was rolling, starting out 4-0 for the first time on the Division I level, before running into a major roadblock over the weekend at the New Mexico State Thanksgiving Classic.

First the Redhawks were hammered by Texas State 80-47, then they lost to Northern Colorado 60-49.

"Friday [against Texas State] was probably as bad as we've played since I've been here," said Ishee, in his second season at Southeast. "We played a little better Saturday [against Northern Colorado], but not as good as we can and hopefully not as well as we will."

The Redhawks were done in by poor rebounding and shooting in New Mexico. They were outrebounded 108-66 in the two games, while hitting 7-of-37 3-pointers.

Southeast is shooting 35.5 percent from the field overall and 25.3 percent from 3-point range this season.

"It [rebounding] is a glaring weakness," Ishee said. "And we're not shooting well, but we've got good shooters and I think that will improve."

Baylor, the 2004-05 national champion, enters tonight's game with impressive credentials.

In seven seasons under coach Kim Mulkey, Baylor has appeared in the NCAA tournament six times, including four straight.

The Bears, who returned four starters from last year's squad that went 26-8 and lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament, are outscoring the opposition by 37 points per game.

Baylor's closest contest was Sunday's 69-56 victory over 12th-ranked California.

"They've got high school All-Americans top to bottom," Ishee said. "It's women's basketball at its highest level."

Baylor, which is averaging 83.6 points per game and is beating opponents on the boards by an average of 15 per contest, has five players averaging between 10.2 and 14.8 points.

Jhasmin Player, a 5-foot-10 junior guard, leads the Bears with a 14.8 average, followed by 6-3 sophomore center Danielle Wilson at 14.4, along with a team-high 7.6 rebounds.

Next are 5-7 senior guard Angela Tisdale (13.6 ppg), 6-1 junior forward Rachel Allison (10.6 ppg) and 6-0 junior forward Jessica Morrow (10.2 ppg).

Wilson is shooting 64.3 percent from the field, while Allison is at 60.6 percent. As a group, the Bears shoot 51.6 percent.

"As a coach you're really never pleased," said Mulkey in assessing her squad's play so far. "But as far as winning and where we are right now, I am pleased."

It's unusual for a nationally prominent program like Baylor to visit a mid-level program like Southeast.

Mulkey said the Bears set up a home-and-home series with the Redhawks in order to get Allison fairly close to her hometown of Jonesboro, Ark., which is less than three hours from Cape Girardeau.

Tonight's contest is a return game from last year, when the Redhawks lost at Baylor 81-47 in the first-ever meeting between the teams.

"We wanted a place as close to home [for Allison] as possible. We try to do that for our players whenever we can," Mulkey said. "Arkansas State [located in Jonesboro], Memphis, Southeast Missouri, we considered all of them.

"It just so happened that we called Southeast Missouri first and they had an opening."

Mulkey said the Bears respect the two-time defending Ohio Valley Conference champion Redhawks and will not take them lightly.

"I think any time you win a championship and have four returning starters, they deserve a lot of respect," Mulkey said. "We will take everybody we play seriously."

Ishee hopes the Redhawks' impressive home-court resume will help give them a fighting chance at a major upset.

Southeast is riding a 17-game winning streak at the Show Me Center, where the Redhawks are 64-8 over the last five-plus years.

Of course, the competition the Redhawks have faced during that stretch has not been as stiff as what they'll see tonight.

"Year in and year out, they're one of the elite programs in America," Ishee said. "It's going to take a great effort by us, and I would hope we'd have a huge crowd to help us out."

Ishee announces signing

Ishee announced the signing of Victoria Smith, a 5-foot-11 forward from Three Rivers Community College.

Smith, an East St. Louis, Ill., native, is averaging 22 points and 10.5 rebounds per game this season. In addition, she is shooting 83 percent from the free-throw line, 43 percent from the field and 42 percent from 3-point range.

"She is perhaps the strongest forward in the country strength wise," Ishee said in a statement. "She is in the mold of a Charles Barkley, a good rebounder and scorer both in the block and at the 3-point arc."