Southeast women close in on OVC three-peat

With the Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team limping toward the finish line, it's time for me to lead off with the Southeast women.

The Redhawks' ladies certainly deserve top billing for the torrid pace they've kept up over the past two-plus months.

After losing their Ohio Valley Conference opener to visiting Tennessee State on Dec. 6, the Redhawks were 4-5 overall.

Southeast has suffered only one more loss since then, and the Redhawks have not tasted defeat since a Jan. 7 home setback to Murray State.

It's all added up to 10 straight wins, 15 of the last 16 and a clear path to the program's third consecutive OVC regular-season championship.

The Redhawks (19-6, 14-2) have four conference games remaining, all of them at the Show Me Center. The biggest figures to be a Feb. 28 matchup with Samford.

Southeast leads the 11-team OVC by one game over second-place Samford, and the Redhawks have already beaten the Bulldogs in Birmingham.

What has been so impressive about the Redhawks to date is the way they simply find ways to win.

The Redhawks are not noted as a powerful offensive team, yet they outpointed high-scoring Eastern Kentucky recently on the road.

Southeast, which hangs its hat on defense, has prevailed in plenty of low-scoring slugfests, most recently 46-41 over visiting Eastern Illinois on Thursday and 53-43 at Tennessee-Martin on Saturday.

The Redhawks recently survived two road games without top scorer and rebounder Missy Whitney, who was out with an elbow injury

Perhaps most impressive of all, the Redhawks ran through their conference road schedule with a perfect 10-0 record, becoming the first team in program history to not lose an OVC road game.

That's a feat almost unheard of for any level of basketball, be it high-major, mid-major or low-major.

And now, as the regular season heads into its home stretch, the Redhawks have a great shot to three-peat, which only a handful of programs nationally have done in recent years.

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What can you say about the Southeast men?

An OVC season that began with six straight wins and raised the hopes of success-starved fans has crashed and burned.

It's easy to say that the loss of senior forward Brandon Foust -- the team's top all-around player -- to a season-ending knee injury 11 games ago is the main reason the Redhawks have fallen apart.

The raw numbers say Southeast was 6-1 with Foust and is 1-10 without him (counting the Jan. 12 Austin Peay game, during which Foust was hurt midway through the second half).

But that can't be the only reason for Southeast's demise.

The Redhawks just are not playing the way they were during their winning streak in many areas, especially on the defensive end.

Southeast was making it difficult for the opposition offensively during its 6-0 OVC start, as the Redhawks were leading the league in field-goal percentage defense.

Right now, many teams are having offensive field days against the Redhawks, who have lost 11 of their last 12 games to fall into ninth place.

For the most part, Southeast's offense has not clicked like it did earlier this season, and I'm a firm believer that takes away from the defense. Players just get down overall when their shots aren't falling.

The Redhawks' confidence is at a low point these days, which Southeast coach Scott Edgar recently acknowledged. That's understandable, when you're in such a rut.

Southeast (12-16, 7-11) is still alive for making the eight-team OVC tournament, but the Redhawks will need to win their final two league games and also receive some help.

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It really has nothing to do with Southeast, but reserve sophomore forward Johnny Hill received the type of publicity he probably doesn't crave in a story on the front page of Sunday's St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The article centered around former Vashon High School basketball coach Floyd Irons, who according to the newspaper admitted that, for more than four years, he rented an apartment for two Illinois teens and bought them food and clothing.

The newspaper alleges that those teens were Johnny Hill and his brother, Bobby.

According to the article, Irons spent more than $25,000 to put up the Hill brothers at an apartment down the street from Vashon High School so they could play for the Wolverines.

The article suggested that some of Vashon's state titles could be at stake if the players are found to have been ineligible.

The Hills, who according to the newspaper are originally from Alton, Ill., were both all-state players for Vashon teams that won state titles.

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The legion of Southeast baseball fans in the area won't have long to wait for their team to start playing.

Southeast opens its season Friday with the first of a four-game series at Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

That will be followed by the highest-profile contest on the Redhawks' schedule, a Feb. 26 date at Arkansas.

The Redhawks play their first home game Feb. 29 against Northern Colorado, the start of a stretch that features eight of nine contests at Capaha Field.

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Kudos to former Southeast assistant basketball coach Keno Davis for leading Drake to its first Missouri Valley Conference title since 1971.

The 14th-ranked Bulldogs are 23-2 and a virtual lock to make the NCAA tournament after being picked to finish ninth in the MVC.

Davis is probably the leading candidate for national coach of the year honors, and deservedly so.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.