Southeast women extend mastery of EKU

~ The Redhawks have won 11 of their last 12 games against the Colonels

The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team continued its domination of Eastern Kentucky and took another step toward making the Ohio Valley Conference tournament.

Southeast posted its second win of the season over the Colonels, a 64-57 victory Thursday in Richmond, Ky.

The Redhawks also beat EKU by 16 points Jan. 15 in Cape Girardeau. They led all the way in both games. They have won 11 of the past 12 meetings with the Colonels.

Southeast (8-15, 4-9) solidified its hold on seventh place in the 10-team OVC, with the top eight finishers qualifying for the conference tournament. EKU (6-17, 3-11) dipped into ninth place.

"It's a big, big win for us," said Southeast coach John Ishee, whose squad has five league games remaining.

The Redhawks surpassed their overall win total and matched their OVC victory count from a year ago when they finished last in the conference.

Southeast snapped a three-game losing streak and won for the second time in its last three road games after starting the season 0-7 in true road contests.

Sophomore forward Brittany Harriel and sophomore guard Erika Lane sparked the victory.

Harriel scored a career-high 23 points, including 15 in the first half to help Southeast built a 30-20 lead at the intermission.

Harriel, who hit 9 of 19 field goals and also grabbed six rebounds, posted the program's first 20-point game since the 2008-09 season.

Lane scored a career-high 17 points, making 5 of 8 from the floor, including 4 of 6 from 3-point range. She added five rebounds, two assists and a steal.

"They both had great games," Ishee said. "Everybody made plays. It was a total team win."

Sophomore forward Bailie Roberts contributed eight points and nine rebounds.

Junior point guard Bianca Beck had a strong performance with seven points, three assists, two steals and no turnovers.

"Bianca had a great floor game," Ishee said.

Southeast started strong, scoring the game's first five points and building a quick 12-1 lead that became 19-7 for its biggest advantage.

Beck's shot just before the halftime buzzer made it 30-20 at the break.

EKU put up the first nine points of the second half to pull within 30-29 -- Southeast failed to score for more than five minutes -- but the Redhawks righted the ship and never relinquished the lead.

The Redhawks built the advantage back to nine points and held off EKU by making 8 of 10 free throws over the final three minutes. Harriel made all four of her foul shots during that stretch and Lane was 3 of 4.

"We were huge from the free-throw line in the final few minutes," Ishee said.

Southeast entered the contest last in the OVC in scoring (52.8 points per game) and field-goal percentage (35.2) but bettered both those figures. The Redhawks shot 43.6 percent.

The Redhawks also committed just 11 turnovers after they had been averaging 19.5. They had only four first-half turnovers.

"Our kids did an unbelievably good job," Ishee said. "They fought tooth and nail."

Freshman Marie Carpenter paced EKU with a career-high 29 points, but the Colonels shot just 34.6 percent.

The Redhawks play their third straight road game Saturday, visiting third-place Morehead State (17-8, 10-4) for a 4:07 p.m. tipoff.

Morehead defeated Southeast 85-69 on Jan. 13 at the Show Me Center.