Southeast women likely will not host in tourney

The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team received the help it was looking for.

But the Redhawks failed to take advantage, meaning they are likely to be on the road for Tuesday's first round of the Ohio Valley Conference tournament.

Thursday's 70-54 loss to Tennessee State in Nashville, Tenn., kept the Redhawks tied for fourth place with Morehead State. The top four finishers earn opening-round OVC tournament home games.

Morehead State fell at Murray State on Thursday, which would have allowed the Redhawks to move ahead of the Eagles with a win.

Southeast ends the regular season Saturday at Austin Peay, while Morehead State finishes at last-place Tennessee-Martin, which is winless in OVC play.

Since Morehead State owns the tiebreaker with Southeast because it swept the season series, the only way the Redhawks can finish in sole possession of fourth place is by winning Saturday and having the Eagles lose, which isn't likely.

The Redhawks (15-13, 10-7) dug an early hole Thursday and never got back in the game.

Third-place TSU (17-11, 13-4), which clinched a tournament home date, scored the first five points and led 21-8 less than seven minutes in.

TSU's biggest first-half advantage was 40-24, and the Tigers entered the break up 42-30.

Southeast got no closer than eight points in the second half and trailed by as many as 20 points.

The Redhawks had just five second-half field goals as they shot 20.8 percent over the final 20 minutes to finish at 31.3 percent for the contest.

TSU shot 56.7 percent in the opening period and wound up at 46.3 percent for the game.

Southeast had 19 turnovers compared to 17 for TSU. The Tigers outscored the Redhawks 30-13 on points in the paint.

Senior forward Crysta Glenn led the Redhawks with 13 points and 14 rebounds.

Senior wing Sonya Daugherty scored 10 points, as did senior reserve guard Tierra Johnson as she reached her season high.

Junior center Chelsea Cromartie paced TSU with a career-high 13 points off the bench.

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