Southeast women stop Samford in overtime

~ The Redhawks defeated the OVC preseason favorite 70-66.

Samford, the Ohio Valley Conference preseason favorite for women's basketball, made an early statement at the Show Me Center on Tuesday night.

But Southeast Missouri State, the defending OVC regular-season and tournament champion, had the last word.

The Redhawks fell behind by 15 points early, then squandered a 10-point second-half lead before squeezing out a 70-66 overtime victory.

Southeast, which swept its three-game homestand that included two OVC contests, improved to 6-4 overall and 3-1 in league play. The Redhawks remained in second place in the 11-team conference, one game behind Murray State.

"It's a huge win for us," Southeast acting head coach John Ishee said. "You have to defend your home court."

According to the Redhawks, they did more than that by outlasting Samford (6-5, 1-2).

Southeast believes it also sent a message to the rest of the OVC that, despite losing most of its top players from last year, the squad deserved more respect than to be picked fifth in the league's preseason poll.

"I think so," Southeast junior guard Ashley Lovelady said. "Everybody thought they [Samford] should beat us. We didn't think so."

Said senior center Lachelle Lyles: "We felt disrespected."

Asked whether the win should tell the rest of the OVC that the Redhawks are again strong title contenders, Lyles said, "If they don't know by now, they'll know soon."

Lyles did more than her part by continuing her monster season with 25 more rebounds, including 14 on the offensive glass.

Lyles, who just missed a double-double with nine points, entered play as the nation's leading rebounder with an average of 15.1 per game. She has 107 rebounds in her last five games.

"But she's more than a rebounder," Ishee said. "She's a clutch player."

A host of other Redhawks also were clutch, including Lovelady and sophomore guard Sonya Daugherty.

Lovelady led Southeast with 17 points and her 3-pointer with 1:28 remaining in regulation gave the Redhawks a 58-57 lead, although Samford went on to force overtime at 58-58.

Daugherty especially came up big in the extra session. After scoring six first-half points off the bench, she went scoreless in the second half.

But Daugherty scored eight of Southeast's 12 overtime points to finish with a career-high 14 points. She also led Southeast with five assists.

"She was huge in overtime," Ishee said. "She really attacked the basket."

Said Daugherty, whose previous Southeast high point total had been 13: "I figured it was my turn to step up since the whole second half, I was basically just out there."

Sophomore guard Tarina Nixon, who had been limited the past three games by an ankle injury, added 11 points as she hit three of five 3-pointers.

"It's good to have her back at full health," Ishee said. "We need everybody at full health."

Junior forward Missy Whitney, coming off Sunday's 36-point outburst in an OVC win over Jacksonville State, hit just one of seven shots and scored only seven points. But she grabbed 10 rebounds as Southeast controlled the boards 46-30.

Senior center Joiceline Thesing, at 6-foot-6 the tallest player in the program's history, came off the bench to score nine points, seven coming in the first half to help fuel a big run.

"She gave us a lift. She keeps getting better," Ishee said. "We needed everybody to contribute tonight."

Samford hit seven of its first 10 shots while Southeast missed 11 of its first 12. The result was a 19-4 lead for the Bulldogs 8 minutes into the game.

"We just played uptight. Everybody was trying to take on the world," Ishee said. "I told them we were a lot better than this. We just need to settle down and take it one possession at a time."

Southeast answered with a 19-0 run that featured seven points by Thesing. The Redhawks led most of the rest of the way.

Ahead 36-29 at halftime, Lovelady's 3-pointer in the opening moments of the second half gave the Redhawks their biggest lead at 39-29.

Samford fought back and finally went ahead 54-53 with a little more than 3 minutes remaining.

The lead changed hands three more times in regulation before Samford's Megan Wilderotter made one of two free throws with 57 seconds left for a 58-58 deadlock.

Both teams missed shots in the final 30 seconds and it was on to overtime.

Whitney hit one of two free throws 26 seconds into the 5-minute extra period for a 59-58 Southeast lead and the Redhawks never trailed again.

Daugherty's basket with 1:32 left put the Redhawks up 66-60. Her two free throws with 11 seconds to go made it 70-63 and sealed things.