Southeast women's basketball coach vows changes after loss

MURRAY, Ky. -- Following the Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team's game against Murray State on Wednesday night, Southeast coach Ty Margenthaler told his team that there would be some changes.

"Changes are coming. I have to find out who wants to play here. Simple as that," Margenthaler said. "The effort wasn't there tonight. We got out-hustled in every category. And I don't want to go off on the players, but I mean this is an exciting time of year and we come in and lay an egg. And how we lay the egg is we just got out-hustled by every category."

The Redhawks fell flat in a 66-55 loss to the Racers (10-15, 3-10 OVC) Wednesday at the CFSB Center in Murray, Ky., to drop to 8-18 overall and 4-9 in the Ohio Valley Conference.

"I think as a team, collectively, we weren't on the same page," Southeast senior Jordan Hunter said. "We just weren't on the same page, and it showed on the court."

Southeast led by as many as six points midway through the first half, but MSU kept the game tight.

The Redhawks held a 27-24 lead at halftime after a first half that featured poor shooting from both teams and foul trouble for the Redhawks.

Southeast's 12 first-half fouls put MSU at the line 15 times and resulted in 11 points, and the Racers were in the double bonus when the Redhawks committed their 10th foul with 8 minutes, 16 seconds remaining in the half.

Southeast shot 28.6 percent (10 of 35) in the first half and were 1 of 11 from behind the arc while MSU shot 26.1 percent from the field (6 of 23) and 1 of 8 from behind the arc.

Margenthaler decided at halftime that with some of his players in foul trouble, they'd play half-court defense rather than press like they had planned to do, and that limiting fouls and focusing on rebounding were going to be keys.

"Unfortunately we kept on fouling and then we got beat on the boards," Margenthaler said. "So the two things we tried to clear up a little bit or just execute it just went to heck and that was the outcome."

MSU out-rebounded Southeast 29-18 and the Racers hit 14 of 17 free-throw attempts in the second half.

The Racers came out of halftime and used a 10-3 run to take a 34-30 lead five minutes into the second half.

Southeast answered with a 7-0 run that featured a conventional 3-point play by Connor King and a 3 from Allyson Bradshaw to take a 37-34 lead with 13:26 to play. The Racers scored eight unanswered points after that to regain the lead and never trailed again.

MSU improved to 40 percent (12 of 30) shooting in the second half and were led by freshman Taylor Porter with a career-high 25 points. She was 4-of-4 shooting from behind the arc. Jessica Winfrey added 18 and Janssen Starks pitched in 11. Winfrey was 10 of 12 from the free-throw line while Starks was 8 of 8.

None of the Redhawks finished in double figures. Southeast was shot 27.5 percent on the game (19 of 69) and were 2 of 22 from 3-point range. They were 15 of 19 on free throws.

"I feel like it's more of a mental thing right now," Margenthaler said of his team's struggles. "More of a thing like little frustrations set in with our basketball team. But every team goes through this stuff. We've just got to find a way in these last few games to get through it."

The Redhawks have three regular-season games remaining, and their chances of making the OVC tournament have gotten slimmer as they remain in 11th place in the OVC standings. They are 1 1/2 games out of eighth place.

Southeast's next game is against Jacksonville State on Saturday at the Show Me Center.

"I'm going to continue to play these last three games how I've been playing all season, no matter the outcome," Southeast senior Patricia Mack said. "It's just in me to lay it on the line for my teammates. I mean, whatever the outcome is, I'm going to try to have a great time and lead my team as best I can, and hopefully they follow."