Southeast women's basketball team adds to roster as signing period begins

~ Guard Hannah Noe and post player Deja Jones signed to join the Redhawks.

There is one thing that Southeast Missouri State men's basketball coach Ty Margenthaler appreciated about both of the players he added to his program on the first day of the spring signing period Wednesday.

Both were part of winning programs in high school, and that's what Margenthaler is looking to build at Southeast.

Dexter High School senior Hannah Noe and Riverdale High School senior Deja Jones have that in common, and both signed to play basketball for the Redhawks next season.

Noe is a 5-foot-9 guard that averaged 20.3 points, 3.9 assists and 1.6 rebounds during her senior season en route to leading her team to the Class 4 state championship game.

"Hannah came over quite a bit as the year went on to watch games, and [I] really got the chance to know her and her family," Margenthaler said. "Really the more I got to know her, the more she got to know the program, I just felt it was a really, really good fit.

"One thing that I really felt we needed to add to help our team is just another guard that can really shoot the basketball. And the thing that helps us with Hannah is she's really kind of a combo guard. She can play the point guard, and also she can move over to the 2-guard and play that as well, so that'll help us on depth."

Noe's team finished second in state this year and made it to the state final four back-to-back seasons. She earned all-state honors as a senior.

The Bearcats won district titles in each of Noe's four years at Dexter. She scored 1,411 points in her career and a school-record 628 points during her senior campaign.

She was named the SEMO Conference Player of the Year on the same day she verbally committed to Southeast.

Margenthaler said Noe could earn minutes as a freshman depending on how she works in the offseason and her ability to adapt to college ball.

Noe is the fifth local player Margenthaler has signed in his three years at Southeast.

"I think it's a win-win for our program, it's a win-win for Hannah, especially with her grandparents and family and friends to be able to continue to follow her career," Margenthaler said. "And knowing Dexter's really probably the biggest hotbed in this area for girl's basketball, it's good to get a player from there."

Margenthaler signed Dexter graduate Brittany Harris a year ago. Harris played in 13 games and started four as a Redhawk before quitting the team.

Jones is a 5-11 post player from Murfreesboro, Tenn., that was part of a team that finished 25-7 and was ranked as high as eighth in the national USA Today poll.

Jones transferred to Riverdale her senior year from Friendship Christian Academy, where she averaged 22.1 points a game.

"She reminds me a lot of Trish Mack," Margenthaler said, "a little undersized in that area but jumps extremely well, very physical, runs the floor, a really good rebounder. She's a young lady that's coming from probably one of the top five programs in the country in high in school. She only played there a year, transferred in really I think to play against better competition and get maybe a little bit more exposure, and definitely she did that. ... And she's going to give us something that we're missing from Trish -- that top-notch rebounding -- and I feel like she can fill that void pretty quickly."

Jones missed some of her senior season because of a broken wrist. Margenthaler said she was trying to reach in and make a steal and caught her hand awkwardly, and he thinks it may have even helped Southeast's chance of landing her.

"It's a very recruited program," Margenthaler said. "One of her teammates is going to Tennessee. One is going to Ole Miss. So it's a very recruitable team, and I really feel that a little bit of her injury, a little bit of her sitting out really backed off some schools and really gave us a better opportunity, so I'm really excited about it."

Margenthaler said he and his staff began looking at Jones in mid-February. He didn't think he'd have a need to recruit a post player before then because he already had young post players from the previous class.

However, when freshmen forwards Harris and Bailey Geiman left the program in late December and early January, it became necessary to recruit someone like Jones.

"The goal was to bring a high school post in and we got that conquered," Margenthaler said, "and hopefully we can bring a junior college post in a little bit later."

Noe and Jones join a pair of high school seniors that signed with Southeast in November.

Imani Johnson from Lee's Summit North High School in Lee's Summit, Mo., and Kaley Leyhue of Westview High School in Martin, Tenn., signed to play during the early signing period.