Southeast women's basketball team falls short vs. Eastern Kentucky

The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team got every chance it needed to pick up its first Ohio Valley Conference win of the season on Saturday.

Senior guard Jasmine Robinson had a pair of free throws with 10.8 seconds left that could've tied the game or given the Redhawks a one-point lead.

She missed them both and the Colonels scored a transition layup with 5.2 seconds left to push their lead to three.

The Redhawks had a chance to send it to overtime, but didn't get a clean shot off on the ensuing possession when Robinson drove and lost control of the ball, and they dropped to 0-4 in the OVC and 7-10 overall with a 57-54 loss at the Show Me Center.

"We were really fighting hard at the very end to get ahead," Southeast junior forward Erin Bollmann said. "Nobody can really be upset about the possessions at the very end because what lost the game was being behind the entire time, being seven down at the very beginning. If we weren't like that, if we would've came out with the energy that we did in that second half we may have been up by 10 and it wouldn't have been a problem."

Southeast coach Ty Margenthaler elected not to take a timeout after EKU's layup that left the Redhawks with a final possession but didn't regret his decision.

"The last play of the basketball game people might say, 'Why didn't you call a timeout?'" Margenthaler said. "Because they're going to get into a press and we're better off with five seconds left not getting that team set. Coming down the floor we knew we needed a three, and again just to penetrate and kick, and it just didn't work out. But I would've ran that a hundred times over again."

Southeast played from behind nearly the entire game, leading at 2-0 20 seconds into the contest and late in the second half.

EKU led by as many as 12 points with 5:01 remaining before halftime, but the Redhawks ended the half on a 9-2 run to pull within 27-22 at the break.

Southeast shot 25.9 percent (7 of 27) from the floor, was 1 of 8 from 3-point range in the first half and made just 7 of 16 free-throw attempts, but held EKU to 32.1 percent shooting (9 of 28).

The Redhawks pulled within three points on a 3-pointer by Allyson Bradshaw 2:50 into the second half.

EKU never took more than an eight-point advantage in the second half, and Southeast cut it to 49-48 with 4:29 to go on a steal and jumper by Bollmann.

The Colonels pushed their lead back to four points, but a pair of free throws by Bollmann and layup by Robinson knotted it at 52 with 1:55 left in regulation.

EKU's Shelly Harper split a pair of free throws before a baseline jumper by Bollmann gave the Redhawks a 54-53 lead with 40 seconds left.

EKU's Michaela Hunter scored on a driving layup with 28.3 seconds remaining that put the Colonels (6-7, 1-2 OVC) ahead for good.

"I'm absolutely sick for my basketball team. Absolutely sick for each and every one of them," Margenthaler said. "They played their butts off on the offensive end. On the defensive end, they gave great energy and executed every single thing that our staff wanted them to execute. We played much better as a basketball team on both ends, held them to 57 points, got to the free-throw line 27 times. We did everything that we wanted to do to win this basketball game besides the little things. That's making free throws and that's turning the ball over 19 times -- those two categories."

Southeast finished 14 of 27 from the charity stripe. The Redhawks improved to shooting 11 of 20 from field (55 percent) and 3 of 7 from behind the arc in the second half.

Robinson led Southeast with 13 points, but was 5 of 14 from the free-throw line. Bollmann finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Junior forward Connor King also had 10 rebounds.

"I felt like we were just moving the ball better, attacking," Hackmann said of the second-half offense. "Our posts were knocking down shots again, so I think it was just our attack mentality -- attack and kick. We hit a couple 3s there to kind of close the gap a little bit so I think it was just us working better as a team and really putting the shots that we didn't put in in the first half."

Southeast is off to an 0-4 start in the OVC for the first time since the 1996-97 season.

"I love our players. They're giving all the effort in the world, but we've got to be consistent," Margenthaler said. " *... If you're going to be really good and going to win games, you've got to be consistent. Tonight Erin shows up and does a great job offensively. Tooty played well on offense. Unfortunately O didn't have a really good shooting night -- she played great on Thursday night. We've got to get three players consistently on that same page and we're going to be fine. Until we do that, yeah, it's going to be a struggle."

The Redhawks return to action against Jacksonville State (11-5, 2-2 OVC) on the road in Jacksonville, Alabama on Wednesday night.

"I told them, 'I don't know what's going to happen to me tomorrow. I don't know what's going to happen to me tonight. I don't know what's going to happen to me next year. But I will give you this: I'm going to continue doing what I'm doing because I'm passionate, I love what I do, I love this team, and I want to give them everything,'" Margenthaler said. "I pray to gosh they'll do the same. Every single one of them in the locker room spoke up and said, 'Coach, I got you. We got it. We're fine. We're going to fight.' And I really do believe this team's going to fight."