Southeast women's basketball team looks to get first conference win tonight vs. Morehead

The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team's next opponent usually likes to mix things up on the defensive end.

Redhawks' coach Ty Margenthaler doesn't expect that to be the case, however, when his team faces the Morehead State Eagles at 5 p.m. today at the Show Me Center in an Ohio Valley Conference matchup.

"For us it's just going to be scoring against their defense," Margenthaler said. "Their defense -- they switch it up a little bit -- they go man, they go zone. I'm really predicting they're going to go zone just knowing that our shooting percentage is down, so that's something we've been focusing on the last two or three days and we'll finish up today, is a lot of zone work. It's going to really be about us putting the ball in the hole."

Southeast, which is 0-2 in the OVC and 7-8 overall, is shooting 37.6 percent from the field on the season, but just 25.5 percent from behind the arc.

The Redhawks were 1 of 19 against Belmont and 2 of 12 against Tennessee State on 3-point attempts to open conference play on the road last weekend.

"Again I'm really trying to do a good job of not over-analyzing it, but we do have to be a little more consistent at that guard position," Margenthaler said. "I really feel that our posts have been solid by rebounding, defending -- I kind of know what we're going to get with them every single game. They're starting to chip in some more points, but if they can just give us some effort and defense, that's what we really need from them. But our guards have got to be a little more consistent scoring-wise. They're giving great effort, but we need to put that ball in the hole."

Senior guard Jasmine Robinson has been the most consistent player to contribute offensively, averaging 12.1 points.

Dexter graduate and freshman guard Hannah Noe could receive more playing time against the Eagles to combat the zone defense the Redhawks will likely face.

Noe's played in 12 of 15 games, averaging 5.9 minutes. She's knocked down 4 of 12 3-point attempts and 6 of 6 free-throw attempts on the season.

"Hannah's a great shooter," Margenthaler said. "There's just some games I have not felt comfortable with her yet, but this is definitely a week that I've really told myself, 'Get her in the starting group. Get her in the lineup,' and she's going to get a great chance tomorrow."

Morehead, which is coming off a 64-63 defeat of Murray State on a 3-pointer by senior guard Almesha Jones in the closing seconds, is 5-9 and 1-0 in the OVC.

Jones is the conference's third-leading scorer with 16.8 ppg, leads the conference in assists at 8.1 per game and is second with 2.9 steals per game.

Freshman forward Eriel McKee averages 14.3 points, sophomore forward Shay Steele averages 14.2 and had 20 against Murray State, and senior guard Maiki Viela averages 10.7.

"They're getting a lot of their points just by isolation-type plays," Margenthaler said of the Eagles' squad, which is under the leadership of first-year coach Greg Todd. "They're a lot of one-on-one type team. They don't do a lot of screening, they just do a lot of things to try to create mismatches."

Southeast also hosts Eastern Kentucky (5-6) at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.