Southeast women's basketball team misses tournament but finish with victory

~ The Redhawks beat Murray State 65-57 in season finale

Before the Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team played its final game of the season on Saturday, coach Ty Margenthaler and his coaching staff knew that the team's goal of reaching the Ohio Valley Conference tournament could not be met due to the outcome of the SIU Edwardsville-Eastern Illinois game prior to tip-off at the Show Me Center.

Margenthaler didn't let that affect his coaching and the Redhawks were able to finish their season with a 65-57 win against Murray State.

"I was going to coach the heck out of them, coach them up," Margenthaler said. "I wasn't going to just hang out because I want that momentum going into the [off]season. I want that victory. I hope and pray that this basketball team can learn from this game when you are focused and you are determined. ... We could've very easily just said, 'You know what? It's not our year. Close the book and we'll start over.' But they kept on fighting."

The Redhawks led by as many as eight points during the first half, but Murray State took a 34-30 lead into the break and quickly extended that in the early going of the final 20 minutes.

The Racers outscored Southeast 9-4 in the first 3 minutes, 29 seconds of the second half to take its largest lead of the game at 43-34.

Southeast's Olivia Hackmann rattled off nine points over the next few minutes to pull Southeast within one with 13:33 remaining.

Brianna Mitchell gave Southeast a 49-48 lead a minute later on a jumper, but Murray regained the lead again.

The Redhawks took the lead for good when senior Patricia Mack hit a pair of free throws with 6:14 left to make it 56-55 and Southeast never looked back.

Mitchell and sophomore Kara Wright came off the bench and made an impact for Southeast.

"I thought those guys came in and really gave us a spark," Margenthaler said. "We really started spreading the court and they were making good decisions. Even if they missed, they were making the right plays, they were seeing the right people and that gave them confidence after they made a few. I thought Bri just took this game over. She's had three games in a row and she's going to be a really special player."

Margenthaler noted that his players' defense down the stretch was what won them the game, especially their post defense when they realized that Murray State, which was 3 of 16 from behind the arc, wasn't threatening much from distance.

"I think we were communicating better and we were rotating," Hunter said. "Like in the first half we weren't helping our bigs out enough so the second half we really like if we went to double it was a lot more continuous. There was no breaking in the defensive end."

In the first meeting between the two teams on Feb. 19, Southeast lost 66-55.

"We were a lot more aggressive. The first game we were quite timid," Hunter said. "This time we didn't back down. Like if we got called on a foul, the next time we'd be soft, but this time we kept pushing forward."

Hunter and Mack played their final games at Southeast. Mack finished with 11 points and 16 rebounds while Hunter had eight points and five assists.

Hackmann led Southeast with 16 points and six rebounds. Connor King had nine points and 12 rebounds. Mitchell finished with eight points.

Southeast finished its season with a record of 10-19 and 6-10 in the OVC. Six wins is the most conference wins the program's had since the 2008-2009 season.

"I told them that I'm going to reevaluate myself, I'm going to reevaluate my staff, I'm going to reevaluate the training staff and I'm going to reevaluate the strength and conditioning and we're going to get this thing on the right track," Margenthaler said. "It's not off the track, we've just got to tweak a couple things and we've got to better at some things, and it's my responsibility and I'm up for it and I'm excited about it and we're going to be better off for it."