Southeast women's basketball team pursues first winning streak before break

Wins have been hard to come by for the Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team, but the Redhawks have a chance to win two in a row with a matchup against Missouri State on Saturday.

Southeast is coming off a 72-56 win against Division II Illinois-Springfield on Saturday.

"I'd love to see our best performance going into this game before Christmas break and for our confidence," Southeast coach Ty Margenthaler said. "We all know we have not won two games in a row this year, and that would be a huge bonus. We'd be clicking at the right time going into conference play. But win or lose, I just want to see really just 40 minutes of great effort."

The Redhawks travel to Springfield, Mo., to take on Missouri State (3-6) at 2:05 p.m.

"We just need to come ready to play and have energy, and just play our offense, play our defense, do the things we're supposed to do," Southeast guard Kara Wright said. "Stuff that should be known. It doesn't have to be spoken about."

The players have had a little bit of time to recover after their win Saturday and put their focus exclusively on Missouri State on Thursday.

The leading scorer for the Bears is guard Kenzie Williams, who is averaging 18.9 points per game. She is shooting 44 percent from 3-point range and has made 49 of 64 attempts from the free-throw line.

"She's a very good player," Margenthaler said. "She's definitely taken that scoring load this year for them and she scores in a variety of ways. ... She's going to get her points, but the key for us is to not have somebody else go off and maybe have a career night. If we can hold her to her average, and everyone else to theirs, then we'll be in good shape."

Margenthaler said Wright will guard Williams, and that she usually does well defensively against the best opponents.

Wright hadn't been told of her assignment or watched any film of Missouri State before Thursday's practice, but was excited when she found out.

"I like defense. I like challenges like that," Wright said with a smile. "It feels good when you make somebody have an off night. It will be a challenge."

Wright leads the Redhawks in scoring with 11.1 points per game.

"I just know scoring is something I have to do to help this team," Wright said. "And my teammates do a good job of getting me the ball, and if it's not my night somebody else can step up and I'm willing to give them the ball as well."

Margenthaler noted that Wright and others are going to have to step up offensively against Missouri State.

"Jordan Hunter's really important for us. When she's scoring our team tends to win, so she's a very important scorer," Margenthaler said. "Kara and Ally [Bradshaw] and Olivia [Hackmann], those guys have got to be strong. And those guys have got to be strong, quite honestly, throughout the year for us to be where I want to be."

Hunter averages 7 points per game and Bradshaw averages 7.1. Hackmann is the only other Southeast player beside Wright to average double figures with 10.7 points per game.

Missouri State defeated Southeast 69-55 last year at the Show Me Center.

Missouri State beat Missouri 67-53 on Thursday. Missouri rallied for a 62-57 win over Southeast last month. Both team's have lost to Arkansas.