Southeast women's basketball team uses strong start to top Missouri Valley

One thing that the Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team was ready to see during its exhibition against Missouri Valley on Thursday night was how it started the game.

The Redhawks test run resulted in a strong first-half spurt to take control of the game, and they held on for an 81-68 victory over the Vikings at the Show Me Center.

"We just wanted to see how we were going to come out," said Southeast assistant Heather Ezell, who filled in for suspended coach Ty Margenthaler. "I felt that we came out with great energy. That's what we were looking for. We wanted to see that. We did it. That was something we maybe didn't do all the time last year."

Southeast, which led the entire game, scored 15 unanswered points over about a four-minute span in the first half to open a 23-6 lead over the Vikings.

The Vikings finally broke their scoreless streak with a pair of free throws with 12 minutes, 13 seconds remaining in the first half, but redshirt freshman guard Ashton Luttrull, who hadn't played in a game for two years due to knee injuries, answered with a 3-pointer a minute later.

Southeast Missouri State assistant coach Heather Ezell talks with the team during a timeout at the Show Me Center Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014. (Glenn Landberg)

It was the first of four first-half 3-pointers for Luttrull, who scored all of her team-high 14 points in the first half.

She came up with a steal and hit a jump shot in the closing seconds of the half to give the Redhawks a 53-31 lead.

"Mainly it was just my teammates," Luttrull said. "They got me the ball in good positions. I know a couple times we were coming down on fast break and I was saying, 'Trail, Bri. Trail,' and she makes a good jump stop and a great pass and sets me up well. I was fortunate enough to knock some down."

Four Southeast players knocked down 3s in the first half. The Redhawks shot 66.7 percent (8 of 12) from behind the arc in the opening 20 minutes.

They shot 40.9 percent from 3 on the night but made just 1 of 10 in the second half.

Southeast Missouri State s Brianna Mitchell dribbles the ball back against Missouri Valley in the first half at the Show Me Center Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014. (Glenn Landberg)

Junior guard Olivia Hackmann made the lone second-half 3-pointer 25 seconds after halftime to extend Southeast's lead to 56-32 points.

"The second half we started to fall in love with it," Ezell said about the 3-point shooting. "Instead of driving and trying to score in the paint we wanted to kick every time. Started to take a few more 3s in transition, maybe that weren't completely open or something like that -- just kind of settled for them. I thought that was the biggest thing the second half. We were getting to the free throw line in the first half, which is what created those 3 opportunities in the first half, and the second half we didn't attack as well."

Southeast's defense lacked energy at times in the second half, too, Ezell said.

The Redhawks took their largest lead of the game at 26 with 17:26 remaining on a free throw by senior transfer guard Jasmine Robinson, who finished with 11 points and five rebounds.

They still maintained a 66-42 lead with 11:46 to go, but scored just four points over about the next six minutes.

The Vikings outscored Southeast 18-4 during that stretch that ended with a conventional three-point play with 5:50 remaining to trim Southeast's lead to 10, but It was as close as Missouri Valley would get.

Southeast senior guard Allyson Bradshaw said the team will need to work on getting out of those "ruts."

"That's when we've all just got to come together and say, 'Alright, no more. We've got to pick it up now,'" Bradshaw said.

There were times during the second half where Missouri Valley was able to take advantage of small Southeast lineups, or lineups with multiple newcomers in the game.

"I had it kind of pre-planned and we had talked about it all week, kind of what we would do -- first subs off the bench and things like that," Ezell said. "Then I thought, 'Hey, we're up by 20. Let's get some other people in,' so maybe I'll take some blame for some of the lull parts we had in the second half, trying to get some different people in. I know at one point we had four newcomers in there. That's tough. There's no wonder that we got in a little bit of a lull. But really it was just trying to get everybody in, trying to give everybody a chance to play and get kind of those nerves out and get ready to go."

Ezell will handle head coaching duties when the Redhawks host Alabama A&M at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 14.

Margenthaler, who was suspended by the athletic department for two games Wednesday due to self-reported NCAA violations by the women's basketball program, will miss Southeast's season opener on Friday.

"It was definitely a little different. I'll be honest, my feet kind of hurt," Ezell said about serving as the head coach. "But it was a great experience. I've always dreamed of being a head coach, so it was nice to get that under my belt and say that I've at least done it once. It was different. You kind of sit there thinking in a different mindset like, 'I've got to be the one making decisions.' No longer am I saying, 'Hey, do this,' it's going to be you that makes it, so it was a little different, but it was exciting. I thought coach Cameron [Tucker] and coach Lavesa [Glover] did a great job. They really helped me out. And the biggest thing is our players were able to do a great job. We had great senior leadership. They put me in a pretty good position, so I didn't have to be too nervous about it."