Southeast women's basketball team's attitude grates on Ishee

~ The Southeast women fell to visiting Texas-Arlington 66-54

The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team opened the season with two straight victories but since then has not been able to compile a two-game winning streak.

Southeast had a shot Saturday, but an accomplished Texas-Arlington squad made sure it didn't happen by rolling past the Redhawks 66-54 at the Show Me Center.

The Redhawks, coming off Wednesday's 13-point triumph over NAIA Bethel that snapped a five-game losing streak, fell to 3-6.

UTA, the defending Southland Conference regular-season champion, evened its record at 4-4 after winning 22 games last year.

"They were a good team," sophomore point guard Bianca Beck said. "We knew that from watching film."

Southeast coach John Ishee credited the Mavericks, who returned three starters from a year ago, while expressing frustration with his young, inexperienced club.

"They're a good team, but I'm just so disappointed in our play it's hard to tell how good they are," Ishee said. "I'm disappointed in our mindset. It has to get a lot tougher.

"When we got behind, nobody stopped the bleeding. And defensively, we were horrific."

The Redhawks hung close for a while, holding two early four-point leads and trailing just 35-31 after a tight first half.

Southeast was down only four points at the break despite hitting just 2 of 14 from 3-point range and allowing UTA to shoot 56.5 percent from the field.

"I felt we were fortunate to only be down four at halftime," Ishee said.

But Southeast's shooting never picked up in the second half as things quickly began to unravel.

UTA scored the first seven points of the period to go up 42-31 and Southeast got no closer than nine points.

"It was like when we got down 11, it was ballgame," Ishee said of his players' mindset. "We have to grow as a team, get a bigger heart collectively."

The Mavericks built a 49-35 advantage with a 14-4 run over the first seven minutes of the second half as Southeast made just 2 of its first 12 field-goal attempts.

UTA held at least a 12-point margin the rest of the way and built a 65-45 bulge with less than three minutes remaining.

Southeast ended the game on a 9-1 run to make the final score a bit more respectable.

"We played hard but our shot was off," Beck said. "We tried, but our shots weren't falling."

The Redhawks wound up shooting a woeful 11.5 percent from beyond the arc (3 of 26) and only 30.2 percent overall (19 of 63).

"They zoned us," Ishee said. "Until you knock shots down, people will continue to play you that way."

UTA cooled off in the second half and finished the game shooting 44.2 percent. The Mavericks held a 48-35 rebounding advantage.

Beck scored a career-high 13 points, hitting 6 of 10 shots, and had four steals.

"I was trying to be more aggressive, attack more, because our shots weren't falling," Beck said.

Senior center Lesley Adams led Southeast rebounders with 10.

UTA senior guard Meghan Nelson scored a game-high 19 points. Junior forward Shalyn Martin had a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Southeast returns to action Dec. 19 at Central Arkansas.