MACOMB, Ill. — Southeast Missouri State put an emphatic end to its road trip Saturday getting a resounding 72-51 victory over Western Illinois to keep its Ohio Valley Conference contention hopes alive.
Fighting through a tense first half to take a four-point lead at the break, SEMO broke out of its short slump to forge a near-perfect second half and a flattering 21-point victory over the hosting Leathernecks.
Improving to 6-4 in league play and 11-10 overall, the Redhawks are looking stout heading back to Cape Girardeau after going 2-1 on their conference road trip, which included last week’s seven-point victory over a tourney-bound Tennessee Tech team.
Western Illinois, meanwhile, slips to 2-8 in the OVC, and 8-13 overall with six consecutive losses suffered at the hands of its new league rivals.
Led once again by the scoring talents of junior college transfer Brendan Terry, who scored 19 points, SEMO put together one of its most complete wins of the season to right the ship and claim its sixth OVC win of the year.
Joining Terry in double figures were Rob Martin (16) and T.J. Biel (10), with both Martin and Terry shooting 7 of 12 from the floor.
Trey Deveaux led Western Illinois with 14, while Sean Smith finished as the only other Leatherneck in double figures with 10. Leading scorer Marko Maletic was contained to just nine points on 4-of-9 shooting from the field and just 1 of 3 from 3-point range.
Martin’s 36 minutes saw him finish with a plus-23 plus-minus mark, while Biel racked up a plus-20 in just 25 minutes and Teddy Washington Jr. was a plus-18 in his 28 minutes.
Maybe the most resounding stat, however, was a 13-6 victory for SEMO in the turnover game, as the Redhawks had seven steals with Washington Jr. and junior guard Braxton Stacker each recording two takeaways.
UT Martin comes into town for a 7:30 p.m. clash Thursday, followed by a 3:45 p.m. Saturday matchup against Tennessee State.
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