Women falter in overtime

The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team won't carry any momentum into the Ohio Valley Conference tournament.

Southeast ended the regular season Saturday with an 80-74 overtime loss to Austin Peay in Clarksville, Tenn.

The Redhawks' second consecutive defeat dropped them into a fifth-place tie with Austin Peay in the 10-team conference. The top four finishers host first-round OVC tournament games.

Southeast will be the No. 6 seed for the eight-team tournament and play third-seeded Tennessee State at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Nashville, Tenn.

Tuesday's matchup will mark the first time Southeast has not hosted in the first round of the OVC tournament since the 2001-02 season.

Tennessee State won both regular-season meetings against Southeast, including Thursday's 70-54 romp in Nashville.

Southeast (15-14, 10-8) missed out on a chance to assure itself a winning season by losing Saturday. A victory Tuesday would do the trick.

Austin Peay (14-15, 10-8), which won both games with Southeast this season, fell behind 7-0 and later 21-9 on Saturday.

But the Redhawks, up 34-28 at halftime, never could put away Austin Peay, and that came back to haunt them.

Southeast still led by five points at 64-59 with just over 3 minutes left, but Austin Peay scored seven of the final nine points in regulation.

The Redhawks made only 2 of 4 free throws in the last 1:22, and had a crucial turnover to leave the door open for the Governors.

Austin Peay kept chipping away at the lead and finally pulled into a 66-66 tie on a basket by senior forward April Thomas with 4 seconds left. That marked the first deadlock in regulation.

Southeast began the five-minute overtime by hitting just 2 of 5 free throws.

The Redhawks held only one lead in the extra session, 67-66. Austin Peay, which never led in regulation, broke a 70-70 overtime tie with four straight points.

Southeast cut the deficit to 74-72 with just over a minute left, but five consecutive points by the Govs iced things.

Senior Sonya Daugherty led Southeast with 20 points.

Also scoring in double figures for the Redhawks were senior guard Tarina Nixon with 11 points and senior forward Rachel Blunt with 10.

Thomas had a huge performance for the Govs with 22 points and 15 rebounds.

Junior forward Nicole Jamen added 19 points for Austin Peay.

Austin Peay outrebounded Southeast 42-34.