College Sports

The Southeast Missouri State women’s basketball program wasted little time in showing its dominance at Arkansas State Wednesday.

CARTERVILLE, Ill. — Playing their second-ranked opponent in a week, the Raiders got clutch plays from several players to win in overtime Wednesday night. Tallon Fonda sank nine 3-pointers and Poplar Bluff alum Dominique Hardimon grabbed a big offensive rebound with 3 seconds left in overtime and the Raiders ahead by two...

Nine games into the 2018-19 Southeast Missouri State men’s basketball season, the Redhawks had won five games.

The Raiders had a much-improved second half against Southeastern Iowa on Saturday, but it wasn't enough. Three Rivers trailed by 21 points at halftime and eventually lost 75-67 to go 0-2 in the 2019 Missouri/Iowa Challenge. "At halftime of the Burlington game we regrouped and I felt pretty good. I think we are making progress," Three Rivers coach Gene Bess said. "We have a lot of people who are having to make major decisions and it is taking them a while to adapt."...

When a football team is trailing 31-14 with 25 minutes left in the game AND it is facing an opponent that has based its entire offensive scheme on running the ball and eating clock, the team that needs 17 points is in serious trouble.

Prior to halftime of its Ohio Valley Conference football game against Eastern Kentucky Saturday at Houck Stadium, the Southeast Missouri State offense had committed five turnovers and punted twice. It didn’t have much going its way.

Three Rivers lost its first big test of the season, but the freshmen got indoctrinated to college basketball in the process. Facing 20th-ranked Wabash Valley, the 19th-ranked Raiders fought back from multiple double-digit deficits, but faded in the fourth quarter and lost 92-81 Friday at the Libla Family Sports Complex...

Southeast Missouri State is battling to stay amid the Ohio Valley Conference football race today. The No. 17-ranked Redhawks (6-3, 4-1 OVC) are hosting Eastern Kentucky (5-4, 3-2) at Houck Stadium at 1 p.m. and they need to win to keep pace with league-leader UT Martin (6-3, 5-1) and Austin Peay (6-3, 4-1).

The top-seeded Southeast Missouri State soccer fell to fourth-seeded SIU Edwardsville 2-1 in the semifinals of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament on Friday at Houck Field. The Redhawks outshot the Cougars 18-8 and had 10 shots on goal but were unable to get one past SIUE goalkeeper Jensen Schoch until less than five minutes were left in the game...

Southeast volleyball The Southeast Missouri State volleyball team, which came into Friday atop the Ohio Valley Conference standings, fell in four sets to visiting Murray Sate. The Redhawks, who fell to 19-9 overall and 11-3 in OVC play, won the first set 25-21 but dropped the next three, 22-25, 19-25, 23-25...

On the night of Dec. 27, 2018, the Purdue Fort Wayne men’s basketball team sat in the O’Hare Airport in Chicago passing time. The Mastodons’ flight to North Dakota had been canceled due to a blizzard sweeping across the northern plains. As it turned out, it would be one of seven canceled flights the group would endure during its 2018-19 season.

The No. 17-ranked Southeast Missouri State football program enjoyed a brief respite last Saturday from its harrowing tests it has endured throughout this Ohio Valley Conference season.

Two hours into its Ohio Valley Conference volleyball match Thursday at Houck Field House with Austin Peay, the Southeast Missouri State volleyball squad was apparently on the ropes.

Heather Nelson has a vivid memory of the last time the Southeast Missouri State women's soccer team faced off against SIU-Edwardsville at Houck Field. It was Oct. 3 and Southeast was nursing a 1-0 second-half lead as time was running out. Victory was within the Redhawks' grasp...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - There was a stark difference between the play of the Southeast Missouri State men’s basketball squad in its Wednesday game at Vanderbilt when reserve guards Chris Harris and Nygal Russell were in the game and when they weren’t.

The Raiders face their first big challenge of the season Friday. After beating Link Year Prep by 31 and Wabash Valley by 18 last weekend to open the season, Three Rivers will take on sixth-ranked Indian Hills (Iowa) at 6 p.m. Friday, followed by Southeastern (Iowa) in the Missouri/Iowa Challenge at State Fair Community College...

In its season-opening two games last weekend, Three Rivers scored a combined 194 points and won each by at least 34 points. Things should get more difficult this weekend. The 19th ranked Raiders host a pair of Region 24 teams in Rend Lake at 8:30 p.m. Friday and 20th-ranked Wabash Valley at 3 p.m. Saturday in the Three Rivers Classic at the Libla Family Sports Complex...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The last time the Southeast Missouri State men's basketball program took to the court for a regular-season game before Wednesday, the Redhawks allowed Belmont to score 10 of the game's initial 11 points en route to an 18-point first-half lead...

The Southeast Missouri State football program isn’t currently the absolute best team in the FCS in turnover margin, as they were a year ago, but it’s close. The Redhawks are ranked atop the Ohio Valley Conference in the statistical category and are the ninth-best team in the country...

Despite a slow beginning and a foul-laden finish, the Southeast women’s basketball team overpowered visiting University of Missouri-St. Louis on Tuesday, winning their season opener 70-56 at the Show Me Center.

The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball squad opens its 2019-20 season today at Vanderbilt at 7 p.m. Here is a look at the Redhawks and what you need to know about each of them.

Southeast Missouri State football has a luxury few teams at any level enjoy. The Redhawks have three running backs — Geno Hess, Mark Robinson and Zion Custis — capable of producing at a high level, so when Custis missed Saturday’s game at Tennessee State, the Redhawk coaches simply had the ball handed-off to Hess 14 times. All the redshirt freshman did was gain a career-best 156 yards and score twice.

Rick Ray knows exactly what those words mean when he reads them and he knows I do too when I type them.

The Southeast Missouri State men' basketball squad opens its 2019-20 season today at Vanderbilt at 7 p.m. The Redhawks are coming off a 10-21 (5-13 Ohio Valley Conference) season and were picked to finish last by the media in a preseason poll in the 12-team conference...

Southeast Missouri State fifth-year quarterback Daniel Santacaterina entered Saturday’s game at Tennessee State having completed just 21 of his last 49 pass attempts and was coming off of a game in which he had been benched for the entire second half.

Fifth-year Southeast Missouri State men’s basketball coach Rick Ray has enacted standards when it comes to the performance of his student-athletes and those expectations are considered even in games that don’t count.

The Three Rivers men’s basketball team was in the midst of a five-minute scoring drought in the second half when Wabash Valley sank its first 3-point shot of the night. The Raiders’ 18-point lead was down to five. “It’s real easy to settle down if you have a good first half,” Three Rivers sophomore Jay Hines said. “But later on in the half we just picked up hard, starting moving the ball and started playing harder.”...

The more the Three Rivers women's basketball team played in the season opener, the better they got. The Raiders increased their scoring each quarter Saturday afternoon in beating Olney Central (Ill.) 101-67 in the Lady Raiders Classic at the Libla Family Sports Complex...

Despite the fact sixth-year Southeast Missouri State football coach Tom Matukewicz made a quarterback switch at halftime of last week's win against UT Martin, Redhawk fans should expect to see plenty of typical starter, fifth-year senior Daniel Santacaterina, when Southeast (5-3, 3-1 Ohio Valley Conference) visits Tennessee State (2-6, 1-3) at 2 p.m. Saturday...

The Three Rivers College men's basketball team opened the 50th season under coach Gene Bess with a defensive gem Friday night. The Raiders allowed just one field goal over the first 8 minutes, 42 seconds to build a double-digit lead, then didn't give up a point in the first 4 1/2 minutes of the second half...

The veteran Southeast Missouri State football players such as Kristian Wilkerson, Taj Jenkins and Eric Williams know what it's like to beat Tennessee State. The Redhawks did so a year ago, winning 38-21 at Houck Stadium. But to make the trip to Nashville and ride home feeling positive, well those guys weren't even alive when that last occurred...

Southeast Missouri State will attempt to hold on to sole possession of first place in the Ohio Valley Conference as it hosts second-place Jacksonville State on Saturday at Houck Field House. The Redhawks, led by ninth-year coach Julie Yankus, rallied to win the final two sets against Tennessee Martin on the road Tuesday to claim the match in five sets, 22-25, 25-21, 22-25, 25-12, 15-13...

Southeast defeated St. Louis College of Pharmacy, 91-45, Wednesday in exhibition play at the Show Me Center. Three Redhawks scored in double figures, with sophomore Trelour Pruitt leading all scorers with 21 points, including three 3-pointers. Junior guard Tesia Thompson added 20 points for the Redhawks...

Three years ago when Jeff Walk signed Deanay Watson to Three Rivers College, he told her they were both going to leave Three Rivers as national champions. Watson paused, so Walk said it again. It was a bold statement at the time. Watson, who redshirted her freshman season, was the only player committed for that swan song season. As the Raiders prep for their season opener, winning a championship is more hope than dream...

In four years of Rekha Patterson’s guidance of the Southeast Missouri State women’s basketball program, the Redhawks have been consistently competitive.

Despite the fact, Southeast Missouri State ranks seventh out of nine Ohio Valley Conference teams in total defense (numbers may not lie, but they can be extremely misleading), those that have watched the Redhawks in league play this season have to be impressed with how the unit has performed.

A hardy remnant of Southeast Missouri State football faithful, wearing raincoats and ponchos and sporting umbrellas, were in the stands at Houck Stadium Saturday.

There is a reason why veteran Southeast Missouri State women’s soccer coach Heather Nelson recruited the student-athletes that comprised this year’s squad.

It wouldn’t be the least bit surprising if sixth-year Southeast Missouri State football coach Tom Matukewicz woke up Sunday and had developed a cold. After all, he spent three-plus hours Saturday standing in a chilling wind and rain guiding his Redhawk team to an impressive 17-10 win over UT Martin in front of a courageous (given the weather conditions) – if not large - Homecoming crowd at Houck Stadium.

Go to any Southeast Missouri State football home game and you’ll find Felix Kinsley III. Section F, row G, seat 4.

Southeast Missouri State is an enviable position in that it mostly controls its own fate in the Ohio Valley Conference football race.

Good Sports is a weekly Thursday feature that appears in the Southeast Missourian, as well as online at Semoball.com. It profiles the life of a person connected to sports and allows our readers the opportunity to know the people who are impacting athletics throughout Southeast Missouri in a deeper way...

On any other FCS football team in America, Southeast Missouri State senior linebacker Justin Swift would more than likely be the defensive focal point of every fan’s attention. However, when you play mere feet away from Zach Hall, who should graduate as the most productive defender in the history of the Redhawk program, it is easy to fall into his shadow.

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The numbers don’t lie when recounting how the 2018-19 men’s basketball season went awry for Southeast Missouri State.

After living nearly 53 years in northern Indiana, I had been a Missouri resident this past summer for just a few weeks when I received an email asking me if I would be willing to participate as a voter in polls ranking (i.e. passing judgment) on MSHSAA athletic teams.

JACKSONVILLE, Ala. – Southeast Missouri State football coach Tom Matukewicz knew of Redhawks’ defensive coordinator Bryce Saia’s football intellect long before the two arrived in Cape Girardeau together six years ago.

Fourth-year Southeast Missouri State baseball coach Andy Sawyers isn’t being overconfident as his team wraps up its fall portion of training. But he is confident in this: The Redhawks will hit for power better in 2020 than they did in 2019.

JACKSONVILLE, Ala. – When you walk up to Burgess-Snow Field at Jacksonville State, the magnificence of the facility is awe-inspiring.

The Southeast Missouri State volleyball team bounced back from its first home loss of the season with a sweep of Morehead State on Friday in Ohio Valley Conference play at Houck Field House. The Redhawks improved t0 5-2 in OVC play with the 25-10, 27-25, 25-21 victory over the Eagles...

Just over three years ago, Zerrick Cooper had to make a decision.