Southeast Missouri State men's basketball fails to defend 3-point line in OVC-opening loss to Belmont

Southeast Missouri State's Ray Kowalski looks to shoot against Belmont on Thursday at the Show Me Center.

Andrew J. Whitaker

It all came too easy for Nick Hopkins.

The redshirt freshman scored all 21 of his points on 7-of-11 shooting from 3-point range, as the Belmont Bruins burst out of the gate and never looked back, defeating Southeast Missouri State 94-72 in Thursday's Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball opener at the Show Me Center.

It's the fourth loss in a row for Southeast (6-8, 0-1 OVC), while Belmont picks up its fourth straight victory.

"Failure to pay attention to detail on the scouting report obviously is a downfall when you're playing a team that's as talented and as disciplined as Belmont," Redhawks coach Rick Ray said. "... You close out to make him bounce the ball. You can't let him shoot a 3. So if he blows by you and gets a layup, we don't want that, but we'll take that in comparison with him shooting the 3 because that's not what the scouting report is.

"You just can't let him shoot a 3-point shot, and we just didn't do that."

Southeast's Daniel Simmons looks to shoot during the Southeast Missouri State University men's basketball game against Belmont Thursday, Dec. 28, 2017 at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau.

Andrew J. Whitaker

Hopkins started the game by hitting his first four 3-pointers, three of which game from the left wing. The Bruins opened up an 18-5 lead when Hopkins found his sweet spot and buried his first trey with 14 minutes remaining in the opening half.

He played 28 minutes off the bench and accounted for half of Belmont's 3-point offense. The Bruins shot 50 percent from beyond the arc in both halves, finishing 14 of 28.

"The scouting report said to make him bounce it, and we obviously didn't make him bounce it," Southeast sophomore Denzel Mahoney said about Hopkins. "He hit seven 3s, so we didn't do a good job on our end."

Freshman Ledarrius Brewer led the Redhawks with 21 points, including 13 in the second half. Mahoney contributed 19 points and eight rebounds, while Daniel Simmons added 11 points.

As a team, the Bruins had four players finish in double-digit scoring. Amanze Egekeze, a 6-foot-8 senior forward, shot 7 of 7 from the floor and 4 of 4 from the free-throw line, finishing with 21 points. He scored all but two of his points in the second half alone.

"Egekeze is a matchup problem because you pretty much have to switch the ball screen with him because he's such a pick-and-pop threat," Ray said, "but then when you switch, they're really smart. They just go post him, and now you have your point guard guarding him in the post.

"But I thought our five man did a really good job of being there for post traps and being there for post help early, but then we just lost control of him in the second half."

Southeast's Denzel Mahoney reaches for the ball during the Southeast Missouri State University men's basketball game against Belmont Thursday, Dec. 28, 2017 at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau.

Andrew J. Whitaker

Dylan Windler chipped in 16 points, nine rebounds, four assists and three blocks for Belmont, while Kevin McClain added 12 points and six boards.

Southeast was 1 of 9 to start the game but responded by hitting 9 of its next 10 shots, the last of which came when Justin Carpenter knocked down a baseline jumper, pulling the hosts within 44-29 at the 5:09 mark of the half.

"I just think we're trying to make too many individual plays, and I've got to do a better job of getting guys to buy into what their roles are," Ray said. "But I think what we do is, things start going bad for us, and we just start trying to do things that we're not capable of doing on the offensive end. Instead of making the simple plays, we go out and try to do things that we're not accustomed to doing, so we've got to get guys to buy into their roles offensively so it doesn't hurt us on the defensive end.

"We had nine turnovers in the first half, and against a team that really doesn't pressure or try to deny or anything like that at all. That led to them getting more possessions on the offensive end, and obviously they're a lethal offensive team."

Brewer buried a deep 3 from the top of the key, closing the gap to 44-32 with 4:31 left until halftime, but the Redhawks were unable to draw closer than 10 points for the rest of the half, even with the Bruins connecting on just 1 of 7 from the floor in the final 4:05.

Southeast trailed 47-36 at halftime.

Southeast's Donnie Lewis looks to shoot during the Southeast Missouri State University men's basketball game against Belmont Thursday, Dec. 28, 2017 at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau.

Andrew J. Whitaker ~ Southeast Missourian

"I just thought our activity on the defensive end those last eight to 10 minutes was really tremendous," Ray said. "We had guys diving on the floor for loose balls. We were getting deflections. We were flying around. We played with a purpose at that point in time, after we finally settled down, but we just put ourselves in such a hole there."

A putback by McClain gave Belmont a 53-38 lead with 16:58 remaining in the game before the Redhawks countered with a 7-0 run that ended when Brewer drained a triple from the left corner, closing the gap to eight points, 53-45, with 15:50 to play.

The lead quickly grew back to 14 points. Belmont went on an 8-2 run, with Hopkins hitting two treys from the left corner, the second of which built a 61-47 advantage with 12:41 left on the clock.

The Redhawks weren't able to draw closer than 12 points the rest of the way.

Belmont shot 68 percent (17 of 25) from the field in the second half, using a 14-3 swing to build an 88-63 lead on back-to-back lay-ins by Egekeze with 3:06 remaining.

The Bruins finished 36 of 60 (60 percent) from the floor and established an inside-outside game that resulted in 21 combined assists and 38 points in the paint. Austin Luke led the way, accounting for a game-high eight assists for Belmont.

"For us to give up 68 percent from the field in the second half and 60 percent overall is just really ridiculous, and the fact that they had 94 points," Ray said. "Obviously, Belmont is a really good team, but we didn't help ourselves. We've got to find a way for our guys to understand that we always try to hit home runs on the offensive end when we get behind, but we don't want to hit that home run on the defensive end.

"The other part of it is they got some great paint touches and finished inside. We got paint touches and didn't finish inside. It's pretty simple to me -- if you can't guard the guy once he gets into the paint, don't let him get into the paint because you can't help on them with the way they shoot the 3-point shot."

As a team, the Redhawks shot 40.7 percent from the field (24 of 59). They were 39.1 percent (9 of 23) from 3-point range and 65.2 percent (15 of 23) from the charity stripe.

"We've just got to stop worrying about offense so much," Mahoney said. "Our offense is going to come, but we've got to stop people on the defensive end."

Brewer's big bang

There was plenty to like from the performance of Brewer, who opened conference play with the best performance of his brief college career.

The 6-5 wing finished 7 of 11 from the floor, including 6 of 9 from beyond the arc. He even showed off his range by burying several shots from NBA distance.

"I was pretty confident with my 3 tonight, so I just shot the ball," Brewer said. "I feel like I can make shots like that, so that's the only reason I take them."

The native of Meridian, Mississippi, is currently the Redhawks' second-leading scorer with 12.2 points per game.

"You can see how talented he is, him being just a freshman," Ray said. "He's going to have his ups and downs. We've just got to get him to be more steady. ... He's as talented as any freshman in this league."

Looking ahead

The Redhawks finished non-conference play with the best winning percentage (.462) in the three years under Ray, but after a 22-point loss at home against the 2017-18 OVC preseason favorites, Ray knows there's still plenty of work to be done.

Southeast returns to action with another OVC home matchup, taking on Tennessee State at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Show Me Center.

"We've exceeded expectations thus far, but it's now about what we do in conference play. And everybody knows we were picked to finish second-to-last," Ray said. "We've got to go out and prove people wrong, but we're not going to do that unless we defend some people."