Redhawk hoops endure another tough loss

Southeast Missouri State redshirt junior guard Chris Harris finishes at the rim against UT Martin on Friday at the Show Me Center.

Tony Capobianco ~ Tcapobianco@semoball.com

It looked as if the Southeast Missouri State men’s basketball squad was headed to its fourth overtime game in six outings on Friday, however, UT Martin guard Eden Holt had other plans.

The sophomore put up a buzzer-beating shot just before falling out of bounds to push the Skyhawks past the Redhawks 69-67 at the Show Me Center.

Holt’s heroics followed a game-tying basket from SEMO redshirt junior Chris Harris moments earlier.

“(Coach Brad Korn) drew up a play and it was a great play,” Harris said of his shot. “We had two shooters playing off so it was kind of hard to guard. You didn’t know who was going to get the ball. We couldn’t get the ball in but (DQ Nicholas) made a great pass in the corner where I could go in and get it and I grabbed it.

“I think the other guy flopped, I don’t really know what happened. I just saw him on the ground so I stepped back real quick and tried to get it up and it ended up falling. Thank you, DQ.”

Harris had his best game as a Redhawk with 23 points on 7-of-14 shooting and 7-of-10 from the free-throw line.

Junior guard Eric Reed Jr. was cold from the key by his standards (2-of-7 from 3-point range) but still put up 10 points.

Nicholas also added 11 points to round out the double-digit scorers for SEMO.

“He’s always going to be a consistent scorer,” Korn said of Harris. “He had an off night at Evansville. That’s kind of been his outlier performance. I always count on Chris. I don’t have any doubt that he’ll show up.”

Senior forward Manny Patterson made his SEMO debut on Friday after the NCAA granted a blanket transfer waiver. The Green Bay transfer didn’t shoot a single field goal but he did grab four defensive rebounds.

“Manny’s mobile,” Korn said. “He’s a talker. He’s tough. Unfortunately for him, he did get hurt, so he missed six weeks of practice time. So now you’re talking all of the stuff that you’re trying to do, especially against the zone, he probably just couldn’t get it to flow that way because now you’re trying to run certain things.

“He’s been practicing now but it’s totally different when you’ve missed the majority of the practices. But it was good to have him out there. He always brings good energy.”

The Skyhawks opened the game with a 7-2 run with every point scored by Holden.

A jumper by Kenton Eskridge gave the Skyhawks a 21-10 lead in the nine-minute mark.

The Redhawks answered with a 12-0 run and took a 22-21 lead with 5:30 remaining in the first half off a jump shot by Harris.

Like the first half, the Skyhawks started the second half fast with an 8-3 run to go up 39-34 in the 16-minute mark, with five of the points coming from Holden.

Redhawk redshirt junior guard Nygal Russell tied the game 54 with a layup and a free throw with five minutes left in the game.

The Redhawks kept the game tied with four minutes left on a 3-pointer by redshirt junior wing Nana Akenten.

Russell and Akenten combined to score nine points with eight rebounds and eight assists.

SEMO only made one 3-pointer in the first half but improved in the second half to shoot a total of 9-of-27 overall from the key. Korn said that had much to do with their approach against the UT Martin zone defense.

“It’s probably more shot selection,” Korn said. “We took a couple of quick ones that first half. They just weren’t the shots for us. So I think in the second half when you feel it out (and) you figure it out, you get on the right spot.

“I thought we did a poor job early. I thought (center Nolan Taylor) could have had a better game. I thought he was going to have an advantage against the zone on the interior. We weren’t in the right spots. He was too high. We didn’t play inside-out against the zone. You’ve got to go inside-out against the zone and we went outside-in to start with, so I think if we could have started inside-out, that could’ve opened things up for us in the first half.”

The Redhawks will look to break a three-game losing streak at Indiana State on Tuesday at noon.

Scoring

UT Martin 69, SE Missouri 67

UT MARTIN (3-0)

Kennedy 1-5 0-0 2, Eskridge 4-7 0-2 9, Holt 4-10 0-0 10, Holden 8-14 7-7 24, Williams 5-9 0-0 13, Thomas 3-11 3-6 9, Rustin 0-1 2-2 2. Totals 25-57 12-17 69.

SE MISSOURI (2-4)

Taylor 1-1 1-2 3, Akenten 2-7 0-0 5, C.Harris 7-14 7-10 23, Nicholas 5-7 0-0 11, Russell 1-3 2-4 4, Reed 3-10 2-2 10, Love 3-7 0-0 9, Johnson 1-2 0-1 2, Branson 0-0 0-0 0, Patterson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-51 12-19 67.

Halftime–31-31. 3-Point Goals–UT Martin 7-17 (Williams 3-3, Holt 2-4, Holden 1-1, Eskridge 1-2, Kennedy 0-3, Thomas 0-4), SE Missouri 9-27 (Love 3-6, C.Harris 2-5, Reed 2-7, Nicholas 1-2, Akenten 1-5, Russell 0-2). Rebounds–UT Martin 30 (Holden 10), SE Missouri 27 (Nicholas 6). Assists–UT Martin 12 (Holt 5), SE Missouri 17 (Russell 6). Total Fouls–UT Martin 17, SE Missouri 18. A–748 (6,972).