Semoball

Can Redhawks force frequent fouls against Belmont?

Southeast Missouri State sophomore guard DQ Nicholas attempts a shot against UT Martin earlier in the season at the Show Me Center.
Tony Capobianco ~ tcapobianco@semoball.com

If there was one thing that the Southeast Missouri State men’s basketball team learned from its most recent game is was that if the shots aren’t falling, simply torpedoing towards the basket and forcing the opponent to foul can be a viable scoring option.

Sophomore guard DQ Nicholas and graduate center Nolan Taylor combined for 30 of the Redhawks’ school-record 51 free throw attempts in Saturday’s 83-79 double-overtime win over Tennessee State. That was fortunate for SEMO given that those two are the Redhawks’ most successful shooters from the free-throw line.

Forcing fouls might have to be the strategy going into the Redhawks’ road game against Ohio Valley Conference powerhouse Belmont.

The Redhawks (3-6, 1-2 OVC) will visit the Bruins (10-1, 4-0) today at 6 p.m.

“I think DQ always has that ability,” first-year SEMO coach Brad Korn said of Nicholas, “with his speed to be able to get to the foul line. Obviously, Nolan too, because he’s so big down there in the post, that when he gets established and gets a catch, it’s either a basket or a foul more times than not. So I think for those two guys it was a little bit of that. We made an emphasis to get paint touches, to get two feet in the paint, which obviously helps draw fouls.”

Finding the free-throw line frequently can be a successful way to mask the Redhawks’ average shooting.

The Redhawks scored 41 points from the charity stripe in the same game in which they made only 19 total field goals.

“We didn’t shoot the ball well,” Korn said. “It’s probably our worst three-point shooting game of the season if I’m not mistaken. So we talk about making adjustments, the 3-ball isn’t dropping so we go to do the next best thing. So I think that probably played into it as well.”

The question is will that work against Belmont?

Junior guard Luke Smith leads the Bruins with 15.9 points per game and a 45.7 shooting percentage from the 3-point line.

“That’s why each game is different,” Korn said. “It’s going to be a little bit harder with Belmont with the way they play defense because they’re going to be sitting in gaps trying to take your ball from you as you drive it in there so you have to be very, very smart. You’re going to have to get them on the second or third pass to drive them and get to the rim.”

Could the strategy backfire on SEMO?

Forcing fouls and going to the free-throw line as frequently as the Redhawks did Saturday requires a little bit of getting the other team to beat themselves in the process.

Against a team like the Bruins, their defense might not allow that and in turn, forces isolation “hero ball” in a way that negates the original strategy.

“They’re so consistent,” Korn said. “I know (Belmont coach Casey Alexander) has his system in place. They don’t beat themselves. They get people frustrated with the way they play defense because people get so anxious to try to beat them by themselves and you can’t do that with great teams like that.”

SEMO’s tilt at Belmont will be the first of a three-game road trip.

Following tonight’s game, SEMO will stick around in Nashville for a re-match with Tennessee State on Saturday and will face UT Martin on the way back home on Monday.

Usually one of the major elements of home-court advantage is the crowd but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, that won’t be a factor.

“It feels like those closed scrimmages,” Korn said. “When people do those closed scrimmages or you go to a neutral site and play there are not that many fans there. That’s really what it feels like. But the home team is obviously familiar with the surroundings because that’s where they’ve been practicing.”

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