Semoball

Southeast Missouri State men's basketball dominated by Tennessee Tech, suffers worst loss of season

Southeast Missouri State University head coach Rick Ray addresses his team during a late-game time-out during the Redhawks' loss to Southern Illinois University at the Show Me Center Saturday, Dec. 8, 2018.
Tyler Graef ~ Southeast Missourian

Coming off a 26-point loss, Southeast Missouri State men's basketball never got going in the first half and suffered its worst defeat of the season.

Tennessee State dominated from start to finish, dealing the Redhawks a 79-50 road loss. Before this week, Southeast had lost one game by 20 points or more. In the span of three days, the Redhawks suffered two such losses. They fell to Belmont 97-71 on Thursday.

With the loss, SEMO dropped to 3-10 in road or neutral site games.

"A very disappointing performance from our team especially coming after a game against Belmont where I felt we didn't compete," Southeast coach Rick Ray said. "That's all we talked about going into this game with Tennessee State. This is a team that plays really hard. ... We didn't match that at all. We decided to play a little bit in the second half and by then it's too late.

"Just disappointing more than anything. Offensively, there were times we couldn't get anything going but that doesn't mean we can't get stops."

It was a script Redhawks fans had seen before this season. A poor start defensively compounded by an inability to get anything going on the offensive end.

Twice, Southeast lost Emmanuel Egbuta on backdoor cuts, and Egbuta capitalized with alley-oop dunks both times. He finished with a game-high 19 points Ray tried a variety of lineups, juggling players, but nothing worked.The Redhawks went over 12 minutes without a field goal, missing both contested 3-pointers and open looks. By the time, Skyler Hogan hit a 3-pointer with 3:05 remaining, Southeast At halftime, the deficit was 45-20. Southeast was 6 of 24 from the field (25 percent) in those opening 20 minutes while TSU was 17 of 29 (58.6 percent).

"We weren't patient," Ray said. "Once we got behind, we tried to make 10-point plays, 20-point plays instead of trying to grind it out."

Southeast never got closer than 18 in the second half, and no Redhawk scored more than eight points.

OVC picture

The loss was even more disappointing due to the chance Southeast had to climb up the OVC standings. TSU entered Saturday in a four-way tie for seventh. The top eight teams make the OVC Tournament. Southeast was just one win back in the standings from TSU and those other three teams -- SIU Edwardsville, Tennessee Tech and Eastern Kentucky.

With a win, Southeast would have equaled TSU's conference record. Instead, Southeast remained in 11th place in the OVC and is winless on the road in conference play. The only team below the Redhawks is UT Martin, which is 1-9.

With eight games left, Southeast will need to turn it around if it hopes to make the conference tournament after missing out last year due to a postseason ban.

Up next

Southeast returns home and hosts Tennessee Tech at 7:45 p.m. Saturday before a 4:30 p.m. Saturday matchup against Jacksonville State, which at 8-2 in the OVC is tied for first in the OVC with Austin Peay, Belmont and Murray State.

Tennessee Tech fell to MSU 67-63 on Saturday to drop to 7-16 and 3-7 in the OVC.


Southeast box score

TENNESSEE ST. 79, SOUTHEAST 50

SOUTHEAST (7-16)

Gable 3-4 0-0 7, McGlothan 3-6 0-2 7, Dalton 1-5 0-1 2, Hogan 1-6 2-2 5, Brewer 2-11 2-4 7, Tolbert 0-4 2-4 2, Laros 4-4 0-0 8, Lewis 0-0 0-0 0, Kao 0-2 0-0 0, Russell 0-3 5-6 5, Caldwell 3-5 0-0 7. Totals 17-50 11-19 50.

TENNESSEE ST. (7-15)

Egbuta 8-12 3-5 19, Chaffee 1-2 0-0 2, McKnight 1-4 1-2 4, Littlejohn 5-10 0-0 15, Davis 2-6 2-2 8, Henderson 4-5 0-0 8, Morris 2-5 5-5 9, Fitzpatrick-Dorsey 6-11 0-0 14. Totals 29-55 11-14 79.

Halftime -- Tennessee St. 45-20.

3-Point Goals -- Southeast 5-18 (Gable 1-1, McGlothan 1-1, Caldwell 1-2, Hogan 1-4, Brewer 1-6, Dalton 0-1, Russell 0-1, Kao 0-2), Tennessee St. 10-23 (Littlejohn 5-10, Davis 2-3, Fitzpatrick-Dorsey 2-5, McKnight 1-3, Morris 0-2).

Fouled Out -- Chaffee.

Rebounds -- Southeast 29 (McGlothan 8), Tennessee St. 36 (Littlejohn 7).

Assists -- Southeast 6 (Hogan 2), Tennessee St. 11 (McKnight 3).

Total Fouls -- Southeast 19, Tennessee St. 18.

A -- 983 (10,500).

Editor's note: The headline has been updated to clarify its original intent.

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