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CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – The Southeast Missouri women's basketball team came out strong, but couldn't sustain a hot start in a 58-43 loss to Southern Illinois Edwardsville at the Show Me Center on Monday night.
Southeast (4-15, 1-5 Ohio Valley) came out of the gates fast, scoring the first seven points of the game in with 3:20 gone by and forcing SIUE (10-7, 4-2 OVC) into a timeout. The Redhawks got baskets from
Brittany Harriel,
Bianca Beck and
Bailie Roberts with Roberts also adding a free throw in the span. The Cougars did not score until the 15:12 mark of the opening stanza when Kiara Conner hit two free throws.
Conner made a layup after an offensive rebound to cut Southeast's lead to 7-4, but
Courtney Shiffer calmly drained a pair of free throws to make it a five-point game.
The Cougars grabbed a 17-11 lead with under seven minutes to play in the first half on the strength of a 15-2 run. The Cougars grabbed their first lead of the night on a Jazmin Hill three-pointer at the 8:57 mark. A Harriel layup ended the Redhawks' drought after they had gone over 10 minutes without making a field goal.
SIUE went ahead by seven points on three separate occasions with under five minutes left in the first half. An
Allyson Bradshaw three-pointer drew the Redhawks within four, but the Cougars closed the half on a 9-0 run to take a 31-18 lead into the locker room.
“I thought our effort defensively was much better tonight,” Southeast head coach
Ty Margenthaler said. “I was really pleased with our post game. Brittany and Courtney brought their A game on both ends. Unfortunately, our guards have struggled shooting the basketball. I was excited with how we started, but then they called timeout and switched to zone to slow us down. We kind of lost confidence after that.”
Southeast tallied the first four points of the second half to cut the gap to 31-22, but SIUE once again pushed the lead to double digits, going up 16 (42-26) with under 12 minutes left.
The Redhawks got the gap back to 10 after scoring six in a row. Shiffer made a layup and two free throws and Harriel got the other hoop to make it 42-32 with less than nine minutes on the clock. That was the closest Southeast got the rest of the night as SIUE held the Redhawks to only seven points in the final 8:48. The Cougars led by as many as 18 points late in the second half.
Harriel posted her fifth double-double in the past seven games with a game-high 13 points and 10 rebounds. Shiffer also scored in double figures, finishing with 12 points.
The Cougars shot 40.7 percent for the game and held the Redhawks to 32.7 percent shooting. Neither team shot particularly well from long range, SIUE made three of its 15 (20.0 percent) and Southeast hit only 1-of-16 (6.3 percent) from beyond the arc. The Redhawks held a 37-33 advantage in rebounding, but the Cougars forced 19 turnovers and commited only 11 themselves. Southeast made 10-of-13 (76.9 percent) free throws and SIUE made 11-of-15 (73.3 percent).
The Redhawks play their next two games on the road, starting with a trip to Tennessee Tech on Saturday. Opening tipoff is at 5:30 p.m.
