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BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – With just over nine minutes left, the Southeast Missouri women's basketball team stood toe-to-toe at Western Kentucky, but a seven-minute scoreless drought sent the Redhawks to a 60-46 loss on Sunday afternoon.
A 14-0 Lady Toppers (8-2) run turned a three-point Redhawks (5-6) deficit into a 17-point hole that they were unable to claw back from.
“We got within three points and got to a media timeout,” Southeast head coach
Ty Margenthaler said. “I thought WKU was tired at that point, but we looked gassed instead. They got offensive rebounds and second chance points and it really took the wind out of our sails. You just can't do that against a quality basketball team like this.”
Patricia Mack opened the scoring with a layup, but WKU followed with six consecutive points to grab a 6-2 lead. A
Kara Wright three and a
Jordan Hunter free throw tied the game up, but Micah Jones connected on a three-pointer on the next possession to put the Lady Toppers back in front.
WKU's lead grew to 16-8 as part of a 10-2 run, but three-pointers by Hunter and
Dru Haertling cut the gap to 16-14 with under eight minutes left in the opening stanza.
Courtney Shiffer got position in close and
Bailie Roberts set her up for a game-tying layup, making it 16-16 with 7:31 left.
The Lady Toppers reeled off six-straight points to go back on top 22-16. Southeast stemmed the tide from there and kept the gap at four (28-24) at halftime.
Shiffer scored the Redhawks' first two baskets of the half, both of which pulled them within two points. With the score 30-28, WKU got hoops from Chastity Gooch and Jalynn McClain to up the lead to six points. Wright drilled a mid-range jumper to make it a four-point game, but Bianca McGee answered with a jumper less than a minute later to up the lead to six once again. Roberts cut the gap to 36-32 after Shiffer found her cutting to the bucket for a layup. The Maryville, Tenn., senior then split a pair of free throws to cut the deficit to three points.
Southeast scored to make it a three-point game twice after WKU baskets.
Olivia Hackmann got a layup in transition and Wright made a jumper to cut the gap to 40-37 with 9:12 to play.
That was as close as the game got the rest of the way as the Lady Toppers put the game away with a 14-0 run that elapsed 7:09, putting them up 54-37 with 2:44 left. The Redhawks did did not get any closer than 12 points in the final minutes.
Southeast shot 29 percent from the field in the second half and hit 34 percent of its shots overall. WKU countered with 39.4 percent shooting. Neither team shot well from long-range, with the Redhawks going 4-of-19 (21.1 percent) from beyond the arc and the Lady Toppers making 3-of-16 (18.8 percent) three-pointers. The teams combined for 15 free throw attempts with Southeast making 6-of-8 (75 percent) and WKU hitting 5-of-7 (71.4 percent). The Lady Toppers held a 45-33 advantage in rebounding and forced 20 Redhawk turnovers while committing 17 of their own.
Wright scored a career-high 15 points in her first-career start to lead Southeast, the first time she has scored in double figures. She also added a career-high eight rebounds while finishing with two assists, two blocks and two steals. Mack grabbed 10 rebounds, giving her double-digit boards in five straight games. Alexis Govan led all players with 20 points while Gooch (16 points, 12 rebounds) and McGee (11 points, 10 rebounds) posted double-doubles for WKU.
The Redhawks return to the Show Me Center on Dec. 21 to face Missouri State. Opening tip is at 6:30 p.m.
