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CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – The Southeast Missouri women's basketball team put together its finest defensive performance of the season, shutting down high scoring Tennessee State 50-39 at the Show Me Center on Saturday night.
The Redhawks (6-18, 3-8 Ohio Valley) held the Tigers (8-16, 4-8 OVC) to 22.5 percent shooting, the lowest percentage they have yielded all season. TSU was the third-highest scoring team in the OVC (70.1 points per game) overall and the second-most explosive offense (76.7 points per game) in conference play.
“This was a great team win tonight,” Southeast head coach
Ty Margenthaler said. “. This was a really important game for us to get where we want to go. My hats off to the assistant coaches here, they did a great job preparing the team for the game. I'm really enjoying how the team turned around quickly from a tough loss at Eastern Illinois. Our defense was the best that it's been all year tonight.”
Baskets from
Bailie Roberts and
Brittany Harriel gave Southeast a 31-20 lead with 17:38 showing on the clock in the second half. Southeast's lead eventually grew to 12 (35-23) as
Allyson Bradshaw found
Courtney Shiffer behind the defense for a breakaway layup. After TSU split two free throws,
Patricia Mack made two from the charity stripe and then drained a baseline jumper to give the Redhawks a 39-24 lead with 12:23 left.
The Redhawks were still up 43-28 with eight and a half left after a
Bailie Roberts layup. However, TSU held Southeast scoreless over the next five minutes and trimmed the lead to 43-36.
Bianca Beck stemmed the tide with a pair of free throw makes to up the lead back to nine. After a defensive stop, Bradshaw got to the line and hit two more freebies to put Southeast up by 11. The Tigers never got any closer the rest of the way.
The Redhawks tallied the first five points of the game as
Courtney Shiffer drained a jumper and
Bianca Beck drilled a three-pointer in the first few minutes. Beck also banked in a mid-range jumper at the 15:38 mark to put Southeast up 7-2.
TSU countered with seven-consecutive points to take its first lead of the game, 9-7, with 12 and a half minutes left in the first half. The Tigers' leading scorer, Jasmin Shuler started the rally by rattling in a jumper then getting a steal and a layup followed by a free throw to tie the contest. Destiny Gaston's jumper put the Tigers in front, but a long jumper by
Brittany Harriel evened the score at nine apiece.
Beck caught an errant TSU pass and went coast-to-coast for a layup on the next sequence, putting Southeast ahead 11-9. The Tigers came right back once again with six points in a row as Alana Morris hit a jumper, Donyeah Mayfield split a pair of free throws and Kesi Hess drilled a three-pointer in transition, making it a 15-11 TSU lead.
A 17-2 Redhawk run flipped the tables and put them on top 28-17 with 2:42 remaining in the opening stanza. The score was tied at 15 after
Bailie Roberts and Harriel each converted from the floor about a minute apart.
Karley Evans found Harriel wide open near the basket for a layup, which put the Redhawks back in front, 17-15, with 17-15. Shiffer extended the lead as she converted a Harriel pass from in close, making it eight-straight Redhawk points.
TSU got within 19-17 on a Jasmin Shuler basket, but Southeast responded with the next nine points.
Allyson Bradshaw connected on a three-pointer form the corner,
Patricia Mack hit two free throws, Mack also knocked down a baseline jumper and Bradshaw scooped home a left-handed layup to cap the run and make it 28-17.
The Tigers tallied the last four points of the half to cut the gap to seven, 28-21, at halftime.
Beck tied TSU's Jasmin Shuler for the game high with 12 points. She also grabbed six rebounds and recorded three assists and three steals. Harriel, Shiffer and Mack helped balance the Southeast attack with eight points apiece while Harriel grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds.
The Redhawks shot 29.5 percent from the field and made 2-of-11 (18.2 percent) three-pointers. They also held the Tigers to 5-of-25 (20 percent) shooting in the second half and 22.4 percent overall. TSU connected on 2-of-17 (11.8 percent) from beyond the arc. The Redhawks also made 12-of-16 (75.0 percent) from the foul line while the Tigers made 11-of-17 (64.7 percent).
Southeast controlled the glass, grabbing 50 rebounds compared to TSU's 44. Turnovers were nearly even as Southeast committed 17 while Tennessee State had 16.
Southeast is off until Feb. 11 when it heads to Murray State. The game will tip off at 5:15 p.m.
