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CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. -
Marland Smith broke the school's all-time career record in three-point field goals made and
Nino Johnson added 17 points, 12 rebounds and seven blocks to lead Southeast Missouri (12-13, 4-7) to a 76-67 win over SIU Edwardsville (8-12, 4-6) Thursday night at the Show Me Center.
A native of Little Rock, Ark., Smith buried two of his three 3-pointers in the second half and broke the record when his trifecta gave Southeast a 66-54 lead with 7:23 remaining. His 220 three-pointers surpassed Derek Winans' 219 (2001-05) for the new mark.
“I wanted to get the record tonight and one of my goals coming to Southeast was to be a record-setting player," said Smith. "It's nice to accomplish something like this in front of our home crowd."
While Smith took care of business on the perimeter, Johnson dominated underneath the basket, earning his team-high seventh double-double of the season. Johnson also fell just three swats shy of tying Bud Eley's single-game record of 10 blocked shots (vs. Morehead State, Jan. 4, 1999).
Johnson, who was not in the starting lineup for the second-straight game, led Southeast to a commanding 32-14 advantage in the paint and helped give the Redhawks a 24-2 boost off the bench.
"I thought we played really well tonight," said Southeast head coach
Dickey Nutt. "Congratulations to Marland for breaking that record. He is one of our foundation guys who reached another great milestone in his career. Nino was also very, very, good. He was a force and played with a lot of energy."
Jerome Jones had 19 points in the first meeting between these teams earlier this season and nearly matched that total in the game's first 5:21.
Jones stormed out of the gate to score 19 of the Cougars first 23 points, including 16 over that opening stretch. He caught fire, making 6-of-7 field goals, 4-of-5 threes and 3-of-3 free throws to help grab SIUE a 23-13 lead with 11:57 left to play in the first half.
That, however, was all SIUE had in the early going.
Southeast answered Jones' rampage with a 20-3 run to build a seven-point cushion. Most of the Redhawks damage came with Jones on the bench after he picked up his second foul with 10:08 remaining.
The Cougars sputtered to only one point in over four-and-a-half minutes when Jones exited the game.
The Redhawks immediately seized the opportunity when
A.J. Jones converted a three-point play to ignite the run. Jones buried a three-pointer to tie the game at 26-26 at the 7:33 mark.
Smith followed with a three-pointer on Southeast's next possession, giving the Redhawks their first lead of the game 39 seconds later. Johnson, who also contributed six points, capped the ambush with a layup to push Southeast's lead to 33-26 with 5:36 left.
Southeast outscored SIUE, 28-9, in the last 11:57 of the first half to take a 41-32 lead at the intermission.
The Redhawks shot 50 percent (16-of-32) from the field and outscored the Cougars 20-6 inside the paint in the first half alone.
Jones shot 58.3 percent (7-of-12) from the field himself, while the rest of his teammates made a combined 5-of-23 field goals for 21.7 percent.
SIUE started the second half strong, using a 10-3 run over the first 3:39 and quickly pulled to within two when Ray Lester made a pair of free throws to make it a 44-42 game with 16:21 left.
That was as close as the Cougars would get, as Southeast countered with a 13-0 run over the next 3:01. Smith's other three-pointer gave the Redhawks their largest lead of the night at 57-42 with 13:20 on the clock.
Johnson made a near-perfect 8-of-9 field goals and established a new career-high in blocks, while Smith added 13 points on 4-of-8 from the field and 3-of-4 from downtown.
Tyler Stone and Jones followed with 12 and 11 points, respectively. Stone also had three blocks, as Southeast turned in a season-high 10 against SIUE.
True freshman
Jared White had a nice game as well, scoring seven points in 23 minutes off the bench.
"Jared did a good job defensively and gave us a lot of quality minutes," said Nutt.
Jones scored a game-high 31 points and grabbed eight rebounds to lead SIUE.
Southeast concludes its three-game homestand when it hosts Eastern Illinois over Hall of Fame Weekend Saturday. Tip-off is set for 5:30 p.m., CT, at the Show Me Center.