Redhawks Beat Eastern Illinois, Get Fifth-Straight Home Win

Saturday, January 21

Cape Girardeau, Mo.

4:15 PM

Southeast Missouri State University

9-13, 4-3OVC

Eastern Illinois

9-11, 1-6OVC

Team	1	2	F
Eastern Illinois	28	43	71
Southeast Missouri	35	48	83

Antonius Cleveland led the Redhawks with 18 points against Eastern Illinois

Photo by: Marc Mahnke

1/21/2017 7:39:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Final Statistics PDF

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – Antonius Cleveland scored 18 points and Trey Kellum added a double-double 15 points and 13 rebounds to lead Southeast Missouri (9-13, 4-3) to an 83-71 win over Eastern Illinois (9-11, 1-6) Saturday at the Show Me Center.

SEMO won its fifth-straight home game and improved to 8-2 in Cape Girardeau this season. The Redhawks are also 4-0 in Ohio Valley Conference play on their home floor.

"It was another great team win," said SEMO head coach Rick Ray. "Eastern Illinois runs a complicated offense and I was really pleased with how we executed our game plan."

SEMO trailed by two points before putting together a 14-2 run to take a 23-10 lead with 10:17 remaining the first half. Cleveland, Milos Vranes and Daniel Simmons each buried a 3-pointer during the surge which ended on a jumper by Cleveland.

Jonathan Dalton's 3-pointer raised the Redhawks lead to 28-15 at the 8:35 mark before EIU answered with a 13-2 run to narrow the margin to two when Ray Crossland made a pair of free throws with just under two minutes left.

SEMO then scored the last five points of the first half to take a 35-28 advantage at the intermission.

Vranes' 3-pointer gave SEMO its largest lead at 56-42 with 12:55 left in the contest.

EIU responded with a 13-5 jaunt and made it a two-possession game when Montell Goodwin's free throws cut the Redhawks lead to 61-55 at the 7:54 mark.

Shortly after the Panthers brought SEMO's double-digit lead to six again, this time on two free throws by Patrick Muldoon, freshman Tahj Eaddy buried a big 3-pointer during the Redhawks next possession.

Denzel Mahoney followed with a jumper and SEMO finished off EIU for good.

Cleveland shot 6-of-12 from the field, drained two 3-pointers and made 4-of-6 free throws en route to his 21^st double figure scoring game this season. He also grabbed five rebounds, dished out two assists, had two blocks and a steal.

Kellum scored 14 points in the second half alone, picking up the second double-double of his career.

Eaddy contributed 15 points on 6-of-9 field goals and knocked down two 3-pointers.

SEMO shot 45 percent (9-of-20) from 3-point range for the night. The Redhawks heated up to shoot 55.6 percent (15-of-27) from the field in the second stanza.

EIU entered the game averaging a league low 12.5 turnovers per game. SEMO forced the Panthers into 19 turnovers and scored 24 points off those mishaps. EIU, which is also second in the OVC in assists (15.3) in conference play, finished with nine.

Demetrius McReynolds led the Panthers with 19 points.

SEMO heads to rival Murray State on Jan. 26.