CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Adam Larson scored 13 points to lead Southeast Missouri (1-5), which wrapped up the Coke Zero Sugar Classic with a 72-56 loss to Chattanooga (5-1) Sunday afternoon at McKenzie Arena.
 
Larson closed out his impressive weekend with a combined 35 points (17.5 ppg) and 10 three-pointers made in two starts during the multi-team event. 
 
A cold start put SEMO behind early against the Southern Conference's top defense.
 
The Redhawks went scoreless for the opening 4:53 of play missing their first seven field goals along the way. Trailing, 11-0, SEMO ended its drought when David Idada rebounded his own miss and scored with 15:07 remaining in the first half.
 
SEMO settled down and responded with a 10-3 surge. BJ Ward and Evan Eursher both drained a 3-pointer with Eursher's cutting UTC's lead to 14-10 ahead of a media timeout.
 
The Mocs countered by scoring 12 of the next 13 points to push their lead back to double figures at 26-11.
 
Larson later nailed a 3-pointer off an assist by Rob Martin to get SEMO within eight points (29-21) and the Redhawks were down eight again when Martin dished off to Gavyn Elkamil for a layup that made it a 31-23 game with 1:47 to go.
 
UTC then headed into the locker room with a 35-25 halftime lead.
 
The Redhawks managed to close UTC's lead to seven with the help of a 3-pointer by Larson and reverse layup by Martin. Martin's basket narrowed the Mocs margin to 47-40 with 13:33 remaining.
 
That was as close as SEMO would get as UTC followed with an 11-2 jaunt to get ahead by 16 before finishing off its fifth victory of the season.
 
Larson shot 4-of-8 from the field and hit 4-of-6 three-pointers. He posted his team-high fourth double-digit game and second in three starts. 
 
Martin joined Larson with double figures in the scoring column going for a season-high 10 points. Martin also led the Redhawks with five assists.
 
Nine other players scored for SEMO. Braxton Stacker added eight points and Idada contributed six points to go along with a season-high 12 rebounds at the top of that group.
 
SEMO shot 32.8 percent (19-of-58) from the field for the game. 

Sam Alexis and Honor Huff each scored 18 points to lead UTC, which shot 52.3 percent (23-of-44) from the floor. The Mocs outrebounded the Redhawks, 43-29, as well. Jan Zidek and Myles Che chipped in 16 and 11 points, respectively.
 
SEMO concludes its first month of the season at Kansas City on Nov. 30.