Southeast Missouri at Saint Louis

Game Information
Date: Monday, November 3, 2025
Tip-Off: 7 p.m., CT
Location: St. Louis, Mo.
Facility: Chaifetz Arena (10,600)
Series: SLU leads, 5-1
Last Meeting: SLU 75, SEMO 65 | 11/6/18 | St. Louis, Mo.

Follow the Redhawks
Video: FanDuel Extra/ESPN+ (Tom Ackerman, Scott Highmark, Tamar Sher)  
Live Stats: SLUBillikens.com
Radio: Real Rock 99.3 FM (Erik Sean)
X: @SEMOMBB
Southeast Missouri Notes | 2025-26 SEMO Basketball Media Guide

Coaches
Southeast Missouri: Brad Korn (74-85 overall; 74-85 at SEMO; 46-47 OVC)
Saint Louis: Josh Schertz (422-124 overall; 19-15 at SLU; 11-7 A10)

Redhawks Start 2025-26 Season at Saint Louis
•    Southeast Missouri will travel two hours north on Interstate 55 to open its 2025-26 season at Saint Louis Monday. Tip is set for 7 p.m., CT at Chaifetz Arena.
•    Monday's season-opener will air live on FanDuel Sports Extra and ESPN+ with Tom Ackerman, Scott Highmark and Tamar Sher on the call.
•    SEMO starts the year with back-to-back road games this week. After the Redhawks visit Atlantic 10 member SLU, they stay in Missouri to face SEC member Mizzou on Nov. 7.
•    The Redhawks are one of five Ohio Valley Conference schools opening their seasons Monday. 
•    Morehead State (vs. Midway), Western Illinois (at Radford), Tennessee Tech (at Western Kentucky) and Tennessee State (vs. Fisk) are the others.

Series Notes
•    Southeast Missouri and Saint Louis meet for the seventh time on the hardwood.
•    SLU holds a 5-1 advantage in the all-time series which began in 2001-02.
•    All six games were played in St. Louis. Each of the last four matchups between the teams were played at Chaifetz Arena.
•    This is the fourth time in program history where SEMO faces Saint Louis in its season-opener.
•    The Redhawks also opened the 2009-10 (L, 41-59, Nov. 14), 2013-14 (L, 64-87, Nov. 8) and 2018-19 (L, 65-75, Nov. 6) campaigns there.
•    SEMO last played the Billikens on Nov. 6, 2018 under then-Head Coach Rick Ray.
•    The Redhawks only win in the series came on Dec. 29, 2004 (65-49) at the Savvis Center (now Enterprise Center).   

Korn vs. Saint Louis
•    Brad Korn squares off against Saint Louis for the first time as a head coach.
•    Saint Louis is the only Division I Missouri school Korn has not faced in his head coaching tenure.
•    Korn is 3-2 all-time against such opponents with a 2-1 mark vs. Kansas City, 0-1 record vs. Missouri and 1-0 mark vs. Missouri State. 

Season-Openers
•    Southeast Missouri is 13-21 in season-opening games during its NCAA Division I era.
•    SEMO opens a season away from home for the 19th time in 20 years.
•    The Redhawks are 3-2 in season-openers with Brad Korn at the helm.
•    SEMO's last season-opening win, a 64-61 victory at South Florida (Nov. 7, 2022) at the time gave the Redhawks three-straight season-opening victories for the first time in program history.

Season 119
•    The 2025-26 campaign marks the 119th season in Southeast Missouri men's basketball history.
•    This year is SEMO's 35th as an NCAA Division I program and member of the Ohio Valley Conference.
•    The Redhawks are 406-574 since joining the Division I ranks in 1991-92.
•    SEMO has a total of 10 winning seasons as an NCAA Division I program.
•    The Redhawks won two OVC regular-season titles (1999-2000, 2024-25), two OVC Tournament crowns (1999-2000, 2022-23) and made two NCAA Tournament appearances (1999-2000, 2022-23).
•    Since Brad Korn took over as head coach in 2020-21, SEMO won its first OVC Tournament title in over two decades and first OVC regular-season championship in 25 years.

Roster Talk
•    The 2025-26 roster consists of 14 players, including one graduate, six seniors, three juniors, one sophomore and three freshmen.
•    Southeast Missouri has nine returnees from its Ohio Valley Conference regular-season championship team.
•    Marqueas Bell, Brendan Terry, Braxton Stacker, Troy Cole, Jr., David Idada, Jay Reynolds, BJ Ward, Saxton Hoepker and Elliot Lowndes are the returning players.
•    Transfers Landren Blocker (Louisiana Tech), Blaize Sagna (Stetson) and Luke Almodovar (St. Francis, Ind.) along with true freshmen PJ Farmer and Trace Sadler complete this year's team.

Redhawks Tabbed Second in OVC Preseason Poll
•    Southeast Missouri was picked second in the 2025-26 Ohio Valley Conference Preseason Poll during the league's annual media day on Oct. 14.
•    For only the third time in program history, SEMO was voted as high as second in the league's preseason poll.
•    The Redhawks were tied for second with then-OVC member Austin Peay in the 1999-2000 version and second overall (first in the West Division) in the 2013-14 predicted order of finish.
•    Little Rock, which was eliminated by SEMO in the semifinals of the 2025 OVC Tournament, is the preseason favorite with 188 points and 12 of the possible 22 first-place votes.
•    The Redhawks tallied 177 points and six first-place nods.
•    SIU Edwardsville (163 pts.), Tennessee State (135 pts.), Lindenwood (100 pts.) and Morehead State (100 pts.) complete the top six.
•    Tennessee Tech (80 pts.), UT Martin (79 pts.), Southern Indiana (67 pts.), Eastern Illinois (63 pts.) and Wester Illinois (57 pts.) rounded out the balloting.

Returning All-OVC Pick
•    Forward Brendan Terry is Southeast Missouri's only returning All-Ohio Valley Conference player from last season.
•    Terry earned Second-Team All-OVC honors in his first year at SEMO in 2024-25.
•    He ranked third on the team in scoring with 11.2 points per game and second with 4.5 rebounds per contest. 
•    Terry started all 33 games and scored double figures in 18 of his starts, as well.

More OVC Players to Watch
•    In addition to Brendan Terry, guards Braxton Stacker and BJ Ward were selected among the Ohio Valley Conference's Players to Watch this preseason.
•    Stacker rated fourth on the team in scoring with 8.9 points and third in rebounding with 3.1 boards a game last season. He came off the bench in 26 of his 27 games.
•    Ward was fifth behind Stacker with 8.4 points per game in 32 starts. He drained 51 three-pointers which were good for second-most on the team. Ward also added 74 assists and 30 steals.

Non-Conference Games
•    Brad Korn is 28-38 in non-conference action.
•    Korn's best non-league record as Southeast Missouri's head coach stands at 9-9 in 2022-23, the season SEMO won its first OVC Tournament title and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 23 years.
•    His other non-conference records include 2-5 in 2020-21, 6-9 in 2021-22, 5-8 in 2023-24 and 6-7 in 2024-25.

Welcome Home BJ!
•    For the first time in his career, St. Louis native BJ Ward returns home to play Saint Louis University.
•    Ward is in his third year as a Redhawk and graduated from Chaminade College Prep School.
•    As a prep, he was a three-year starting point guard leading Chaminade to back-to-back trips to the Final Four of the Class 6 State Tournament.
•    Ward scored 14.8 points per game and led the team with 195 assists and 33 steals as a senior.

3-Pointer Streak
•    The Redhawks have made at least one 3-pointer in 522 consecutive games.
•    The last time Southeast Missouri did not make a 3-pointer was vs. Western Illinois (0-of-6) on Dec. 10, 2008.

Last 24 Games
•    Southeast Missouri went 18-6 in its final 24 games of 2024-25.
•    The Redhawks won nine of their last 13 games of the 2024-25 season by double figures.

Sixth Year for Korn
•    Brad Korn is in his sixth year as Southeast Missouri's head coach.
•    Korn led SEMO to two conference titles (2022-23 OVC Tournament; 2024-25 OVC Regular-Season) in three years.
•    The reigning OVC Coach of trhe Year, Korn is 74-85 overall and 46-47 in conference play.
•    He ranks third all-time in wins among head coaches in SEMO's NCAA Division I era behind Gary Garner (126 wins, 1997-2006) and Dickey Nutt (80 wins, 2009-15).
•    On July 1, 2025, Korn agreed to a contract extension through the 2029-30 season. His new contract will run through Apr. 30, 2030. It extends his current deal that was signed through the 2026-27 season.    

Non-Conference Slate
•    The Redhawks have an 11-game non-conference schedule in 2025-26.
•    Southeast Missouri plays its first two games on the road against in-state schools Saint Louis (Nov. 3) and Missouri (Nov. 7).
•    SEMO travels to Big Ten Conference member Iowa (Nov. 18) and returns a trip on the back end of a home-and-home series to Chattanooga (Dec. 6).
•    The Redhawks head west to face Cal Poly (Nov. 25) and Northern Arizona (Nov. 26) in Flagstaff, Arizona before Thanksgiving.
•    SEMO's home non-conference foes include non-Division I schools Webster (Nov. 12), St. Mary of the Woods (Dec. 2) and Saint Xavier (Ill.) (Dec. 14), St. Thomas (Minn.) (Nov. 15) and Lipscomb (Nov. 29).

OVC Schedule
•    The Ohio Valley Conference schedule includes 20 games for the Redhawks.
•    For the third-straight year, the league membership includes 11 teams (Eastern Illinois, Lindenwood, Little Rock, Morehead State, Southeast Missouri, SIU Edwardsville, Southern Indiana, Tennessee State, Tennessee Tech, UT Martin, Western Illinois).
•    This year the Conference schedules again feature a true round-robin slate.
•    Each team will play two games before Christmas; the schedule picks back up on Dec. 30 and continues until Saturday, Feb. 28.
•    SEMO opens OVC play at Tennessee Tech on Dec. 18.
•    This year marks the final year Tennessee Tech and Little Rock will be members of the OVC. TTU is joining the Southern Conference and Little Rock is moving to the United Athletic Conference (UAC) in 2026-27.

About Saint Louis
•    Saint Louis was picked second in the 2025-26 Atlantic 10 Preseason Poll.
•    SLU, which garnered 11 first-place votes, was one point behind favorite VCU.
•    Center Robbie Avila represents the Billikens on the Atlantic 10's Preseason All-Conference Team. Avila averaged 17.3 points, 6.9 rebounds and four assists a year ago.
•    Josh Schertz is in his second season as head coach at SLU. 
•    Schertz had success at all three of his head coaching stops. He went to 10 NCAA Division II Championships in 13 years at Lincoln Memorial and guided Indiana State to two postseason appearances in three years, including a magical run to the finals of the 2024 National Invitation Tournament.
•    He ranks eighth among all active NCAA head men's basketball coaches with a career winning percentage of .773 (422-124 in 17 seasons).

2026 OVC Tournament
•    The 2026 Ohio Valley Conference Men's and Women's Basketball Championships will be held Mar. 4-7 at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana.
•    It marks the ninth-straight year the event will be held at the venue.
•    The Ford Center, which opened in November 2011, is an 11,000-seat arena located in the core of Evansville's downtown district.
•    The OVC Board of Presidents accepted an agreement to continue to hold the OVC Men's and Women's Basketball Championships at the Ford Center through 2032. 

Championship Culture
•    Southeast Missouri's Department of Athletics has won an unprecedented 37 conference championships since the start of the 2019-20 season.
•    Every sport won at least one OVC title in that stretch.
•    In 2024-25 alone, SEMO won seven OVC championships. That total was more than the number of conference titles won by any two schools in the league combined.
•    Additionally, SEMO claimed the OVC Commissioner's Cup for the third time in five years.