Tennessee Tech (13-13, 8-7 OVC) vs. Southeast Missouri (16-10, 11-4 OVC)

Game Information
Date: Saturday, February 15, 2025
Tip-Off: 3:45 p.m., CT
Location: Cape Girardeau, Mo.
Facility: Show Me Center (7,000)
Series: TTU leads, 39-23
Last Meeting: SEMO 77, TTU 70 | 1/16/25 | Cookeville, Tenn.
Last Meeting in Cape Girardeau: SEMO 88, TTU 69 | 2/8/24

Head Coaches
Tennessee Tech: John Pelphrey (213-242 overall; 64-116 at TTU, 42-64 OVC)
Southeast Missouri: Brad Korn (69-83 overall; 69-83 at SEMO; 42-46 OVC) 

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Game Notes: Southeast Missouri (PDF) 

Final Home Stretch
•    Southeast Missouri hosts Tennessee Tech Saturday. Tip-off is set for 3:45 p.m., CT at the Show Me Center.
•    Saturday's game starts a three-game home stand for SEMO's last home stretch of the season.
•    The Redhawks have a two-game winning streak at the Show Me Center after beating UT Martin (90-79, Jan. 30) and Tennessee State (89-87 OT, Feb. 1).
•    A win against TTU will give SEMO its 10th home victory of the season. 
•    Western Illinois (Feb. 20) and Lindenwood (Feb. 22) are the Redhawks last two home games of the 2024-25 campaign.

Series Notes
•    Southeast Missouri meets Tennessee Tech for the 63rd time.
•     TTU holds a 39-23 lead in the all-time series between the teams.
•    SEMO goes for the sweep of the Golden Eagles after coming away with a 77-70 win in Cookeville on Jan. 16.
•     Brad Korn is 5-4 against TTU as a head coach. 
•     Korn's 2022-23 team beat the Golden Eagles, 89-82, in overtime to win the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.
•    SEMO defeated TTU in seven of the Golden Eagles' last eight trips to Cape Girardeau.

Hall of Fame Weekend
•    Southeast Missouri's 2024 Hall of Fame Class will be recognized at halftime of Saturday's game.
•    Zach Borowiak (Baseball, 2000-03), Antonius Cleveland (Basketball, 2013-17), Paul Ebaugh (Football, 1962, 1964-66; Track & Field, 1963, 1965-67), Emily Scannell (Volleyball, 2000-03) and Carroll Williams (Golf Coach, 1968-75; 1990-05; Basketball Coach, 1975-81; Director of Athletics, 1997-99) are the individuals being inducted this weekend.
•    Cleveland played basketball at SEMO from 2013-17 starting a program record 109 games. He scored 1,556 points, was a First-Team All-Ohio Valley Conference selection as a senior and was the first SEMO player to advance to the College Slam Dunk & 3-Point Championship.
•    He went on to play 28 games in the NBA, including 24 in two seasons with the Dallas Mavericks. Cleveland currently plays professional basketball in Russia.

Five Games to Go
•    The Redhawks are 11-4 in Ohio Valley Conference play with five games remaining.
•    Southeast Missouri is undefeated at 5-0 in the second half of league action with home wins over UT Martin (90-79, Jan. 30) and Tennessee State (89-87, Feb. 1), and road victories at Morehead State (80-51, Feb. 6), Southern Indiana (79-74, Feb. 8) and Little Rock (57-45, Feb. 11).      
•    The rest of SEMO's regular-season schedule features home games against Tennessee Tech (Feb. 15), Western Illinois (Feb. 20) and Lindenwood (Feb. 22), and road matchups at SIU Edwardsville (Feb. 27) and Eastern Illinois (Mar. 1).

First in the OVC 
•    Southeast Missouri claimed sole possession of first in the Ohio Valley Conference standings with its 57-45 midweek road win at Little Rock (Feb. 11).
•    SEMO improved improved to 11-4 in league play giving Brad Korn his best OVC record in five years as head coach thus far.
•    The Redhawks have their most OVC wins in a season in 25 years since going 14-4 during the 1999-2000 campaign, the only year SEMO won a OVC regular-season title.
•    SEMO has won 11 or more OVC contests just three times in program history. The other two seasons were 1998-99 (15-3) and 1999-2000 (14-4).
•    The Redhawks more than doubled their number of conference victories from 2023-24 (4).
•    At 16-10 overall and 11-4 in OVC play, the Redhawks have surpassed their number of overall (9) and OVC (4) wins from 2023-24 by +7 margins.
•    SEMO began the 2024-25 season with a 3-0 record in OVC play marking the first time it won three-straight games to start a conference season since 2011-12.
•    The Redhawks beat Eastern Illinois (79-72, Dec. 19), SIU Edwardsville (80-64, Dec. 21), Southern Indiana (77-66, Jan. 9), UT Martin (90-79, Jan. 30) and Tennessee State (89-87, OT, Feb. 1) at home, and Tennessee State (67-65, Jan. 2), Tennessee Tech (77-70, Jan. 16), Western Illinois (72-51, Jan. 25), Morehead State (80-51, Feb. 6), Southern Indiana (79-74, Feb. 8) and Little Rock (57-45, Feb. 11) on the road for their OVC wins this year.
•    SEMO is 11-4 in its previous 15 conference games dating back to last year's season-ending 70-66 victory at Southern Indiana. 
•    The Redhawks are on a six-game OVC winning streak, its longest in 20 years since SEMO won seven in a row during the 2004-05 campaign.
•    SEMO has not lost an OVC game since Jan. 23 (72-68, at Lindenwood).

11 Conference Victories
•    The Redhawks' 11 Ohio Valley Conference victories are their most in a season with Brad Korn at the helm.
•    SEMO reached double-digit conference wins for the fifth time in program history.
•    It is also the second time in three years where SEMO won 10 or more OVC games under Korn.
•    The Redhawks conference seasons with 10 or more wins include 1997-98 (10-8), 1998-99 (15-3), 1999-00 (14-4), 2022-23 (10-8) and 2024-25 (11-4).
•    SEMO's program record for OVC victories is 15 (1998-99).

Six-Game Winning Streak
•    Southeast Missouri is the hottest team in the Ohio Valley Conference entering the weekend.
•    SEMO is on a six-game winning streak and is undefeated at 4-0 this month alone.
•    The Redhawks are on both their longest overall and OVC winning streak in two decades.

What a Turnaround
•    The Redhawks went from finishing 10th in the Ohio Valley Conference and missing the league's postseason tournament in 2023-24 to first in the OVC and in position to win a regular-season title in 2024-25.
•    Southeast Missouri was 9-22 overall and 4-14 a year ago.
•    This season, the Redhawks are 16-10 and 11-4 with five regular-season games left.
•    In terms of wins, SEMO's +7 margin is its biggest one-year turnaround since the Redhawks went from going 5-24 in 2015-16 to 15-18 in 2016-17 (+10).
•    In OVC play, the Redhawks +7 jump in wins is the best one-year turnaround in a conference season in program history.

Korn  Moves to Second in OVC Wins
•    Brad Korn picked up his 42nd Ohio Valley Conference win when Southeast Missouri beat Little Rock, 57-45, on Feb. 11.
•    Korn is now 42-46 all-time in OVC games and surpassed Dickey Nutt (41-59) for second all-time among SEMO head coaches in OVC wins.
•    Korn is second only to Gary Garner (73-81) in that category.

Road Show
•    Southeast Missouri needs just one more road win to clinch a winning record in true away games this season.
•    If that happens, SEMO will get its first winning record on the road in 25 years.
•    The Redhawks have gone 24-straight seasons with losing records on the road.
•    SEMO is currently 7-6 away from home with trips to SIU Edwardsville (Feb. 27) and Eastern Illinois (Mar. 1) remaining.
•    The Redhawks last winning road record was 7-5 in 1999-2000.

Last 17 Games
•    The Redhawks are 13-4 in their last 17 games.
•    SEMO has won a season-best six games in a row and has scored 80 or more points in three of its last five outings.
•    SEMO is 5-2 at the Show Me Center and 6-2 on the road in conference play.
•    The Redhawks have their best conference road record since going 8-1 in 1998-99.

Hot Shooting
•    Southeast Missouri shot 50 percent or better from the field in five of its last six games.
•    SEMO went five-straight games shooting 50 percent or better from the field during Ohio Valley Conference play for the first time since 2011-12.
•    That streak ended when the Redhawks shot 38.3 percent at Little Rock (Feb. 11).

Free Throw Perfection
•    The Redhawks went a perfect 16-of-16 at the free throw line to key their victory over Little Rock (Feb. 11).
•    Southeast Missouri made 14-of-14 free throws in the second half, including eight in the final 1:42 of the contest.
•    It was the first time SEMO did not miss a free throw in a game with a minimum of 10 attempts since it finished 12-of-12 vs. Austin Peay on Feb. 21, 2019.
 

Martin is Rolling
•    Rob Martin scored double figures in 11-straight games.
•    Martin scored 15 points against Southern Indiana (Jan. 9) and followed that up with 21 vs. Morehead State (Jan. 11), 19 vs. Little Rock (Jan. 14), 13 at Tennessee Tech (Jan. 16), 12 at Lindenwood (Jan. 23), 16 at Western Illinois (Jan. 25), 18 vs. UT Martin (Jan. 30), 22 vs. Tennessee State (Feb. 1), 27 at Morehead State (Feb. 6), 15 at Southern Indiana (Feb. 8) and 17 at Little Rock (Feb. 11).
•    He is SEMO's second-leading scorer with 13.3 points per game through 26 starts this season.
•    Martin finished as the Redhawks top scorer a total of eight times in 2024-25.
•    It is the longest double-digit scoring streak of his career.

OVC Leader in Turnover Margin
•    The Redhawks are first in the Ohio Valley Conference with a +3.08 turnover margin.
•    Southeast Missouri is committing a league low 10.6 turnovers per game while forcing 13.7.
•    SEMO turned the ball over less than 10 times a total of 11 games this season.
•    The Redhawks had a season-low six turnovers at Western Illinois (Jan. 25).
•    SEMO forced 18 turnovers in its 57-45 win at Little Rock (Feb. 11).

Redhawks Sixth in the Nation Defending the Three
•    Southeast Missouri is sixth in the nation in 3-point percentage defense.
•    Opponents are shooting just 28.6 percent from downtown against Southeast Missouri this season.
•    SEMO has held its opponent to five or less 3-pointers made in 16 of its 26 games in 2024-25.
•    There are a total of 355 NCAA Division I basketball teams.

Korn at the Show Me Center
•    Brad Korn finished with a winning record at home each of his first four years as Southeast Missouri's head coach.
•    Korn is 41-25 all-time at the Show Me Center.
•    The Redhawks went 7-6 (2020-21), 8-5 (2021-22), 9-4 (2022-23)  and 8-7 (2023-24) at home since Korn took over as head coach.
•    SEMO is 9-3 in Cape Girardeau this year. One more win will give Korn his most home victories in a season as the Redhawks head coach.