Western Illinois (10-17, 4-12 OVC) vs. Southeast Missouri (17-10, 12-4 OVC)

Game Information
Date: Thursday, February 20, 2025
Tip-Off: 7:30 p.m., CT
Location: Cape Girardeau, Mo.
Facility: Show Me Center (7,000)
Series: WIU leads, 8-7
Last Meeting: SEMO 72, WIU 51 | 1/25/25 | Macomb, Ill.
Last Meeting in Cape Girardeau: WIU 76, SEMO 55 | 2/3/24

Head Coaches
Western Illinois: Chad Boudreau (34-36 overall; 34-26 at WIU, 20-14 OVC)
Southeast Missouri: Brad Korn (70-83 overall; 70-83 at SEMO; 43-46 OVC) 

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Live Stats: SEMORedhawks.com
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Game Notes: Southeast Missouri (PDF) 

Redhawks Host Western Illinois
•    Southeast Missouri welcomes Western Illinois Thursday. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m., CT at the Show Me Center.
•    SEMO will wear special blue & green uniforms to raise awareness for organ & tissue donation as part of its Donate Life Night.
•    Registered organ donors can show their ID for a free Donate Life t-shirt while supplies last.
•    The Redhawks are on a three-game winning streak and 10-3 overall at the Show Me Center.
•    Thursday is the first of SEMO's final two games at home this season. The Redhawks wrap up their home schedule when they host in-state rival Lindenwood on Feb. 22.

Series Notes
•    Southeast Missouri and Western Illinois square off for the 16th time Thursday.
•    WIU holds a slight 8-7 edge in the all-time series.
•    SEMO goes for its first home-and-home sweep of the Leathernecks after winning, 72-51, in Macomb on Jan. 25.
•    That victory was Brad Korn's first against WIU as a head coach.

See You in Evansville
•    The Redhawks have clinched a spot in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.
•    SEMO, SIU Edwardsville, Little Rock, Morehead State and Tennessee State already made this year's eight-team field.
•    The three teams tied at 8-8, including Lindenwood, Tennessee Tech and UT Martin are in with one more win or losses by the three teams tied at 4-12 (Western Illinois, Southern Indiana, Eastern Illinois). 
•    This year will be SEMO's fourth OVC Tournament appearance in five years under Head Coach Brad Korn.
•    The OVC Tournament will be played Mar. 5-8 at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana.

Four Games to Go
•    The Redhawks are 12-4 in Ohio Valley Conference play with four games remaining.
•    Southeast Missouri is undefeated at 6-0 in the second half of league action with home wins over UT Martin (90-79, Jan. 30), Tennessee State (89-87, Feb. 1) and Tennessee Tech (83-69, Feb. 15), 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 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 is 12-4 in league play. It is Brad Korn's best OVC record in five years as head coach. 
•    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 12 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 17-10 overall and 12-4 in OVC play, the Redhawks have surpassed their number of overall (9) and OVC (4) wins from 2023-24         by +8 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), Tennessee State (89-87, OT, Feb. 1) and Tennessee Tech (83-69, Feb. 15) 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 13-4 in its previous 17 conference games dating back to last year's season-ending 70-66 victory at Southern Indiana. 
•    The Redhawks are on a seven-game OVC winning streak, their longest in 20 years since SEMO also won seven in a row during the 2004-05 campaign.
•    SEMO has not lost an OVC game since Jan. 23 (72-68, at Lindenwood).

12 Conference Victories
•    The Redhawks' 12 Ohio Valley Conference victories are their most in a season with Brad Korn at the helm.
•    The 12 league wins are third-most in program history behind the 1998-99 (15-3) and 1999-2000 (14-4) teams.
•    Southeast Missouri 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 (12-4).
•    SEMO's program record for OVC victories is 15 (1998-99).

Seven-Game Winning Streak
•    Southeast Missouri is the hottest team in the Ohio Valley Conference.
•    With its 83-69 win over Tennessee Tech (Feb. 15), SEMO extended its winning streak to seven games.
•    The seven-game winning streak matches the longest winning streak in SEMO's NCAA Division I era. The 2004-05 team also won seven games in a row.
•    The Redhawks are 5-0 in February alone.
•    SEMO is on both their longest overall and OVC winning streak in two decades.
•    One more win will give the Redhawks a program record eight-game winning streak since SEMO turned NCAA Division I in 1991-92.
•    SEMO began its current winning streak with its 72-51 road victory at Western Illinois (Jan. 25).
•    Before the NCAA Division I era, SEMO's longest winning streak was 11-straight in 1989-90 under then-Head Coach Ron Shumate.

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 17-10 and 12-4 with four regular-season games left.
•    In terms of wins, SEMO's +8 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 +8 jump in wins is their best one-year turnaround in conference play in program history.

Another Winning Season for Korn
•    Southeast Missouri has claimed its second winning season in three years this 2024-25 campaign.
•    SEMO is 17-10 overall with four games left in the regular-season.
•    The Redhawks posted their second winning season in the last three years under Head Coach Brad Korn.
•    Korn's most victories in a season are currently 19 which came when he led SEMO's 2022-23 team to a 19-17 record, Ohio Valley Conference Tournament title and NCAA Tournament berth.
•    Three more victories will give SEMO 20 wins in a season for only the third time in its NCAA Division I era and first time in 25 years. The 1999-2000 team was the last to get 20 wins in a season when it went 24-7.

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.
•    With that win, Korn 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 with his 43-46 record in OVC games.

Korn at the Show Me Center
•    Brad Korn finished with a winning record at home each of his first five years as Southeast Missouri's head coach.
•    Korn is 42-25 all-time at the Show Me Center.
•    The Redhawks went 7-6 (2020-21), 8-5 (2021-22), 9-4 (2022-23), 8-7 (2023-24) and 10-3 (2024-25) at home under Korn.
•    SEMO is 10-3 in Cape Girardeau this year with its best home record with Korn as its head coach.

Last 18 Games
•    The Redhawks are 14-4 in their last 18 games.
•    SEMO has won a season-best seven games in a row and has scored 80 or more points in four of its last six outings.
•    SEMO is 6-2 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 six of its last seven 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 did not miss a free throw in their last two games.
•    Southeast Missouri went a perfect 16-of-16 at the free throw line to key its victory over Little Rock (Feb. 11) and went 4-of-4 in its win over Tennessee Tech (Feb. 15).
•    SEMO made 14-of-14 free throws in the second half, including eight in the final 1:42 of the Little Rock 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 12-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), 17 at Little Rock (Feb. 11) and 17 vs. Tennessee Tech (Feb. 15).
•    He is SEMO's second-leading scorer with 13.5 points per game through 27 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 +3.11 turnover margin.
•    Southeast Missouri is committing a league low 10.5 turnovers per game while forcing 13.6.
•    SEMO turned the ball over less than 10 times a total of 12 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 Ninth in the Nation Defending the Three
•    Southeast Missouri is ninth in the nation in 3-point percentage defense.
•    Opponents are shooting just 28.9 percent from downtown against Southeast Missouri this season.
•    SEMO has held its opponent to five or less 3-pointers made in 16 of its 27 games in 2024-25.
•    There are a total of 355 NCAA Division I basketball teams.