CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – Rob Martin scored a game-high 26 points and Brendan Terry pitched in 22 to lead Ohio Valley Conference leader Southeast Missouri (19-10, 14-4) to a 74-58 win over Lindenwood (14-15, 9-9) Saturday in its home finale at the Show Me Center.
 
SEMO and LU played in front of an electric crowd of 3,920, the Redhawks largest home attendance of the season.
 
After the Lions pulled within one, 52-51, on Jadis Jones' layup with 8:53 left to play, SEMO overpowered LU, 22-7, the rest of the way en route to nailing down its ninth-straight win.
 
The Redhawks heated up to make four-straight field goals to jumpstart their decisive stretch punctuated by a Martin 3-pointer that put SEMO up, 65-56, with 3:38 remaining.
 
Forty-five seconds later, Martin drained another three to get the Redhawks lead back to double figures (68-68) and that was it for the Lions.
 
In the first half, LU went on a 7-0 run to take an early 11-6 lead.
 
After SEMO missed seven-straight field goals and went scoreless for over five minutes, Teddy Washington, Jr. drove in for a layup, TJ Biel followed with a jumper and Terry scored to give the Redhawks a slight 12-11 edge with 8:32 remaining in the first half.
 
BJ Ward hit a jumper to extend SEMO's lead to 20-13 with 6:34 to go before the Lions answered with seven of the next eight points and went ahead by one.
 
Martin then rallied to score eight consecutive points in the last 2:31 to grab SEMO a 28-24 advantage at the half.
 
The Redhawks came out strong in the second half scoring nine of the first 11 points to secure their first double-digit lead of the contest. Terry capped the surge with a fast break dunk that widened SEMO's margin to 37-26 just 3:16 in.
 
Ward put SEMO up 12 when he buried a 3-pointer to give the Redhawks a 50-38 lead at the 12:45 mark.
 
Shortly after the Redhawks led by 12 again (52-40) following two free throws by Terry, LU countered with its 11-0 run to pull within a point.
 
Martin, who scored 16 of his points in the second half, shot 9-of-16 from the field and went a perfect 5-of-5 at the free throw line. He dished out eight assists and went over 250 in his career. Martin has scored double figures in 14-straight starts.
 
Terry made a near-perfect 8-of-9 field goals, had five rebounds and hit 6-of-8 free throws. He scored over 20 points for the second-straight game.
 
Washington, Jr. followed with 15 points in his final home game as a Redhawk.
 
SEMO shot just under 50 percent (.490) as a team and made 15-of-20 free throws. The Redhawks shot 62.5 percent (15-of-24) and made 12 of their free throws in the second half alone.
 
The Redhawks nine-game winning streak is their longest since the 1989-90 team won 11 in a row. SEMO's 14 conference wins also tied the 1999-2000 team (14-4) for the second most OVC victories in a season in program history.
 
SEMO concluded the year with a 12-3 record at home, its most home victories in a season since the 1999-2000 team finished at 14-1.
 
Today's win gave the Redhawks a +10 increase in the win column from last season. SEMO finished the 2023-24 season at 9-22 overall and improved to 19-10 this year. It matches the best one-year turnaround in terms of wins since the 2015-16 team went 5-24 and 2016-17 team followed that up with a 15-18 record.

Additionally, SEMO's 19 victories match the most in a season under Head Coach Brad Korn.
 
Seniors Washington, Jr. and Biel were recognized prior to tip-off.

SEMO hits the road for a huge OVC matchup at SIU Edwardsville Thursday.