CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. –
BJ Ward scored a career-high 23 points to lead Southeast Missouri (8-7, 3-1) to a 73-50 win over Western Illinois (4-11, 0-4) Saturday in Ohio Valley Conference action at the Show Me Center.
SEMO won its third-straight game and picked up its sixth victory in seven contests.
The Redhawks blew the game open in the second half running their lead to 62-40 on a layup by
Braxton Stacker with eight minutes remaining.
WIU, at one time, went a span of 8:05 without a field goal until Francis Okwuosah's baseline jumper at the 6:44 mark.
SEMO outscored the Leathernecks, 39-23, and held WIU to just 26.3 percent (5-of-19) from the field in the second half. Meanwhile, the Redhawks made over 61 percent of their shots in the final 20 minutes of play.
The Redhawk led for the last 28:07 of the game and 32:23 of clock time.
Neither team made a field goal for nearly five minutes from the opening tip.
Once things settled down, SEMO later went on a 7-0 run to build a double-digit lead.
Marqueas Bell made two free throws, Ward drained a 3-pointer and Bell followed with a driving layup to put the Redhawks ahead, 32-21, with 1:50 left in the first half.
Ward's second chance layup gave SEMO a 10-point advantage with 25 seconds remaining before Lucas Lorenzen made a 3-pointer cutting SEMO's lead to 34-27 at the intermission.
Lorenzen's 3-pointer was WIU's first field goal in over six minutes at the end of the first half.
Ward shot 8-of-13 from the field and did not miss from 3-point range (3-of-3) or the free throw line (4-of-4) in his first 20-point game of the season. He also had nine rebounds, five assists and two steals.
Three others, including
Luke Almodovar, Bell and
Brendan Terry joined Ward in double figures. Almodovar scored 13 points, Bell added 11 and Terry chipped in 10.
SEMO man-handled WIU in the paint outscoring the Leathernecks, 44-18. The Redhawks forced 17 turnovers and shot 53.8 percent (28-of-52) from the field, as well.
The Redhawks hit the road to face Southern Indiana on Jan. 8.
