SportsJanuary 14, 2016
Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team gets back on track with win over Jacksonville State
The Redhawks improved to 4-1 in the Ohio Valley Conference with a 61-47 victory over the Gamecocks.
The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team spent some time Monday watching video clips of its first Ohio Valley Conference loss from two days before.
There were 11 clips -- although coach Rekha Patterson said there definitely were more that could've been shown -- where the Redhawks didn't follow through with their game plan.
Patterson's message to her team prior to Wednesday night's game vs. Jacksonville State stemmed from that, and she wanted to see if her players had learned from the loss.
The improvement wasn't always obvious in the first 20 minutes of the game, but when the third quarter rolled around, the Redhawks showed that they'd figured things out and rolled to a 61-47 victory over the Gamecocks at the Show Me Center.
"I think that first half it was a bit difficult to tell," Patterson said, "but I feel like the second half showed that we learned our lesson."
Patterson didn't need to remind her team how it had been up double figures midway through the first quarter before being outscored 14-0 over the final five minutes in the 56-55 loss to Eastern Kentucky on Saturday.
But when the Redhawks were up in the fourth quarter -- they led by as much as 18 with 3 minutes, 40 seconds remaining -- the concept of closing out the game was on their minds.
"It was in the back of my mind because it was the exact same situation, wanted to make sure it doesn't happen again," redshirt sophomore guard Ashton Luttrull said.
Southeast had little trouble once the first half was over.
The Redhawks held an 11-5 advantage after one quarter of action as they held JSU to just 1-of-14 shooting from the floor.
The Gamecocks used a 12-5 run over the first 4:56 of the second quarter, which was capped by a 3-pointer by Briana Benson to give JSU its first lead of the game at 17-16.
The Redhawks regained the lead on the next possession but Benson responded with a triple to give the Gamecocks a 20-18 edge.
JSU extended its lead to four with 2:45 left in the quarter before Luttrull hit back to back 3s -- Southeast's only shots to fall from beyond the arc in the half -- to put the Redhawks up 25-23.
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Benson once again answered with a 3, but a Bri Mitchell jumper with 17 seconds left put SEMO up 27-26 at the break and the Redhawks would never relinquish the lead.
Southeast's remained at just two points with 6:04 left in the third before a 3 by Imani Johnson sparked a 16-3 run to close out the quarter.
Luttrull, who finished with a team-high 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting and was 4 of 5 from beyond the arc, drained a 3 at the third-quarter buzzer to make it 48-33 going to the fourth.
"There's some players that just sort of have that*...I don't even know what the word is, and I think she has it," Patterson said of Luttrull's ability to knock down big shots.
JSU never got closer than 10 points the remainder of the game.
The Gamecocks (7-10, 2-3 OVC) shot 32 percent from the field in the loss. They made eight field goals in each half. They finished 7 of 17 from 3-point range and 8 of 10 from the charity stripe.
Benson led JSU with 18 points on 7-of-13 shooting. She was 4 of 9 from 3.
"I thought the second half we executed our defensive game plan," Patterson said. "We felt like their post players don't shoot the 3, so we weren't going to get out and guard them away from the basket, and their guards were going to be a handful because they can score in a variety of ways.
"I thought we did a pretty good job. Them getting in foul trouble hurt them, and they're young at the post, so that was a little different. But I felt like the second half we executed the defensive game plan and made them take tough 2s and then we rebounded well."
The Redhawks outscored JSU 32-14 in the paint. They finished with 16 points off 20 Gamecock turnovers, and after turning the ball over 10 times in the first half Southeast limited its TOs to four in the second.
"We did a whole lot of communicating and we did a lot better on the ball screens than we did in the first half," forward Deja Jones said. "And we just came out ready to play, I feel like, in the second half."
Southeast improved to 11-7 and 4-1 in the OVC, which surpasses its win totals (10 overall and three OVC) from last year.
The Redhawks travel to Cookeville, Tennessee, to face Tennessee Tech at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
"Coach P always says that in conference play nothing's going to come easy so every game's going to be down to the wire and we have to execute and be smart with the ball and stuff like that," said guard Adrianna Murphy, who finished with six points, six assists and five rebounds. "It was a refresher type moment for us."
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