Redhawks WBB needs miracle over final regular-season weekend to reach OVC tourney

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. — Hopes of an Ohio Valley Conference Tournament bid have taken a back seat entering the final week of the regular season, with Southeast Missouri State women’s basketball needing a myriad factors to somehow trickle its way just to have a chance of getting in.

That being said, with the Redhawks more or less mathematically eliminated, barring a miracle discussed later, the final two games of the year represent a couple of opportunities for first-year coach Briley Palmer’s young Redhawks to get back on the right footing.

With games against SIU Edwardsville, tied with SEMO at the conference floor, and Saturday against an Eastern Illinois squad sitting near the top of the leaderboard, there’s at least one opportunity left for a win.

Those haven’t come easy this year for SEMO, sitting at 3-15 in Ohio Valley play and just 5-22 overall, but that isn’t to say nothing can go the way of the Redhawks to end what’s been a tumultuous season.

After snapping a 13-game losing streak Feb. 20 against the Western Illinois Leathernecks at the Show Me Center, the monkey has left the back of this team, but a responding loss to Lindenwood just two days later made the winning streak short-lived.

Going on the road for the final two games of the conference season, at SIU Edwardsville on Thursday and at Eastern Illinois on Saturday, there’s not much time remaining for this year’s squad.

The Cougars are one of just three Ohio Valley teams that have lost to SEMO this season.

That 67-61 victory at the Show Me Center on Dec. 21 was the first win of the year for the Redhawks, and they’ve racked up two since to back it up.

It’s been over two months since the last time SEMO saw the Cougars, but not much has changed. SIUE has suffered two streaks of six losses this year.

This isn’t a must-win as far as tournament concerns go, but it would be a big morale victory on the road.

The season will end in Charleston, Illinois, matching up with the third-ranked Panthers who began the season 10-0 in Ohio Valley Conference play before the wheels seemingly fell off the bus.

The Panthers are now 13-5 in league action, but it’s looking like they’ll miss out on a bye into the semifinals after finishing the first half of OVC play perfect.

The last time these two teams matched up, the Panthers took a resounding 71-55 victory in Cape Girardeau.

Winning both remaining games would be the only way the Redhawks could sneak into the OVC Tournament. The Redhawks also would need Morehead State to lose its remaining two games and Tennessee State to split its last two games.

Improbable? To be certain. Impossible? Palmer and Co. hopes it all comes to fruition.