~ Southeast women improved to 5-0 in OVC road games with a 70-51 victory over Tennessee State.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Payback was sweet for the Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team.

More than a month after losing to Tennessee State for the first time in the last 11 meetings -- at home, no less -- the Redhawks got revenge.

Southeast remained unbeaten in Ohio Valley Conference road games by first rallying past and then rolling over the Tigers 70-51 on Thursday night.

"It was revenge," senior guard Ashley Lovelady said. "At the beginning of the game, in the huddle, I told everybody it was payback time."

The Redhawks, winners for the seventh time in eight games, improved to 11-6 overall and 6-2 in OVC play.

Southeast, 5-0 in league road contests, remained in a second-place tie in the OVC. The Redhawks and conference leader Eastern Illinois are even in the loss column.

TSU, the OVC's most improved team after going 4-36 in league play the past two years, fell to 7-10 and 4-4.

"They're a good team," junior forward Rachel Blunt said. "They've really gotten better."

The Tigers, who beat Southeast 61-49 on Dec. 6 at the Show Me Center, threatened to sweep the season series when they rallied from an early nine-point deficit to lead 27-24 at halftime.

TSU went ahead by five points twice early in the second half and still led 37-34 when Southeast put together a game-changing 14-0 run.

Junior guard Sonya Daugherty tied the contest with a 3-pointer and junior guard Tarina Nixon put the Redhawks ahead to stay on a driving basket with 14 minutes, 22 seconds left that made it 39-37.

The spurt, which featured Southeast making all six of its field-goal attempts, ended on Lovelady's layup at the 11:28 mark, making it 48-37.

TSU got no closer than nine points, and the Redhawks' advantage mostly remained in double digits the rest of the way as they outscored the Tigers 36-14 over the final 15 minutes.

"It just clicked," Blunt said of the Redhawks' strong second-half play. "We just started clicking on offense and then we got defensive stops."

Nixon led the Redhawks with a career-high 23 points, 17 coming in the second half when Southeast outscored TSU 46-24.

Nixon added six rebounds and five assists against just two turnovers while playing all 40 minutes.

"Tarina Nixon was an absolute warrior in the second half," Southeast coach John Ishee said.

Nixon entered the contest averaging 8.6 points, but the three-year starter has reached double figures in five of the last six games after starting the season slowly because of back problems.

"I didn't want to lose," Nixon said of her offensive aggressiveness in the second half.

Senior center Missy Whitney had 14 points, eight rebounds, three blocks and two steals.

Blunt scored 12 points and grabbed six rebounds. Her eight first-half points led Southeast.

Lovelady added 10 points and top scorer Daugherty got all nine of her points in the final period, when Southeast shot 64.3 percent.

"I thought the last 15 minutes we played a lot tougher," said Ishee, whose squad limited TSU to 29.4 percent shooting in the game.

Southeast started strong by scoring the first seven points and built a pair of early nine-point leads. TSU regrouped and gave the Redhawks a battle before Southeast finally pulled away for good.

The Redhawks will complete a stretch featuring six of seven OVC games on the road with Saturday's 3 p.m. contest at Tennessee Tech.

"If we can get that one it will be a great trip," Ishee said.