Season ends for Redhawks WBB following routing road loss at Eastern Illinois

On the final day of the conference regular season, Southeast Missouri State women’s basketball finalized a long season with a lopsided loss at Eastern Illinois, dropping XX-XX and sealing the Redhawks’ OVC Tournament miss.

They finish 4-16 in conference play, 6-23 overall as Southeast’s 13-game losing streak cutting right down the middle of conference play doomed it to a finish of 10th overall.

Sweeping SIU-Edwardsville, winning Games 2 and 19 of the league year against the Cougars, a sweep against the 11th-place squad was the only thing keeping the ‘Hawks off the cellar floor this season.

Now, having needed a win and falling flat after jumping out to a 17-4 deficit at the start of the game and building up to a 22-point halftime lead for EIU before the final buzzer, it was a sour day in Charleston, Illinois, in which Southeast never held the lead.

For Eastern, it was the reigning Conference Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year Macy McGlone who had a field day against the Redhawks, dropping 27 points and 19 rebounds, just barely missing out on a 20-20 day which is more than rare in the college ranks.

Sydney-James Desroches added 13 and Tiny Lewis 10, with Adrianna Arroyo’s 9 and Jayda Johnston’s 8 whipping up a marvelous day for the EIU offense. 85 is tied for the third-highest scoring day for a Southeast conference opponent this year.

Zoe Best’s 15 led the Redhawks, with the St. Louisan freshman going 6-for-17 from the field and hitting three 3-pointers to join three Redhawks in double digits. She finished with a negative-32 plus-minus rating on 37 minutes.

Ainaya Williams’ 11 and Lexi McCully’s 10 joined Best in double figures, but neither of them shot particularly well from the field as shooting woes plagued the Redhawks in Charleston.

In total, SEMO shot 29 percent from the field on Saturday afternoon, including a 27 percent clip from 3-point range. The Redhawks lost the board battle by 11 and the turnover battle by 4. In short, not much went right – at all.

On the brighter side of things, the end of conference play was nothing short of gratifying and convincing of good things to come. Briley Palmer’s Redhawks won 2 of 3 down the stretch and went .500 in the final four games.

Though that losing streak made it feel as if nothing could go right for Southeast, but in the final two weeks it truly felt as if anything could happen – even if that final game showed the real difference between the top of the Valley and the bottom.

Going into Palmer’s sophomore season coaching the Redhawks, it’ll be interesting to see how this young SEMO squad responds to an adverse year in Cape Girardeau.

For now, however, it’s the end of the road for the 2024-25 Southeast Missouri State Redhawks, missing the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament for a second consecutive year.