SEMO men’s sneaks past Tennessee State 67-65 in OVC road opener

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Nothing came easy, but Southeast Missouri State men’s basketball did not skip a beat in its conference road opener on Thursday night.

After missing the previous game with an illness, Teddy Washington Jr. scored a team-high 11 points for SEMO, which snuck past Tennessee State 67-65 at the Gentry Center.

With smothering defense paving the way, the Redhawks pulled off the victory behind two clutch free throws from sophomore BJ Ward and Washington Jr. in the final 25 seconds to come out of Nashville on top.

Rob Martin, Brendan Terry, and Troy Cole Jr. also scored nine points apiece for SEMO (8-6, 3-0 OVC), which won its fifth straight game and improved to 3-0 in conference play for the first time since the 2011-12 season.

Josh Ogundele scored a game-high 17 points for Tennessee State, while teammate Brandon Weston added 10.

In a razor-thin game that featured four lead changes in the final four minutes, Ward drew a foul after snagging a rebound with exactly 25.8 seconds left before hitting a free throw to put the Redhawks up 66-65. After the Tigers turned it over on the ensuing possession, Washington Jr. drew a foul himself before tacking on another point for SEMO at the foul line.

Then with four seconds left, Tennessee State’s Ronald Jessamy threw up a prayer from the 3-point line, but airmailed it just to the right of the basket as the road team jumped with joy onto the court.

The Redhawks got some sweet revenge against the Tigers (4-10, 0-3) after falling to coach Brian Collins’ squad 77-74 at the Show Me Center last season. SEMO has now won seven out of the previous 10 games in the series.

Elliot Lowndes had a team-high six points in the first half, including a pair of thunderous dunks in the opening minutes. The Redhawks grabbed a 10-0 lead before the Tigers responded with a 12-2 run of its own that was finally extinguished with a Cole Jr. 3-pointer. SEMO continued to pour it on in the paint, however, as coach Brad Korn’s squad took a 31-27 lead into the locker room.

The highlight of the night came with 3:17 left in the first half when Rob Martin lofted the ball to Braxton Stacker at the rim before the junior guard finished off an electrifying alley-oop dunk, setting off an uproar from the Redhawk bench.

The highlights for SEMO continued early on in the second half. Terry had a monster slam dunk five minutes in and then Washington Jr. drained a 3-pointer from in front of the Tennessee State bench to ignite a 7-0 run. But the Tigers would just not let up, as neither team led by more than five points the rest of the way.

But ultimately, in a game where the margin for error was so slim, it was Tennessee State’s foul trouble that costed them the game, as SEMO did just enough to survive despite only shooting 40.7% from the field.

Big Picture

It appears that SEMO is catching fire at the right time. Brad Korn’s team remains perfect in conference play and continues to click following a pair of tough road losses to non-conference foes Lipscomb and Murray State in early December. SEMO also held the OVC’s top scoring offense (80.3 points per game) to just 65 points on its home court.

While an improvement in 3-point shooting will be something to watch for Korn’s team as it heads into the heart of its OVC schedule (only went 5 for 19 on Thursday), picking up a gutsy road win like this was a big step in the right direction.

What’s next?

The Redhawks will travel north in the Volunteer State to continue conference action against UT Martin (5-9, 1-2) this Saturday, Jan. 4, at 3:30 p.m.