Redhawks suffer initial loss

This time Southeast Missouri State's Redhawks dug themselves a hole from which they could not escape.

The Redhawks, who rallied from a 10-point second-half deficit to clip Division II Truman State in Friday's season opener, found themselves behind by 17 points early in the second half Monday night.

But Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne was able to escape the Show Me Center with a 65-64 victory. Both teams are now 1-1.

"Much credit to IPFW. They were more aggressive than we were starting out," senior center Ketshner Guerrier said. "We have to have that killer instinct from the start, and not wait until the second half."

The Mastodons hit five of their first eight shots -- including three of four 3-pointers -- while the Redhawks missed their first six shots. The result was a 13-0 IPFW lead barely four minutes into the game.

Southeast faced an uphill battle the rest of the night and never could quite catch up.

"Early we just dug such a big hole," Southeast coach Gary Garner said. "We gave ourselves an opportunity, but it's tough when you fall behind by that much."

Trailing 38-25 at halftime, the Redhawks fell behind 44-27 in the first two minutes of the second half.

A quick 11-0 run pulled Southeast within 44-38. The Redhawks fell back behind 57-46 with under six minutes left before making another push.

Guerrier's basket with 3:07 left trimmed IPFW's lead to 61-56, although he missed the free throw after being fouled.

Junior forward Andrais Thornton's follow shot made it 61-58 with 2:26 remaining, but he also missed the free throw after being fouled.

With 1:13 left, Thornton made one of two free throws for a 61-59 deficit.

"We missed some late free throws that hurt," said Garner, whose squad was a solid 72.2 percent from the line overall, making 13 of 18.

IPFW went back up 63-59, but senior guard Roy Booker drained a 3-pointer with 24 seconds left, making it 63-62.

The Mastodons missed the front end of a one-and-one with 21 seconds to go, leaving the door open for the Redhawks.

Southeast called a timeout with 15 seconds left. Booker had the ball in his hands, as he did at the end against Truman State, when he hit a 3-pointer with two seconds left to break a tie.

Booker ran the clock down with several dribbles, then drove into the lane and somewhat surprisingly passed inside to freshman Eric Jones, but the ball went off Jones' hands and out of bounds with 4.9 seconds remaining.

"Coach told me to penetrate. If I got the shot, shoot it, if not, get the ball to the open man," Booker said. "I saw Eric, but I could have thrown the pass better."

Said Garner, "We just wanted Roy to make a play. I thought he would either make a shot or get fouled."

DeWitt Scott hit two free throws with 4.3 seconds left to make it 65-62. Booker air-balled a 3-pointer and Jones laid in the miss at the buzzer to account for the final margin.

Booker scored a game-high 25 points, but hit just seven of 19 shots. Guerrier had his first career double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Scott, a sophomore forward, led IPFW with 24 points, 16 coming in the first half. He made all four of his 3-point attempts, as IPFW was eight of 15 from beyond the arc.

The Mastodons hit nine of their first 13 shots, including five of their first six 3-pointers. Southeast's defense improved the rest of the way and IPFW wound up shooting 41 percent, but the damage had been done.

"Give them credit. They made a lot of shots early, and our defense wasn't very good in the first half," Garner said. "It was a lot better in the second half, but they're well coached and we couldn't get them to turn the ball over [IPFW had nine turnovers]."

Southeast shot 39.7 percent. Said Garner, "Our shot selection is very poor right now. That's the biggest weakness we have going right now."

With seven newcomers, Garner knew it would take time for the Redhawks to mesh. Still, when the season began, this was a game he expected to win.

"We're just not a real good basketball team right now. We're doing so many little things wrong," he said. "We're about where I expected, but we should have won tonight. I expected us to win. One got away from us."