Southeast plays its lone exhibition game tonight

~ The Redhawks chose to hold a scrimmage instead of two games.

For the second year in a row, the Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team will have only one exhibition game.

Coach John Ishee hopes to get the most out of it when NAIA power Auburn-Montgomery visits the Show Me Center for today's 5 p.m. tipoff.

"We are looking forward to it," Ishee said. "I'm excited to see how our new people are going to do with the lights on for the first time.

"I know they're tired of banging on each other. They want to bang on somebody else."

The Redhawks, who have won two straight Ohio Valley Conference regular-season and tournament titles, actually got to bang on somebody else Sunday.

For the second straight year, Southeast's women had a closed scrimmage, hosting Mineral Area College.

The NCAA has allowed teams to play scrimmages against other schools since 1999. The scrimmage counts as one of a school's two allowed exhibition games.

Per NCAA regulations, those scrimmages are prohibited from being publicized, and the only people allowed to be in attendance are players, coaches, referees and necessary personnel such as trainers and team managers.

No statistics are kept and no winner is declared.

Ishee said scrimmages have become fairly popular because, since they aren't true games, coaches can create their own situations to work on certain aspects.

"I think it's good for us, having one scrimmage and one exhibition," Ishee said. "In a scrimmage you can work on different situations and you don't have to treat it like an actual game."

Ishee expects Auburn-Montgomery to provide a challenge.

The Senators went 28-6 last year and finished the season ranked 14th nationally. They have competed in the NAIA national tournament 17 times since the program started in 1986, with one runner-up finish.

"It will be interesting to see how we do against a team that is usually very good," said Ishee, whose squad went 24-8 and made its second straight NCAA tournament appearance last year.

Ishee said he plans to play his entire roster today.

The Redhawks return four starters, although junior point guard Tarina Nixon likely won't see action as she has been battling back problems.

"You play to win [exhibition games], but you also want to define roles," Ishee said. "I want to get a look at different combinations, get a look at our six new players."

Southeast opens the regular season Nov. 10 at home against Tulsa.