Southeast drops heartbreaker at Austin Peay

~ The Redhawks' 3-pointer at the buzzer hit the back of the rim.

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. -- In a first-place Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball battle where offense ruled, one late defensive stand by Austin Peay made the ultimate difference.

So Southeast Missouri State's long losing streak on the Governors' court continues by the slimmest of margins.

For the second year in a row, the Redhawks narrowly missed out on beating Austin Peay at the Dunn Center.

This time it cost the Redhawks the top spot in the OVC as Saturday night's 85-82 defeat dropped them a game behind the Govs.

Defending regular-season champion Austin Peay is 7-1 in OVC play, just ahead of 6-2 Southeast. Both squads are 11-7 overall.

"I told the guys they did a lot of good things," said Southeast coach Scott Edgar, whose squad has lost two straight after winning its first six OVC games. "We played the champions to a three-point game on their floor. We'll have an opportunity to play them in Cape."

Which is something Austin Peay coach Dave Loos didn't seem to relish, even though the Govs have won 13 of the past 14 meetings with Southeast, including 10 straight in Clarksville.

"It was a terrific basketball game," Loos said. "SEMO is a very good basketball team. They've got talent, they're athletic and they're deep."

Southeast fell behind by 16 points early and faced an uphill battle most of the night in the up-tempo game.

The Redhawks took two second-half leads, including 77-75 with under 4 minutes remaining.

"We kept fighting hard and coming back," freshman center Will Bogan said. "We gave everything we had."

The Redhawks trailed 85-82 after Bogan's basket with 39 seconds left, then Austin Peay missed two free throws with 27 seconds remaining.

Southeast called a timeout with 22 seconds left as Edgar said the Redhawks were looking for a 3-pointer all along.

But the Govs suddenly stiffened defensively, deflecting two passes out of bounds as they forced Southeast to take precious time off the clock.

After Austin Peay's second deflection, only 2.8 seconds remained.

Sophomore point guard Roderick Pearson got off a decent shot after taking the inbound pass from sophomore guard Jimmy Drew.

But Pearson's off-balance, leaning 3-pointer from the left wing hit the back rim as time expired.

"All I could do when I got the ball was shoot," Pearson said. "I got a good look."

Edgar credited the Govs for strong late defense in a game that saw both teams shoot better than 51 percent.

"They jumped in the passing lanes and got some tips," said Edgar, whose squad lost by one point at Austin Peay last year while falling by two points to the Govs at home. "The fewer seconds on the clock, the tougher it became."

Said Loos of the final sequence: "We were a little lucky actually. We were trying hard, but they still got one off."

Not only did the Redhawks lose their third straight heartbreaker to the Govs, they also lost perhaps their best player.

Senior forward Brandon Foust, who had four double-doubles in his last five games, suffered a right knee injury midway through the second half.

Foust, Southeast's second-leading scorer, came down awkwardly after dunking following a steal that cut Austin Peay's lead to 59-58 with 11:58 remaining.

Foust stayed down on the court for several minutes before being helped to the locker room by teammates. He came out a short time later on crutches with a big wrap around the knee and remained on the bench.

"What a phenomenal play he made when he got hurt," said Edgar, who did not speculate on the extent of the injury, although the coach did not appear very optimistic.

Said Pearson: "It was tough seeing Brandon go out. Hopefully he'll be able to come back."

Foust scored 10 points before going down.

Bogan led the Redhawks with 17 points off the bench, 12 coming in the second half.

The 6-foot-10 rookie hit 6-of-9 shots as he played strong inside against a squad that had no starter taller than 6-5. But Bogan made just 5-of-10 free throws as Southeast was 12-of-19 from the line.

"Will was doing a good job and we did a good job of getting the ball to him," Edgar said. "He's doing a lot of good things for a freshman."

Sophomore guard Marcus Rhodes and junior wing Jaycen Herring both had 13 points for Southeast.

"I can't really even be mad because we played hard," Rhodes said. "They kept hitting big shots."

Junior forward Drake Reed, the reigning OVC player of the year, scored a season-high 23 points for the Govs.

Senior forward Fernandez Lockett matched Reed with a career-high 23 points and grabbed 13 rebounds.

Austin Peay shot 51.7 percent and made 10-of-21 3-pointers, after Southeast entered the game allowing just 41 percent field-goal shooting in conference play.

"We gave them too many open shots," Pearson said.

Foust scored the game's opening basket, but Austin Peay came out on fire and opened up a quick 13-2 lead that ballooned to 26-10 less than 9 minutes in.

The Redhawks fought back to within 46-38 at halftime, then shot 58.6 percent in the second half and had only four turnovers (they had 13 in the first half) to turn the game into a thriller.

Seconds after Foust was hurt on his dunk, Herring scored after a turnover to put the Redhawks on top 60-59 for their first lead since 2-0.

Southeast led 62-59, but Austin Peay used an 8-0 run to go up 67-62.

The Redhawks took their final lead at 77-75 on Rhodes' 3-pointer at the 3:35 mark, but senior guard Todd Babington answered with a 3-pointer 12 seconds later to put the Govs back on top 78-77.

Southeast never caught back up, but the Redhawks went down fighting.

"It was a hard game. It was a good game," Bogan said. "We just have to work harder."