Redhawks women fall to Panthers 67-39

CHARLESTON, Ill. -- The odds were stacked against the Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team before it took the court.

Southeast was missing two of its top players because of injury and had not won on the road all season.

Form held Saturday as host Eastern Illinois crushed Southeast 67-39.

The Redhawks fell to 5-9 overall and 2-3 in OVC play as they had a two-game winning streak snapped. The Panthers are 8-8 and 4-1.

"They kicked our tail and called our names," said Southeast coach John Ishee, whose squad is 0-7 on the road this season and has lost 10 straight road contests dating back to last year.

Jasmine Davis, Southeast's impressive freshman guard who leads the team with a 10-point scoring average, is out for the season after suffering a knee injury Monday against Jacksonville State.

While Davis didn't make the trip, junior wing Lauren Sharpe was on the bench but not in uniform.

Sharpe, Southeast's No. 3 scorer with a 7.2 average who is tied for fifth in the OVC with 23 steals, was inactive due to back problems. Ishee said it is not known when Sharpe will return to action.

"It's always tough on the road against a good team. It doesn't aid your chances," Ishee said about missing two of his top players. "But it's not an excuse."

EIU scored the first five points and led 14-2 nearly seven minutes into the contest. The Redhawks got no closer than 10 points the rest of the way. They fell behind by 16 points and trailed 28-15 at halftime.

The Panthers put up the first four points of the second half to go up 32-15 and continued to build on the lead, their biggest advantage being 62-31.

Ishee questioned the Redhawks' effort.

"It was there in spurts, from pieces of our team," he said.

Offense has been a problem for the Redhawks much of the season and that was the case Saturday.

Southeast shot 25.4 percent from the field overall and made just 5 of 22 from 3-point range (22.7 percent).

The Redhawks entered play ranked in the bottom three in the 10-team OVC in scoring (56.8 points per game), field-goal percentage (35.7) and 3-point field-goal percentage (26.4).

Southeast also was hammered on the boards 52-31 and attempted just three free throws compared to 29 for the bigger, more aggressive Panthers.

"The thing I like is we did it defensively," EIU coach Brady Sallee said. "I thought we won the game defensively."

The short-handed Redhawks received a big boost from freshman guard Shelah Fields, who led Southeast with 18 points to surpass her previous point total for the entire season. She hit 7 of 15 shots, including 4 of 10 from 3-point range.

Fields was averaging just 1.7 points in limited action and had scored only 15 points the entire campaign. She came off the bench early and played 27 minutes after previously playing 50 minutes this season.

Fields had seven of Southeast's 15 first-half points. No other Southeast player scored more than two points in the period and no other Southeast player finished with more than six points.

So impressed was Ishee by Fields' first-half performance that she was on the floor to start the final half.

"She had an outstanding game," Ishee said. "Everybody will see the 18 points, but she only had two turnovers in 27 minutes, and for the most part, she defended well."

Fields was pleased with her performance but said she would have traded it for a better team result.

"Unfortunately it came at a time when we didn't get the victory," said Fields, a St. Louis native who attended Riverview Gardens High School. "I'd rather have four minutes and no points in a win.

"To get a lot more minutes that way [because of the injuries] was horrible, but I had to step up."

Senior forward Maggie Kloak led four EIU players in double figures with 16 points. The Panthers shot 41.5 percent.

"They're solid," Ishee said of EIU.

The Redhawks play the second of three straight OVC road games Thursday at Morehead State.