Powell steals show in Southeast men's basketball exhibition opener

It was the Leon Powell show at the Show Me Center on Saturday night.

None of Powell's statistics will count, but Southeast Missouri State basketball fans hope what the junior forward did is a sign of things to come.

Powell, who missed all of last season with a knee injury, poured in 36 points and grabbed 10 rebounds as the Redhawks opened their two-game exhibition schedule by beating Ouachita Baptist 80-71.

Southeast plays its final exhibition Tuesday night against Henderson State, like Ouachita Baptist a Division II program from Arkadelphia, Ark.

"To be honest, nerves at the beginning," Powell said about how he felt. "But then again, it feels good to be back in the game.

Southeast's Lucas Nutt drives past Ouachita Baptist defender David Day during Saturday's game.

"I've been out a year and a half."

The 6-foot-7 Powell was the jewel of coach Dickey Nutt's first Southeast recruiting class last year but never took the court after suffering a torn ACL during a pickup game.

Powell has demonstrated during practice and last week's intrasquad scrimmage that he is back to nearly full strength, if not all the way there.

He continued to show that Saturday, dominating the smaller Tigers inside. Powell hit 15 of 17 field-goal attempts, all within a few feet. He threw down two first-half dunks.

"It's because of my teammates looking for me," said Powell of his scoring outburst.

While Powell is adept at stepping out and hitting jumpers, he said that wasn't needed this time.

"I didn't really go out there and shoot too many jumpers because I knew we were bigger than them," Powell said.

Powell had 23 first-half points as the Redhawks used a late spurt to lead 45-31 at the intermission.

"You can't help but talk about Leon Powell, what he brings to our team," Nutt said. "He was outstanding."

Nutt didn't feel that way about the Redhawks as a unit. He came away disappointed with several aspects of the performance, including the finish.

Southeast led by 26 points midway through the second half before allowing the squad that went 8-19 last year to cut significantly into the margin.

"I think we had stretches where we played pretty good. For the first 25 minutes defensively we played very well," Nutt said. "I was very disappointed with the way the game ended. Very sloppy. ... I let them know about it."

Nutt wasn't enamored with Southeast's 26 turnovers.

"And a team that didn't press us a lot. A lot of those turnovers were unforced," Nutt said.

Junior college transfer center Zach House, a 7-footer, had six points, 12 rebounds and two blocks.

"I thought Zach House did some good things," Nutt said.

Juco transfer guard/forward Nate Schulte joined Powell as a double-figure scorer. Schulte added 10 points, nine coming from 3-point range as he hit 3 of 5 from beyond the arc.

"I thought we came out a little slow in the first half. I thought some of that was nerves," House said. "We picked it up late in the first half and at the start of the second half.

"We need to play better defense. We'll have more athletic teams coming in."

House thought the contest was beneficial for the Redhawks.

"It's always good to get the first-game jitters out of the way," House said. "We can see what we have to work on."