Southeast men's basketball team busts Sacramento State

It looked for quite a while like Saturday night's BracketBusters matchup at the Show Me Center would go to the wire.

Host Southeast Missouri State put an end to that by finally knocking out stubborn Sacramento State.

Southeast began to take control of a back-and-forth contest midway through the second half and ran away to a 67-52 victory in its final home game of the season.

An announced crowd of 2,683 at the Show Me Center saw the Redhawks notch their second straight win and post their first triumph in six BracketBusters contests.

Southeast, meeting Sacramento State for the first time, is 9-19. The Hornets from the Big Sky Conference fell to 7-18.

Southeast Missouri State freshman Lucas Nutt drives past Sacramento State defenders during the first half Saturday at the Show Me Center. (Laura Simon)

"It was nice to execute offensively and defensively in the second half to build that lead," said Southeast coach Dickey Nutt, whose squad will play a return game next season at Sacramento State. "We were able to get stronger as the game went on.

"It's a great win for us. BracketBusters is a very important game for us. It does good for our league."

Southeast, coming off Wednesday's upset of Murray State that clinched the Redhawks' first Ohio Valley Conference tournament berth since the 2006-07 season, struggled with the Hornets much of the way.

"We didn't come out with the fire we needed," senior guard Anthony Allison said.

Southeast trailed 19-12 midway through the first half but led 29-27 at the intermission.

Things went back and forth for the first six-plus minutes of the second half before the Redhawks finally began to assert themselves.

Junior guard Marcus Brister, shooting only 40.4 percent from the free-throw line entering the contest, made two foul shots with just less than 14 minutes left to put Southeast up 38-37.

The Redhawks never looked back. They amped up their defense and began to hit shots.

Sophomore guard Marland Smith's 3-pointer with 7:32 remaining capped a 17-5 run that made it 53-42.

"We got a couple turnovers, got some easy baskets, hit some shots," junior forward Leon Powell said.

The Redhawks, armed with the night's first double-figure advantage, never let the Hornets back in the game. Southeast's biggest lead was 19 points.

"About 10, 12 minutes to go we made it a point that we were going to talk on defense, get our energy up," redshirt freshman point guard Lucas Nutt said. "They're not bad. I feel like we wore them down."

Nutt had another strong all-around performance with a game-high 17 points, nine coming on 3 of 6 3-point shooting. He added five assists and two steals against just two turnovers in 38 minutes.

Smith hit 4 of 8 from beyond the arc and scored 16 points.

Powell had 15 points on 7 of 10 shooting. He grabbed seven rebounds and recorded four blocks.

Allison, who played his final home game along with senior forward Cameron Butler, contributed 13 points.

Brister was a factor with four points, five rebounds and three assists.

"They all played well," coach Nutt said. "I can't say enough about our seniors, Anthony and Cameron."

The Redhawks also got a boost from raw but athletic sophomore forward Waylon Jones, who has been forced into a much bigger role off the bench recently with Southeast short on numbers.

Jones had a spectacular tip-in along with four rebounds and three assists in 17 minutes.

"Waylon gave us some outstanding minutes," coach Nutt said.

Southeast held the Hornets to 35.1 percent shooting, including 32.1 percent in the second half. The visitors made just 2 of 16 3-pointers (12.5 percent).

The Redhawks shot 50 percent in the final period and finished at 46.2 percent. They were 9 of 19 from beyond the arc (47.4 percent), including 6 of 11 (54.5 percent) in the second half.

"Defensively, I thought our guys turned it up in the second half and we started hitting some shots," coach Nutt said.

Another notable statistic was the Redhawks making all 10 of their free throws after they had struggled all season from the line.

"We went 10 for 10 from the free-throw line," said a grinning Powell as he scanned the statistics sheet. "That's big."

Lucas Nutt said the Redhawks didn't come out with the same energy they displayed during their upset of Murray State, but everything still turned out well.

"I was just happy with the win," he said.

The Redhawks finish the regular season with two road games, Thursday at Tennessee State and Saturday at Austin Peay.