~ The Redhawks will play 18 basketball games away from the Show Me Center

First-year Southeast Missouri women's basketball coach Ty Margenthaler believes he was able to construct a solid schedule despite a late start.

The Redhawks' 29-game regular-season slate, which features only 11 home contests, was released Thursday.

"I'm excited about it," said Margenthaler, who was hired April 14. "Coming in we still had to fill in quite a few games. I think we were able to get a very good, challenging schedule."

While Margenthaler hopes to land more home dates in the future, two of the Redhawks' three nonconference matchups at the Show Me Center should be attractive to fans.

Mississippi of the Southeastern Conference visits Nov. 21 for Southeast's home opener and Arkansas State comes to town Nov. 29 for the Redhawks' second home contest.

"The Ole Miss game was already set up when we got here, but any time you can get an SEC team in your own building it's exciting for the team and the fans," Margenthaler said.

Along with Arkansas State, a Nov. 13 road game at St. Louis University begins a two-year series against those programs. The Redhawks host St. Louis and visit Arkansas State next season

"I'm really excited about getting a series with St. Louis started. It's great for our program," Margenthaler said.

The Redhawks open the season Nov. 11 at North Carolina State of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Other nonconference road contests are against Illinois-Chicago, Northern Iowa -- an NCAA tournament team from last year that went 17-1 in the Missouri Valley Conference -- and Western Michigan.

Southeast also will travel to a pair of tournaments, playing two games at the UAB Classic and three games at the Wright State Tournament. Opponents for those events are still to be determined.

The Redhawks' other nonconference home date will be with Lindenwood.

Southeast has one home exhibition game, Nov. 7 against NAIA Harris-Stowe.

Division I teams are allowed either two exhibitions against non-Division I teams or one exhibition and a closed scrimmage, which can be against a Division I squad.

Margenthaler chose the second option, something Southeast has done in the past.

The Redhawks will have a 16-game Ohio Valley Conference schedule instead of the 18-game league slate of recent years in which each conference team was played twice. The change was made because there is an additional OVC team this season with SIU-Edwardsville joining the conference.

Southeast will play OVC members Austin Peay, Eastern Illinois, Jacksonville State, Murray State, SIU-Edwardsville and Tennessee-Martin both home and on the road.

The Redhawks will play the remaining four OVC squads just once, hosting Morehead State and Tennessee State while visiting Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee Tech.

This year the OVC has gone away from filling virtually its entire conference schedule with men's and women's doubleheaders.

Southeast will have only four of its eight OVC home dates as part of doubleheaders. Margenthaler said he likes the format.

"Of course, everything is new to me with the OVC, but I do like it. It's more along the line with what the bigger conferences do," Margenthaler said. "We'll find out who the true women's basketball fans are."