Southeast men's basketball team beaten at buzzer by Missouri State

Editor's note: The final score has been corrected in this story.

~ The Bears banked in a shot to hand the Redhawks a 81-78 defeat

Southeast Missouri State guard Jarekious Bradley hit a baseline jumper with 4 seconds left on the clock to tie the Redhawks' game against Missouri State on Sunday.

After a timeout, the Bears' Dorrian Williams caught an inbounds pass, took a few dribbles and threw up a shot at the top of the key with less than a second remaining in regulation.

Williams' shot banked in, and the Southeast men's basketball team was defeated 81-78 after a furious comeback at JQH Arena in Springfield, Mo.

"I thought that we really played the game well in the last four minutes," Southeast coach Dickey Nutt said. "We kept cutting and cutting, and we were able to tie the ballgame with [four] seconds to go, and lo and behold they hit a crazy, running luck shot and that certainly put the nail in the coffin for us."

The Redhawks erased a 20-point deficit with 13 minutes, 21 seconds left in the game to tie it and give themselves a chance to head to overtime for a second consecutive game.

"I think the biggest thing is that I just kept telling them 'There's no such thing as a 20-point shot, so don't try to get it all back in one possession,'" Nutt said. "'Just go chip away, just go one possession at a time, if you'll just dedicate yourself to making stops,' and then I thought we were stopping them. I thought we started making some better stops."

Southeast trailed 76-62 with 4:42 left in the game before an Antonius Cleveland 3-pointer sparked a 7-0 run to pull the Redhawks within seven points of the Bears.

After Missouri State made one of two free throws Bradley answered with a 3-pointer to make it 77-72 with 1:39 remaining.

Tyler Stone made two free throws, and then Jamaal Calvin came up with a steal and layup to pull the Redhawks within one point with 25 seconds to go.

Calvin fouled to stop the clock at 19 seconds. Marcus Marshall made the first free throw and missed the second before Bradley secured the rebound and Southeast took a timeout.

Bradley scored to knot it at 78 before Missouri State won it at the buzzer

"We were disappointed," Nutt said. "We just felt like if we could get it to overtime we felt like we had the momentum in our favor. We just felt like we would've had a really good shot in that overtime. But I was really proud of the way our guys fought back and clawed back. We were 20 down at one time, and they still played very hard and we had a chance. Missouri State is a very fine basketball team and a fine basketball program, and I thought that we hung in there and we had our chances."

Bradley, who scored 21 second-half points and finished with a game-high 26, hit four 3s in the second half. He also had 10 rebounds. Stone finished with 22 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks.

"I thought he and Tyler both were very, very good out there," Nutt said. "They played within themselves, they did a good job defensively and we're getting better."

Southeast had just three players score in the first half -- Stone, Bradley and Paul McRoberts. The Redhawks improved from 33.3 percent shooting in the first half to 48.6 percent in the second.

Defensively Southeast struggled to secure rebounds in the first half. The Bears out-rebounded the Redhawks 23-14 and scored 13 second-chance points to establish a 37-24 lead at halftime.

Nutt noted Calvin and McRoberts helped boost Southeast defensively during the second half and said Cleveland "woke up and started playing well."

Cleveland scored a career-high 17 points, all coming during the second half before he fouled out with 2:18 remaining.

Lucas Nutt left the game early in the second half with a sprained ankle and did not return.

Nino Johnson, who Dickey Nutt said likely would face suspension after walking off the bench during Southeast's last game before halftime because he was upset with the way he was playing, did not play the first half of Sunday's game. He started the second half and played 16 minutes while scoring three points.

The Redhawks (8-5) open Ohio Valley Conference action against Murray State at 7 p.m. Thursday at the CFSB Center in Murray, Ky.

"Well, I think the next few games, the next five or six games of conference play is the most important part of the season," Nutt said. "I'm very proud of our team -- we've had 13 nonconference games and out of those 13 games only four of them at home. I'm very proud of the record we have. It could've been even better -- we dropped a game or two that we shouldn't have -- but again I'm proud of our guys, the way they're getting better. They're improving, and we're looking forward to conference play."'