Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team ends OVC skid

~ The Southeast women defeated SIU Edwardsville 69-60

The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team didn't score the first points in Monday's game against SIU Edwardsville on Monday night. But once the Redhawks took the lead 2 minutes, 40 seconds into the game, they never trailed again.

The Redhawks defeated SIU Edwardsville 69-60 at the Vadalabene Center in Edwardsville, Ill., to snap a three-game losing streak and improved to 8-16 and 4-7 in the OVC.

SIUE dropped to 7-18 and 3-9 in the conference.

"I thought we had better focus and I thought we played a little bit harder tonight and I was pleased with that," Southeast coach Ty Margenthaler said. "I thought we were really aggressive, especially coming out of the gate. ... I just thought overall we had better energy. We still had our moments of not playing really, really smart, but we had enough moments of playing smart so that's kind of what took over."

SIUE scored the first two points of the game, but Southeast scored six points in 21 seconds to take the lead for good.

Olivia Hackmann scored and was fouled 2:31 into the game. She missed her free throw, but Patricia Mack came up with an offensive rebound and dished it to Allyson Bradshaw for the layup. Southeast's full-court press then came up with a steal and Hackmann scored to make it 6-2.

Southeast's press was able to force several SIUE turnovers. Margenthaler said that the coaching staff made the decision to do that when they discovered SIUE guard CoCo Moore would not be playing because of a concussion.

"When we found out she wasn't going to be in the lineup, we decided right away anytime there's a dead ball, we need to really be aggressive and press and really force them to make some decisions," Margenthaler said. "I was really pleased. I thought we were aggressive and I thought we took it right to them right away. I think it really helped us. I think by taking easy shots early it kind of really got our offense going."

The Redhawks extended their lead to as many as 15 in the first half, but turnovers and fouls in the final minutes allowed the Cougars to cut it to 33-23 at the break.

Southeast took a 16-point lead -- 58-42 -- with 6:30 left in the game. While the Cougars cut the deficit to seven points with 35 seconds remaining, the Redhawks held on.

The Redhawks' defense held the Cougars to just 26.7 percent (16 of 60) from the field, including 1 of 17 from behind the arc.

"Our defense was outstanding," Margenthaler said. "One thing that we didn't do really well defensively is we just put them on the line too many times. We had a few mental errors, but overall to hold SIU to 26 percent shooting is really important."

Free throws really kept the game close: SIUE shot 27 of 34 (79.4 percent) from the line; the Redhawks shot 14 of 25 (56 percent).

"The only thing that we didn't do to really put the game away was we just missed a lot of free throws," Margenthaler said. "But again, we did enough to win on the road, and the good thing was everyone got in and everyone had a hand in it."

Nearly every player scored for Southeast, which shot 47.2 percent (25 of 53) in the victory.

Allyson Bradshaw led the way with 16 points. She was 3 of 4 from 3-point range.

Olivia Hackmann finished with 15 points and Patricia Mack added 11 points.

The win was important for the Redhawks, who extended the gap between themselves and the Cougars in the OVC standings.

The Redhawks remain in fourth in the West Division and are now tied for ninth overall.

Southeast's next game is against the conference's top team and three time defending OVC champion UT-Martin. The Redhawks face the Skyhawks (17-7, 10-1 OVC) at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Show Me Center.