Southeast Missouri State women's basketball coach Rekha Patterson acknowledged her team had some "technical difficulties" in its home opener against Harris-Stowe on Monday night at the Show Me Center.

The Redhawks saw their double-figure lead against the NAIA opponent dwindle down to eight in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter.

If Patterson was nervous, she didn't let on, and after her team closed out its 78-66 win over the Hornets it was all smiles for Patterson, who notched her first win as a head coach.

"I hope I have the opportunity to coach long enough to feel bad about that, but that was my first college win, and I am happy," Patterson said. "I did not think it was going to be easy, but I am proud of our ladies because they made plays when they had to."

"So I don't care if people think it was ugly. I don't care if people were nervous. That was my first college win," Patterson continued before patting herself on the back. "Here's to how many ever's about to come next."

Southeast, which never trailed in the contest, held a 60-41 advantage going into the fourth quarter.

The Hornets went on an 18-7 run to cut it to 67-59 with 3:06 remaining. The Redhawks had turned the ball over five times in that stretch and were 3 for 8 from the field.

Senior guard Olivia Hackmann pushed the lead back to 11 with a 3-pointer.

A layup by Shaakera Jones, who finished with 16 points, and free throw by Cierra Stanciel, who finished with 21 points, made it 70-62 with 1:59 left, but once Southeast sophomore Deja Jones made a layup with a minute remaining, it never got back to single digits.

The Redhawks hit 6 of 6 free-throw attempts in the final 24 seconds to seal the win.

"I feel like we were really calm through most of it, and we didn't let them speed us up," Hackmann said. "Even though they were making baskets and gaining a little ground, we still held our ground against them."

Patterson said she stressed toughness to her players during one timeout late in the game, and saw that down the stretch.

Southeast Missouri State's Erin Bollmann drives past Harris-Stowe's Shaakera Jones during the fourth quarter Monday at the Show Me Center. (Fred Lynch)

"She was just reminding us of how we play basketball," senior forward Erin Bollmann said. "Not to let them determine how we're going to play, and just to keep our heads together."

Patterson credited her seniors with leading the Redhawks to their first win of the season.

Hackmann scored a career-high 26 points on 10-of-21 shooting and had five rebounds and three steals. Bollmann contributed 11 points, 12 rebounds and five steals, and senior forward Connor King had eight points, nine rebounds and three blocks,

"Those three seniors right there -- they all did significant things on the court," Patterson said. "Whether it was making a basket or getting a rebound, or just keeping the team together. ... Those young ladies, again, we're going to go as far as they take us."

Southeast held a 22-15 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The Redhawks held Harris-Stowe to eight points, 4 of 14 from the floor, in the second quarter. Southeast scored the final 14 points of the half.

"I felt like we came out in the second quarter with more energy and not letting them get offensive rebounds really. ...We blocked out better in that quarter than we did in the first quarter," Hackmann said.

The Redhawks held a 32-23 lead with 4:03 left before the break.

King knocked down a 3-pointer, Bollmann had the next three layups, and junior guard Bri Mitchell pushed it to a 20-point lead with a layup.

Sophomore guard Hannah Noe hit her third 3-pointer of the half with eight seconds left to make it 46-23 at the break. Noe finished with a career-high 12 points in 18 minutes off the bench. She was 4 of 4 from 3-point range.

"That is a nice weapon to have, her ability to shoot," Patterson said. "One time she hit a shot and then I took her right out, and I was like, 'Oh my God, did you just make a shot?' and coach was like, 'Yeah, coach, she did.' So call that a rookie mistake. I'll do my best not to have that happen again."

Southeast Missouri State freshman guard Adrianna Murphy leads a fastbreak down the floor against Harris-Stowe during the first quarter Monday.

Hackmann gave Southeast its largest lead with a 3-pointer 1:16 into the second half that made it 49-25.

The Redhawks didn't score again until redshirt freshman forward Imani Johnson sank a pair of free throws with 4:43 later, which snapped a string of 12 unanswered points by the Hornets. Southeast was 4 of 23 from the floor in the third quarter.

"You've got to give props to their defense. They played good defense," King said. "Harris Stowe is a scrappy team, and they're going to fight, but I think we got the shots that we wanted."

The Redhawks struggled to score in the first five minutes after halftime in their season opener against Saint Louis on Saturday. Both games they got the shots they wanted, but couldn't convert.

"You can't ask for anything better than getting two feet in the paint, getting the ball in the paint, just go up and finish," Patterson said. "I think that caused us some issues by not finishing."

The Redhawks shot 34.2 percent in the game, making just nine field goals as they shot 24.3 percent in the second half.

They shot 78.9 percent from the free-throw line.

"I thought we made plays when we needed to, we hit free throws when we needed to, we got rebounds when we needed to," King said. "I think we did all the things at the end of the game that we needed to do to seal the win."

Southeast improved to 1-1 with the win and travels to Alabama A&M for a 7 p.m. game against the Bulldogs on Wednesday.

The Redhawks return home and host Missouri-Kansas City at 6:30 p.m. Friday.