MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- As he turned to go back into his team's locker room at the FedExForum several minutes after the Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team's game against the Memphis Tigers on Saturday night, sophomore guard Marcus Wallace smiled when asked if he had anything else to say about the game.

"Ready to win. That's what's up," Wallace said before clapping his hands together. "Next game we got it."

The Redhawks sustained an 80-65 loss to the Tigers -- their seventh straight to start the season -- but Wallace was optimistic after the progress that the team made.

Southeast hung with Memphis, which improved to 5-2 on the season, for much of the game, and trailed by only eight with 3 minutes, 51 seconds to play.

It was only then that the game started to slip out of their grasp.

Memphis' Ricky Tarrant Jr. (20) is fouled while driving to the basket against Southeast Missouri defenders Tony Anderson, left, and Joel Angus III during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015, in Memphis, Tenn. (Mark Weber/The Commercial Appeal via AP)

First-year coach Rick Ray and his staff warned his players off the slip-ups that they've become accustomed to having with around 10 to 15 minutes remaining in the game that allow their opponents to take over.

Ray thought that was about to happen five minutes into the second half. During a media timeout following a Southeast foul he told his team that Memphis was going to knock down the pair of free throws coming up after the break, which would make it a nine-point game.

Instead the Tigers missed both and the Redhawks used a 6-2 run to cut it to 50-47 with 12:41 left.

The Redhawks pulled within 52-51 on a corner 3 by Wallace with 9:36 left, but didn't get any closer.

Memphis held a 60-55 lead when Memphis native and junior guard Antonius Cleveland missed a layup, got his own rebound and went to put it back up when a shot clock violation was called.

Cleveland pleaded with the refs that his initial attempt hit the rim, but to no avail. Memphis pushed its lead to 65-57 by the media timeout at the 3:51 mark.

"It was kind of disappointing because in a game like that we need that call," Cleveland said of the shot clock violation. "Not putting the blames on the refs or anything [but that was critical].

Out of the timeout Avery Woodson knocked down a 3, Dedric Lawson converted a three-point play and Shaq Goodwin threw down a dunk that made it a 16-point game and forced Ray to take a timeout with 2:36 left.

"We've got to make sure -- now we're pushing that run back -- we've got to totally eliminate that run," Ray said. "But obviously Memphis is a very talented team. I thought our guys did a great job of trying to do some of the things that we wanted them to do."

The Redhawks trailed by just two points at the break after a first half that featured 10 ties.

Wallace knocked down a jumper -- he was 4 for 4 from the field in the first half -- with :05 left in the first half to cut the Tigers' lead to 37-35.

Memphis' Markel Crawford, left, is fouled by Southeast Missouri defender Trey Kellum, right, during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015, in Memphis, Tenn. (Mark Weber/The Commercial Appeal via AP)

"Coach Ray just said it, 'We've been here countless times before,'" Cleveland said of the team's halftime message. "We're always in the game at halftime and his main focus, our main focus, was just to weather the storm and just keep it a ballgame and keep fighting. I would say we did that."

The Redhawks' largest lead was at 13-10, 6:34 into the contest, after a trey by sophomore guard Ladarius Coleman, who hails from Memphis.

Southeast held its final lead of the game at 24-22 after a layup by Cleveland with 6:48 to go before halftime. The Tigers then went on a 9-0 run to take their largest lead of the half at 31-24. They never trailed the remainder of the game.

Southeast had been successful at limiting the Tigers to one shot on most possessions, and held them to four first-half offensive boards and four second-chance points.

But prior to that run the Redhawks' inside game took a hit when starting forwards Trey Kellum and Joel Angus III picked up their second fouls within a four-second span and didn't play the final 7:02 and 6:58 of the first half, respectively.

Kellum had seven of his eight rebounds in nine first-half minutes. The Tigers post players -- the 6-foot-9 Goodwin and the 6-9 Lawson -- scored 12 and six points, respectively, in the first 20 minutes of the game.

"It's just the fact that you've got to play solid and not try to get in foul trouble because you can be out of the game quick if you're trying to be over-aggressive," Kellum said.

Memphis ended up outscoring Southeast 54-30 in the paint.

"We said it's a simple game plan to beat Memphis, but it's hard to do, and it's all about paint touches," Ray said. "The biggest thing about the paint touches is once they shoot the basketball then going to get it off the glass."

Memphis shot 48.4 percent from the floor, led by Lawson, who finished with 28 points (12-of-18 shooting) and 14 rebounds. Goodwin finished with 20 points and six rebounds.

The Tigers made only 3 of 16 3-point attempts.

"The zone was pretty effective today," Kellum said. "We got out on their supposed shooters. We've just got to do a better job of coming down and trapping their bigs and getting them out of that little comfort zone in the short corner. That's where they made most of their shots from."

Wallace and Cleveland both agreed that it was the team's most complete performance of the season. The Redhawks shot 40 percent on the night, only 3 of 12 from beyond the arc, but had a season-low 14 turnovers and their 66.7 free-throw percentage was a season high.

Wallace led Southeast with 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting and had five rebounds.

"Marcus is starting to understand, like finding his way in the motion offense and when to attack and when not to attack," Ray said. "I told our guys we've got to be conscious of not creating offense for Memphis by turning the ball over and forcing the issue, so I thought he did a much better job in this game."

Cleveland finished with 14 points and six rebounds and Kellum added 12 points and eight boards. Coleman had seven points and eight rebounds.

The Redhawks return to the Show Me Center to host Bowling Green at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

"I would definitely say that we played our game and stuck with the gameplay and gave them a fight," Cleveland said. "We gave Memphis a game."