Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team tries to avoid worst start in school history

For the Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team to avoid its worst start in school history, the Redhawks and coach Rick Ray will go through a program and coach they're familiar with.

Southeast (0-10) faces the Missouri State Bears at 7:05 p.m. today at JQH Arena in Springfield, Missouri, for the 145th meeting between the two teams. It's the second-longest series for the Redhawks' basketball program.

Ray and his coaching counterpart, fifth-year Bears coach Paul Lusk, also have close ties: They were on Matt Painter's staff at Purdue together from 2006 to 2010.

"Paul was a really good friend for me. We were in the trenches together at Purdue. He's a great person," Ray said. "My wife [Breyana] and his wife got together [Monday] with the kids and had lunch, and she's going over there [today] to their house for a pregame meal. There's just some common bonds there. Obviously, we'll put all that aside and compete, but I think the world of him as a person and as a coach."

Missouri State, which leads the all-time series 90-54, enters tonight's contest with a record of 4-7.

The Redhawks have lost the first 10 games of the Ray era and are in danger of becoming the first Southeast men's basketball team to open a season 0-11. Their 11 consecutive losses, dating back to last season, is fourth longest in the program's Division I era, which began with the 1991-92 season.

"You have your ebbs and flows," Ray said when asked how his players were handling the winless start. "I thought the way we played against Northern Kentucky, I wasn't really as surprised because we didn't have two good practices beforehand. But we just had a great practice here at Missouri State.

"I think it's a correlation -- you play the way you practice -- and I thought we were really, really good in our practices before we played Ole Miss, and that's the way we went out and played. I didn't think we had very good practices before we went out and played Northern Kentucky, and that's the way we played."

Southeast is coming off a 79-69 loss to Northern Kentucky on Saturday.

The Redhawks shot a season-high 48.3 percent from the floor, but NKU shot 49.1 percent and knocked down eight 3-pointers.

Forward Jalen Billups had 17 points and 11 rebounds for the Norse.

Ray urged his players to learn from that game -- not from what they did wrong, but from what he saw from their opponent.

"We just got physically man-handled in the post. I just didn't think we did a very good job at all of embracing the physicality that Northern Kentucky had inside," Ray said. "I told them after the game we've got to learn a lesson from playing [Northern Kentucky] because they had a kid inside that just embraced his role; he's never going to shoot outside of five feet, and so he just enjoyed that role and embraced that role. We've got to have guys buy into that same sort of dedication to what they do."

Ray had similar sentiments about the Bears, who have beaten the Redhawks in five of the last seven meetings. Southeast has not won at Springfield in its last four tries -- the last road victory was in 1981.

"I think you're going to see a team that's playing as a team and guys on the same page," Ray said. "Then, beyond that, I think they're a team that's going to be pretty disciplined on the offensive end as far as like their execution."

MSU's four wins have come against William Woods (77-56), Oklahoma State (64-63), IUPUI (88-74) and Oral Roberts (85-66).

MSU averages 68.3 points per game but scored a season-low total in a 74-45 loss at Valparaiso on Saturday. The Bears shot 32.1 percent from the field in the loss and were 1 of 10 from beyond the arc and 10 of 19 from the charity stripe.

"They're not a team that really pushes the basketball. They'll push the basketball off a turnover or a long rebound, but for the most part they're really not trying to push the ball down your throat," Ray said. "Then on the offensive end, once they get in the half-court setting, they'll be really good as far as like seeking out the right opportunities."

Dequon Miller, a 5-foot-10 junior guard, and Chris Kendrix, a 6-5 G/F, average 11.1 and 10.9 ppg, respectively. Miller leads the team with 16 made 3s (28.6 percent) and Kendrix has knocked down 11 (35.5 percent).

Camyn Boone, a 6-foot-6, 238-pound senior forward, averages 13.7 points and 6.5 rebounds to pace the Bears. He's shooting 54.3 percent from the field.

He had four points and nine rebounds against Southeast last year when MSU won 73-61.

"He's a guy that's going to pose a problem for us mostly because we've only got two guys on our team that are physical front-court players," Ray said. "You've got Joel [Angus] and you've got Trey [Kellum], then, beyond that, you're looking at an undersized, thin freshman in Jaylin [Stewart], a thin freshman in Kyle Gullett and another thin freshman in Tony Anderson, so for us the concern is anytime those guys get the ball inside that we're putting Joel and Trey in harms way."

The Redhawks host NAIA Harris-Stowe at 2 p.m. Sunday before beginning Ohio Valley Conference play vs. Belmont on Dec. 31.