Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team falls to host SIUE in battle of OVC's best

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. -- After most of the Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team's wins this season, members of the team have attributed their success to playing hard and playing tough.

Coach Rekha Patterson didn't discount that her team had both on Wednesday night when it squared off with SIU Edwardsville in a matchup between the teams atop the Ohio Valley Conference standings.

Instead, she felt her team didn't play smart enough at times, which resulted in an 80-73 loss to the Cougars at the Vadalabene Center.

"You can give me great effort, which they are, and maybe we're starting to turn the corner to the next page," Patterson said. "Maybe we're past the play hard, play tough every possession to now adding play smart to it, which is a good thing."

Southeast trailed 26-24 after one quarter and was down 47-41 at halftime.

Southeast Missouri State's Ashton Lutrull drives past Southern Illinois-Edwardsville's CoCo Moore during Wednesday's game in Edwardsville, Illinois.Brian Armea ~ SIUE Athletics

Southeast pulled within two points twice in the third quarter, but each time SIUE responded with a bucket. The Redhawks used a 5-0 run in the final 1 minute, 20 seconds of the third to cut it to 60-56 heading to the final 10 minutes.

SIUE quickly pushed its lead back to nine with a 3-point play from Gwen Adams and a layup by CoCo Moore.

The Cougars maintained a five-point lead at the final media timeout with 4:25 left.

Out of the timeout Ashton Luttrull drove to the middle and dished to Erin Bollmann for a layup. Then, seconds later, Adrianna Murphy tipped the ball away from Moore at the top of the key, and Luttrull came up with the steal and basket to pull within 67-66 with 2:41 to play. But the Redhawks never got any closer.

SIUE's Lauren White drove and scored, and Imani Johnson was whistled for a foul with 2:15 left. White hit the free throw for the three-point play. A layup by Shronda Butts pushed it to six before a basket by Bollmann, who finished with a career-high 23 points.

Southeast Missouri State's Erin Bollmann looks to shoot while being defended by a Southern Illinois-Edwardsville player during Wednesday's game in Edwardsville, Illinois.Brian Armea ~ SIUE Athletics

Butts hit a corner 3 with 1:15 remaining to make it 75-68, and the Cougars hit six of their final seven free throws to seal the victory.

"I would like to credit SIUE because whenever we would get it close, they found a way to execute and get the points that they needed," Patterson said.

Southeast led by as many as five points in the first quarter, but once the Cougars went up 32-30 with 7:09 remaining in the second quarter, they never trailed.

SIUE shot 48.5 percent in the first half while the Redhawks were 43.8 percent from the field, but the Cougars were 7 of 15 from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes. SIUE finished 9 of 25 from 3-point range.

"I know everybody's going to look at the first-half 3s," Patterson said. "That didn't really bother me as much as our lack of defensive discipline. We gave up eight points because we did not defend properly, and in the second half, they didn't shoot from the 3 that well, which the law of averages is going to happen that way."

Patterson and her team knew of the Cougars' offensive prowess -- they had five players finish in double figures -- but didn't think the defensive gameplan was followed well enough.

The Redhawks held the OVC's leading scorer, Shronda Butts, to one point in in the first half. She finished with 12 on 4-of-13 shooting. Guards Donshel Beck and Sidney Smith, who was 4 of 8 from 3 in the first half, had 11 and 12 first-half points, respectively, to lead the Cougars.

"OK, 31, [Beck], who is a guard, she's a driver, and we ran out at her twice and she dribbled by us and laid it up," Patterson said of how the defense broke down. "Once we were back and we didn't get matched up and she got a layup. Then there was a layup against our 2-2-1. We don't even run a pressing 2-2-1, and we gave up a layup in that situation. So those are situations that I wasn't happy with. Sometimes in the second half, the shot clock was going down and we would allow middle penetration, and that's not what we want. So some of those things that we can control. But again, I want to give credit to SIUE because they made the plays that they were supposed to."

Southeast shot 41.2 percent from the floor but was 3 of 17 from beyond the arc. The Redhawks were 14 of 23 from the free-throw line, making just 3 of 7 in the second half.

"I think they're good looks and we're going to continue to take them," Patterson said of the 3-point shooting. "I think if we're taking care of the ball a little bit more and you get some more shots easy, then it makes those a little bit easier too."

The loss snapped a two-game winning streak for the Redhawks, who fell to 12-8 and 5-2 in the OVC. The Cougars (11-9) take sole possession of first place in the standings at 6-1.

"I think coach did a great job of telling us not to hype this game up," Murphy said. "It wasn't the big game, it's not going to make or break us for the tournament, where we want to be. It's just another game, and we fought hard. We tried to do what we could to come up with the win but came up short."

The Redhawks will get another shot at the Cougars in their final home game of the season on Feb. 24.

"I think it kind of proves that we can compete with anybody in this league," Bollmann said. "When it comes to the OVC tournament, that's where we want to be. Playing these hard teams and almost winning is something that we can look back on that we're able to maybe win some games like that."

Southeast hosts defending OVC champion UT Martin (11-7, 4-1 OVC) on Saturday. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. from the Show Me Center.

"I thought we played extremely hard, extremely tough," Patterson said. "I don't think we played extremely smart, but this is new for everybody. So I think we will grow and regroup and work to play extremely hard, extremely tough as a unit, and smart, on Saturday."

Southeast 24 17 15 17 -- 73

SIUE 26 21 13 20 -- 80

SOUTHEAST (73) -- Erin Bollmann 23, Imani Johnson 12, Adrianna Murphy 8, Deja Jones 7, Ashton Luttrull 6, Brianna Mitchell 5, Corneisha Henderson 5, Connor King 4, Kaley Leyhue 2, Hannah Noe 1. FG 28-68, FT 14-23, F 21. (3-pointers: Bollmann 1, Henderson 1, Johnson 1. Fouled out: Johnson.)

SIUE (80) -- Gwen Adams 16, Lauren White 13, Shronda Butts 12, Sidney Smith 12, Donshel Beck 11, CoCo Moore 6, Erin Kelley 6, Amri Wilder 4. FG 26-62, FT 19-25, F 18. (3-pointers: Smith 4, Butts 2, Kelley 2, White 1. Fouled out: None.)