Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team preps for close game hosting Murray State

Both the Southeast Missouri State and Murray State women's basketball teams know a thing or two about playing in close games.

The Racers -- who have had all but one of their conference games decided by 12 points or fewer -- and Redhawks -- who have had seven of eight games decided by 10 or fewer points -- meet tonight at the Show Me Center. Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m.

The Racers are 7-13 on the season and 3-6 in the Ohio Valley Conference. They're coming off their only lopsided conference loss, a 92-62 defeat to defending OVC champion UT Martin on Saturday.

"They have been in pretty much every single one of their conference games, so it's not like you can look at their conference record and think that they're not good," Southeast coach Rekha Patterson said. "They play extremely hard. Â… They can get hot, and they are rather streaky, but no matter what they are never going to quit. They're always going to fight."

The Racers are led by 6-foot-1 sophomore G/F Ke'Shunan James, who was the OVC's Freshman of the Year last season.

She's averaging 18.6 points per game on the season and 17.1 points and 6.9 rebounds through nine conference games.

Patterson described James as "relentless in how she plays," and remembered seeing her last year against Ball State when Patterson was an assistant on the Cardinals' staff.

James had 20 points in the loss to Ball State.

"I would think that she's probably a coach's dream in that she plays so hard," Patterson said. "She's fast, she's athletic. We played them a year ago when I was at Ball State and she has gotten so much better since then. She was good last year -- obviously, she was freshman of the year -- but her games just improved. She can shoot the 3, she can attack off the dribble for pull-ups. She's second in assists for them, and that's pretty impressive to be a leading scorer and second in assists as a guard."

The Racers, who score 66.4 points per game, average 25 3-point attempts per contest and are making them at just a 28.4 percent clip on the season. The Racers are shooting 37.4 percent from the field.

James has knocked down 26 3-pointers, behind only the 37 makes of LeAsia Wright, who is the second-leading scorer averaging 13.2 points on the season and 10.1 in conference.

Bianca Babic, Bria Bethea, Abria Gulledge, Jasmine Borders and Ajee Smith have all shown they can be a threat beyond the arc.

"They've got one kid, their center, who doesn't really shoot the 3, but everybody else can drive it and they can shoot the 3 and so they provide that in that they're not just a shooter, they're not just a driver, they can do a lot of different things," Patterson said. "They will dribble penetrate, dribble penetrate, dribble penetrate and when you help they can kick, if you don't help they drive it and finish at the rim. If you help over off the post then the post player gets a wide open shot, and then if they miss a shot they're going to crash the boards to get multiple shots."

"Defensively they are long and athletic and aggressive and they will be physical. Sometimes they'll press, but in the half-court set they're not going to just let you go where you want to go.

Patterson, whose team is coming off a 71-69 home win versus Austin Peay on Saturday, continues to place an emphasis on playing smart and limiting turnovers. The Redhawks committed 20 against the Govs.

"Again, all the games are going to be close, so each possession matters, so valuing the basketball is going to be important. Rebounding, making sure that we block out and rebound the ball is going to be important and then just being tough on both ends of the floor."

The Redhawks (13-9, 6-3 OVC) will be decked out in pink as it's the annual Pink Up game for breast cancer awareness.

Southeast will only have two home games remaining (Feb. 20 vs. Eastern Illinois and Feb. 24 vs. SIU Edwardsville) following tonight's contest.

"We have three more home games and they're all extremely important," Patterson said. "This is a standalone game -- it's the first one we've had in awhile at home -- and any support, all the support we can get from this community and our students would be greatly appreciated."