Indiana State edges Southeast Missouri in nail-biting finish at the Show Me Center

Southeast Missouri guard Zoe Best puts up a shot against Indiana State on Saturday, Nov. 30, at the Show Me Center.

Tony Capobianco ~ tcapobianco@semoball.com

Chloe Williams scored 22 points and Keslyn Secrist added 13 as the Indiana State Sycamores snatched victory from the talons of the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks 68-65 on Saturday, Nov. 30, at the Show Me Center.

Lexi McCully and Ainaya Williams each led the Redhawks with 12 points, followed by 11 points from Zoe Best and 10 from Indiya Bowen.

Williams, a freshman from St. Louis, also grabbed 11 rebounded for her first career double-double. It was also her second 12-point performance in her last three games.

“I feel like the first couple of games I had to find my rhythm with my team,” Williams said. “I really feel like it’s starting to get a little easier now that we’re getting more and more into the season.”

McCully, a senior playing Division I for the first time in her college career, has scored double-digits in three of her last four games, averaging 14 points per game.

McCully said her success is a product of the team’s preparation in between games.

“It gives you a boost of confidence because you’re constantly in the gym, you’re constantly working,” McCully said. “These games are perfect moments for us to show what we do in the gym works.”

The Redhawks started the game with a bang, a three-point basket by Lexi McCully which started a 7-1 run.

The lead didn’t last long, as the Sycamores soon established a 13-9 lead of their own in the first quarter, as a 12-2 run led by Chloe Williams’ five points.

The Redhawks ended the opening period down 13-12 after a three-point shot from the top of the key by Kennedy Claybrooks, who later tied the game 13-13 with a free throw in the second quarter.

The Redhawks initially struggled with outside shooting in the first half, but found their spot at the top of the key, as a key basket by Best tied the game again at 17-17 with 7:14 remaining in the half.

SEMO seemed to have found its stride in the second period, as three more made three-pointers and an eight-point burst from Bowen led to a 15-2 run that put the Redhawks on top 32-23 going into halftime. SEMO ended the half making 6-of-15 from the three-point line after making only two in the first quarter.

“We’re a really young team, really inexperienced,” McCully said. “Honestly, a lot of things come with time.”

The Redhawks took only nine three-point shots in the second half, making three. In a game that tightened up in the final minutes, one or two of those threes going the other way could have made the difference for SEMO.

“I think they realized that we were a good shooting team,” Williams said. “So they started to crack down on our shots to the point where we did have to start driving. So I think that’s why our shot selections kind of changed.”

The Sycamores finished the game making 22-of-28 from the free-throw line while the Redhawks only had nine shots. The disparity from the charity stripe played as much of a factor in the game as the arc, where ISU was 4-of-12.

“We don’t get to the free throw line a lot,” Williams said. “That’s something that we have to work on. Maybe us starting to drive more will get us to the free throw line, but we also needed to keep them off the free throw line.”

The Redhawks spent the entirety of the third quarter trying to ward off the surging Sycamores, who closed the gap and were within a possession through the latter half of the period. A three-pointer by Queen Ruffin sparked an 8-1 run for ISU, but a last-second layup by Williams kept SEMO ahead at 53-50 entering the final period.

ISU kept chasing SEMO all the way through the fourth quarter. The Sycamores finally caught the Redhawks with a last-minute layup by Mia Simpson with 28 seconds left in the game, taking their first lead of the half at 66-65.

Even with the loss, the Redhawks have been playing their best at home. They travel to Arkansas on Dec. 8 but play their next two games in the Show Me Center.

“It gives you your energy,” Williams said. “It gives you that boost, especially if you go down or you’re feeling down, you have your family, you have your people to support you. And I feel like that’s the difference between us here and us on the road.”