BJ Ward's resurgence leads SEMO to victory over SIUE

Southeast Missouri State guard BJ Ward puts up a shot against SIUE on Saturday, Dec. 21, at the Show Me Center.

Tony Capobianco ~ tcapobianco@semoball.com

The holidays have yet to begin but BJ Ward has already gifted himself and his Southeast Missouri State teammates with a big bounce-back game.

After going five games with only single-digit scoring, and a dry spell from the three-point line, Ward scored 18 points on 6-of-13 shooting, including 4-of-9 from the arc.

"You always have them games throughout the year where you're not shooting the best," Ward said. "Just having confidence in yourself, knowing the next shot is gonna go in, or that you're gonna shoot the next shot, is always important."

The trio of Ward, Branden Terry, and Teddy Washington Jr. combined to score 52 points to lead the Redhawks past the SIUE Cougars 62-56 on Saturday, Dec. 21, at the Show Me Center.

Ward started the season as SEMO's top scorer, averaging 15. 3 points per game through the first six games of the season. However, in the five games prior to Saturday, Ward averaged 4.2 points including a game where he missed all nine field goal attempts on Nov. 30 against Kansas City.

"He was not, to his standard, playing well," SEMO head coach Brad Korn said. "He started out so well at the beginning of the year and then hit that little bit of low. But the one thing about BJ is he's taken on that biggest defensive assignment of every game so far, and he's met that challenge tonight."

Ward was matched up against SIUE's Ray'Sean Taylor, who led the Cougars with 16 points on 5-of-13 shooting. Limiting him in the second half was critical in the Redhaws turning a competitive contest into a blowout.

"I know Ray'Sean played well, but two points in the second half, BJ just was very, very disciplined," Korn said. "He can follow the gameplan really well and gives a lot of effort that way. So then to be able to defend and make some shots again today, I think that's going to give him a lot of confidence moving forward as well."

Both Terry and Washington Jr. scored 17 points each for the Redhawks. Terry made his presence felt in the interior with 7-of-9 shooting and eight rebounds. Washington Jr. had a similar shooting performance as Ward, making six of his 13 field goals including 2-of-4 from the three-point line and a perfect 3-for-3 from the charity stripe.

The Redhawks made one more three-pointer and one more free throw than the Cougars but the stat that stood out the most is SIUE not grabbing a single offensive rebound.

"I don't know if there's been any game that I've been a part of in my career where the other team didn't have one offensive rebound," Korn said. "And they were a good offensive-rebounding team coming into the game. So to be able to bounce back against a good offensive rebounding team today, that really speaks again to the level of commitment that our guys have at this point"

The win improved the Redhawks to 2-0 in Ohio Valley Conference play. SEMO will end the 2024 portion of the season with a non-conference game against Westminster, a Division III from Fulton, on Dec. 29.

"The break is coming at a good time. We're playing good basketball, and you want to just keep on playing, but we all made a break," Korn said. "Once we come back, it's a two-month push, 18 games left, which doesn't seem like a lot, but it's a grind to get through those."

SEMO will start 2025 with a road trip to Tennessee State on Jan. 2 and UT Martin on Jan. 4.

"Winning builds confidence in a team," Ward said. "Starting out 2-0 in conference makes us want to go 20-0."