SEMO hoops to face different philosophy, same ability in Purdue Fort Wayne

Southeast Missouri State senior center Manny Patterson puts up a shot against Evansville on Wednesday at the Show Me Center.

Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

There are college basketball programs that want to achieve success by outscoring their opposition, and then there are teams that want to keep opponents from outscoring them in order to win.

Both philosophies can work on any given day and that will be on full display today, as Southeast Missouri State (5-4) travels to Purdue Fort Wayne (4-5) at 12 p.m.

The last time these two programs met was two years ago and Redhawk shooter Chris Harris buried a 3-pointer in the final moments for a 79-78 SEMO victory and today’s game very well could be just as tight.

“I think (SEMO) is pretty explosive offensively,” veteran Mastodon coach Jon Coffman said. “When they get hot, they are really, really tough to guard.”

The same could be said of Purdue Fort Wayne.

The Mastodons are allowing opponents to make over 47 percent of their shots, as well as nearly 38 percent from 3-point range, yet have already beaten Ohio Valley Conference opponent Austin Peay (65-60), as well as NCAA Division I foes Southeastern Louisiana (74-66) and Northern Kentucky (71-57) and fell in overtime to Western Michigan.

“I really like our team,” Coffman said. “There is going to be some growth. Where we have been inconsistent has been our defensive effort.”

In a recent 86-73 home loss to Wright State, Purdue Fort Wayne allowed the Raiders to shoot a scorching 69 percent from the field, while in their last outing, the Mastodons got clobbered by OVC foe Southern Illinois Edwardsville 80-59, while being outrebounded 45-28.

“We have shown elite (defense),” Coffman said, “and we have shown the opposite also.”

Purdue Fort Wayne hoops to 'ride a wave' of positivity into Cape Girardeau

Tom Davis

On the night of Dec. 27, 2018, the Purdue Fort Wayne men's basketball team sat in the O'Hare Airport in Chicago passing time. The Mastodons' flight to North Dakota had been canceled due to a blizzard sweeping across the northern plains. As it turned out, it would be one of seven canceled flights the group would endure during its 2018-19 season.

Regardless of the inconsistency shown by Purdue Fort Wayne, second-year SEMO coach Brad Korn expects to see the best of Purdue Fort Wayne.

“You have to be ready to guard (Purdue Fort Wayne) on their catch,” Korn said. “Close outs are so important. They do a good job of lifting right away when they catch. If you’re out of position or have a lazy close out, they are going to get downhill on you in one or two dribbles and your rotations and help won’t matter at that point.”

SEMO, which is holding opponents to 42.3 percent shooting (and 33.3 percent from 3), is coming off one of its best performances of the young season, as it beat Evansville at the Show Me Center on Wednesday without the services of its best player, junior guard Eric Reed Jr., who missed the game with an illness.

“You are really going to find out what your team is about in these types of games,” Korn said following the win. “When adversity hits, your true character kind of shows.”

Freshman guard Phillip Russell had a career-best 24 points in the win, which caught Coffman’s eyes.

“He’s a pretty talented kid,” Coffman said. “He looks a little bit wild, and I don’t mean wild with how he acts. It’s a good wild.”

The Redhawks are ranked in the top 30 in the country in pace of play, which Coffman was wary of.

Both teams played in tournaments away from home and dropped two of three games, though they were competitive in both.

“They are doing a great job as an undersized team,” Coffman said, “of putting teams in challenging spots. I like the stuff that they are doing with their personnel and I think they are really hard to guard in transition.”