Men’s late-game collapse sees Redhawk basketball split Edwardsville doubleheader

Southeast's Adam Larson (right) is fouled on a layup attempt on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024, at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Tony Capobianco ~ tcapobianco@semoball.com

Making the trip to Edwardsville, Illinois, for the second half of a two-game road trip in the Land of Lincoln, Redhawk basketball nearly had a doubleheader sweep, but couldn’t wrap it up late.

Both the men and women grabbed big early leads against the Cougars, dominating the first halves – but the second halves told two totally different tales.

When the women kept the pace in the second half, the men couldn’t put away the Cougars and their two dominant scoring guards.

MBB: SIU-Edwardsville 80, Southeast 76

Southeast men’s basketball (8-19, 3-11 OVC) had a chance to seal the win but folded down the stretch, giving up a big run late to fall 80-70 to SIU-Edwardsville (15-12, 8-6 OVC).

After a tremendous effort by the Redhawk women in the first game, the men followed suit by jumping out to a double-digit lead in the first few minutes of the second game.

SIU-Edwardsville didn’t back down, leading a huge rally to tie the game at halftime and quickly grabbing its first lead of the game in the second half.

With the Redhawks up 76-70 in the game’s final moments, the Cougars cranked up the energy and blew past Southeast in an 80-76 victory at the death.

In desperate need of a big win on the road, it seemed that Southeast had it wrapped up – until it didn’t.

In the first start of standout freshman Marqueas Bell, he dropped 18 points and led Southeast to a sound lead down the stretch.

But the scoring tandem of Damarco Minor (26) and Ray’Sean Taylor (20) combined for an unreal 46 points in the victory.

Taylor particularly cooked the Redhawks from outside, hitting 6 of 11 3-point shots in the victory for SIU-Edwardsville while Minor’s 11-of-19 shooting mark amassed a big point total.

In one of Southeast’s best offensive performances in conference play this year, the Cougars still managed to drown out the noise en route to an impressive victory in conference play.

Josh Earley’s 14 finished second on the Redhawks, who also received 13 and 12 from Rob Martin and Braxton Stacker respectively.

On a night when four guys finished in double digits, Southeast simply couldn’t ice the game down the stretch.

It’ll have to do that in the future to have a chance at a tournament berth.

In the first game of the doubleheader, the Southeast women did something they’ve rarely done lately: start a game scorching hot.

WBB: Southeast 67, SIU-Edwardsville 57

The Redhawks (8-17, 5-9 OVC) exorcised their quick start demons against SIU-Edwardsville (5-22, 2-12 OVC) on the road to climb into a tie for eighth in the conference, winning 67-57.

The Redhawks built a double-digit lead in the second quarter and never relinquished, mounting a 35-22 halftime lead and doubling down in the second half.

Alecia Doyle got the offense going with a 20-point night across the river, hitting two triples and grabbing five boards in the win.

Behind her, junior guard Jaliyah Green’s 16 and another eight rebounds paced the Redhawks to a critical victory in league play.

Southeast held SIU-Edwardsville’s leading scorer, Sofie Lowis, to just 13 points as SEMO dominated from the jump and held the Cougars to just 57 at home – their lowest in two weeks.

The Redhawks return home on Thursday with another Ohio Valley Conference doubleheader, taking on the Little Rock Trojans at the Show Me Center.

The Southeast women will begin play at 4 p.m., with the men scheduled to follow at 7:30 p.m. in the penultimate home game of the year.