Southeast Missouri (15-16, 10-8) dropped its regular-season finale to SIU Edwardsville (18-13, 9-9), 93-78, Saturday at First Community Arena.
SEMO will head to next week’s Ohio Valley Conference Tournament as the #5 seed and face #8 Lindenwood Wednesday, March 1. Tip-off is set for 6:30 p.m., CT at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana.
The rest of the eight-team field includes #1 Morehead State, #2 Tennessee Tech, #3 UT Martin, #4 Tennessee State, #6 SIU Edwardsville, #7 Southern Indiana and #8 Lindenwood.
SEMO scored the first five points of the game and led by eight on twice after Aquan Smart and Adam Larson each made a 3-pointer.
After Chris Harris’ free throw put the Redhawks ahead, 27-23, SIUE went on a 23-1 run in 5:33 to grab an 18-point lead.
The Cougars made 10-straight field goals that mainly fueled the surge which resulted in a 3-pointer by Demarco Minor that put SIUE ahead, 46-28, with 4:04 remaining in the first half.
SIUE made 15 of its final 19 field goals at a 78 percent clip en route to its 52-35 halftime lead.
The Cougars shot 57.6 percent (19-of-33) from the field and knocked down six 3-pointers in the first half.
SEMO got within 13 three times in the second half, but that was as close as it could get.
Chris Harris scored 20 points to lead the Redhawks. Harris shot 6-of-15 from the field and made 7-of-10 free throws. He also topped SEMO with six rebounds.
Smart and Phillip Russell followed with 14 and 13 points, respectively.
SEMO shot 40.3 percent (27-of-67) from the field.
SIUE made 54.7 percent (35-of-64) of its field goals and shot 83.3 percent (15-of-18) at the free throw line.
Damarco Minor put up a game-high 25 points to lead the Cougars.
Original source can be found here.
