The Southeast Missouri State University men's basketball team hosted Division II Ouachita Baptist in its first exhibition game on Monday at the Show Me Center.

"We know what it feels like to lose an exhibition game," Southeast guard Lucas Nutt said. "It don't matter just as long as we get the win. We know we got stuff to work on."

The Redhawks won 71-60 over the Tigers. Southeast outrebounded the Tigers, 48-35 and had a 39-28 advantage on the offensive boards. The Redhawks committed 18 turnovers and the Tigers had 12.

"There was a lot of slapping the ball and being weak with the ball," Southeast coach Dickey Nutt said. "A lot of that has to do with the fact that we haven't played a whole lot you know. We're just now starting to play and I think that getting into the game, hopefully we can protect the ball much better than what we're doing."

Southeast guard A.J. Jones scored a game-high 18 points and led the team with four of its 12 assists. Jones attended Southeast last year but could not practice or play with the team until he met his one-year residency to become eligible.

"I was nervous," Jones said. "But I remained poised and thought like it was practice or a red and black game."

Southeast forward Tyler Stone added a double-double. He shot 6-for-14 with 16 points and 12 rebounds.

"It's the first game," Stone said. "We had to get the jitters out."

The Redhawks held the Tigers to 32.8 percent from the field and 27.8 percent from behind the arc.

With seven minutes, 23 seconds left in the game, the Redhawks had a 14 point lead, the largest of the game.

Ouachita Baptist guard Austin Mitchell made a three-pointer with 3:21 left to close the gap to 65-56, but the Tigers never came any closer.

The Redhawks shot 54.2 percent in the second half.

"We rebounded well, we were big and gave them very few second chance shots and opportunities," Dickey Nutt said. "There was good blocking so we did some good things. We handled the ball pretty decent, but didn't show quite as well as I wanted to. Our free throw shooting was poor tonight."

The Redhawks shot 62.1 percent from the free throw line. Defensively, Southeast finished with five blocks. Forward Nino Johnson had three of the five blocks and also had 11 rebounds.

"I thought Nino Johnson's presence was felt tonight," Dickey Nutt said.

Southeast will close out the exhibition portion of its schedule against Truman State at 7 p.m. Monday at the Show Me Center.

"We never underestimate how special a win is," coach Dickey Nutt said. "We're glad to win, number one. We're supposed to win and we did that and that was a good thing."