Although Southeast students commonly receive a four-week break in between semesters, Southeast's men's and women's basketball teams have been grinding harder than ever.
Southeast's men's basketball team took on Missouri State on Dec. 17 and notched its first loss in the books for the winter break. The team has had some problems of beginning games at a slower pace than desirable, consequently putting them in a place of coming from behind to compete. This 66-71 loss to Missouri State was no different.
The team then traveled to Chicago to compete against DePaul. Southeast dropped this game only by three points, bringing the team's record to 4-8 on the season. Senior guard Antonius Cleveland scored a career-high 28 points alongside senior guard Jamaal Calvin, who put up a career-best 20.
The team was wheels up to Las Vegas and took home two more losses on the short trip. On Dec. 22, Cleveland scored 26 for Southeast en route to losing to Chicago State, 65-74. This was the 6-foot-6-inch senior's third straight game of scoring more than 20 points. Freshman guard Denzel Mahoney has put up numbers for the team as well. Mahoney chipped in 13 points to this particular contest. This loss would bring the team's record to 4-9. Also in Las Vegas, Southeast dropped its final game of the road swing to Cornell, 62-78. Junior guard Jaylen Benton put up a season-high 16 points, while freshman guard Tahj Eaddy followed with a season-best 13. Cornell made six of its first seven shots with four treys, putting Southeast down 16-4 early on. The team couldn't seem to find a way to recover from there, finishing the trip with a loss.
"That trip was hard for this team," coach Rick Ray said. "I mean, you go all the way out there to compete and we did more learning about ourselves than competing. But I'm not so sure that that's all a bad thing."
The team then came back to its home court and defeated Henderson State and Eastern Kentucky to give themselves some momentum.
This was the start of Ohio Valley Conference play for the team.
"This is really when it matters," Cleveland said. "It's easy to hang my head about the first part of our season, but there's nothing you can do about it now. We didn't take care of business and that was that. But now, everyone has a clean 0-0 record and we are ready to compete."
On the road, Southeast has only been victorious one time out of 12 games this season.
The team traveled to Nashville, Tennessee, to take on Tennessee State and preseason top-ranked Belmont.
The team dropped the matchup against Tennessee State by three points after fighting in the four-point back-and-forth battle. Missed opportunities seem to be to blame for Southeast after this particular loss, which is nothing new to hear from Ray.
"It's just not easy to win basketball games if you don't take opportunities that are just handed to you," Ray said. "This young group that we have this year has a lot of ways to improve though still; we are getting better."
The team's record fell to 6-12 as they were defeated by Belmont, 87-75. Cleveland began the game with 16 points within the first 17 minutes and things were looking up for Southeast. The second half of the game is what hurt the team, though.
"Playing our type of basketball during the entire duration of the game is key at this level," Ray said. "They are getting better, but they are not there yet I don't think."
The team came back to the Show Me Center on Jan. 10 and defeated Tennessee Tech by five points, bringing the team's OVC record back to even, 2-2.
"Home-court advantage is real for this team," Cleveland said. "Especially during OVC play when tensions are high and we have rivalries; it's always better to play at home."
For the eighth time on the year, Cleveland scored 20 or more points during the match up.
"Game by game, I have seen this team improve during winter break," Ray said. "The beginning of conference play is always fun to be a part of, but we've got to continue to push practices and get better."
During the team's final contest of winter break, Southeast traveled to Martin, Tennessee, and was defeated by UT Martin with a score of 69-79.
"Although we didn't have the outcomes of games that we wanted, this time of the season is fun, man," Ray said. "My guys don't have to have the stresses of class and study hall hours and everything else student-athletes worry about all the time. They could just play basketball and that's it."
The team returns to Cape Girardeau at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Show Me Center to host SIU Edwardsville.
