The Southeast Missouri State women’s basketball team defeated the Tennessee State Tigers 77-59 on Jan. 25 at the Show Me Center.
A season-high of 11 three-point shots by the Redhawks’ offense propelled them to victory, five of which came from junior guard Rahmena Henderson. Henderson finished the night 7-9 in field goal shooting and lead the team with 19 points.
“I start to get a feel for the ball during warmups,” Henderson said. “I’ll try to give myself that confidence to tell myself that my shots will go in. Once I do that the shots start flowing.”
The Redhawks led the game for over 38 minutes. They took an early 4-3 lead and did not trail for the rest of the game. Their largest lead of the night came at the end of the game when they led by 22.
“We always want to keep whoever we’re playing on their toes,” sophomore guard Kiyley Flowers said. “We don’t want them to just get settled and do whatever they want to do.”
The Tigers’ 3-point defense is ranked last in the Ohio Valley Conference(OVC), allowing their opponents to shoot .340 percent from beyond the arc. The Redhawks were able to take advantage of the poor defense throughout the game.
“When we watched against Morehead State we took a few too many contested shots,” head coach Rekha Patterson said. “We didn’t get the corner, they weren’t wide open so we were looking for more of that today. They did an amazing job of seeing it on film and coming out today and getting those looks.”
The Redhawks are on a hot streak, having won four out of their last five games. Defeating the Tigers improved their home record to 8-2 on the season and put them in fifth place in the OVC.
“If we’re having success it’s all of our success,” Patterson said. “It’s not an individual win it’s a team win and I believe the team has truly bought into that. Gotta give credit to our captains and the players that follow them. They follow behind the captains and they’re all excited for each other.”
The Redhawks’ next home game will be at 5 p.m. on Thursday, February 2 at the Show Me Center.
