The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team has dealt with an array of close games and self-inflicting issues this season resulting in its 9-12 overall record and 3-5 in Ohio Valley Conference play.

A packed and energetic student section, the return of Southeast's leading scorer senior guard/forward Jarekious Bradley and a fight throughout the game were all components showcased by Southeast against OVC west opponent SIU Edwardsville at the Show Me Center on Thursday.

In a game that consisted of runs, forced and unforced turnovers and allowance of second chance points, led to the Redhawks losing their second consecutive game, which came against SIUE 75-61.

The Cougars, who are currently 9-11 overall and 5-4 in OVC play, won the battle on the both sides of the ball by leading in all categories throughout the game.

SIUE won the rebounding battle (38-30), the free-throw battle (83.3 percent to 72.2 percent), the field goal percentage battle (42.6 percent to 39.6 percent) and the three-point percentage battle (56.3 percent to 35.3 percent).

This performance allowed the Cougars to have a one-point lead going into the half and they did not lose the lead for the rest of the contest.

Defensively, the Redhawks allowed 40 points in the second half with 17 of them coming off 11 turnovers and 16 were scored off of second-chance points.

The return of Bradley should have provided Southeast with some additional firepower, but he scored a career-low three points by going 1-10 from the field.

Bradley's four turnovers placed additional pressure on the other players to provide offensive firepower in order to cut the deficit.

Junior guard J.J. Thompson cut the lead to four points at one point following two free throws.

The Redhawks had a total of four players score double-digits in the game with senior guard Isiah Jones and sophomore guard Jamaal Calvin both scoring 12 points.

In addition, the Redhawks got 10 points each from sophomore forward Antonis Cleveland and senior forward Nino Johnson.

Calvin provided a spark off the bench for the Redhawks early in the first half by going 4-4 from three-point range.

"I think I am going to put a lot of the blame on me," Calvin said. "First half I had a lot of energy but I don't think I was there enough for the team starting out in the second half. I don't think I bounced back and brought the energy that was needed."

In addition to being on a two-game losing streak, and being 3-5 for the month of January, this loss to the Cougars was the first home loss for coach Dickey Nutt and the expression on his face displayed feelings of dissatisfaction and his comments on the game and recent play of the team placed initial blame on himself.

"We are certainly a frustrated team right now, especially at home and our chemistry was non-existent tonight," Nutt said. "We certainly looked like a team that has never played together before. Our attitude is good, it's just a matter of putting it together and playing with confidence and the blame falls on me and I certainly will take that."

Nutt followed up by saying that there are still a lot of games to be played and with the game of basketball being unpredictable, and the array of talent that makes up the Redhawks, the opportunity for success is capable once the effort and consistency is shown throughout the game and not just in one half of a game.

In addition to informing his team of the required changes that are necessary to get back on a winning streak, Nutt maintained a promising mindset for the games to come and encouraged the players to do the same.

The Redhawks' next two games are this Saturday at Austin Peay followed by a game next Thursday at Murray State.

Southeast will return to the Show Me Center on Feb. 7 when they will face Eastern Illinois at 6 p.m.