The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team had the lead at halftime against Saint Louis, but were overwhelmed by the Billikens in the second half to fall at home 74-56 on Nov. 21.

The Redhawks started out hot scoring on their first three possessions to lead the game in its early stages 6-4.

The game went back and forth for the next five minutes when the Billikens were forced to take a timeout after a pair of 3-point baskets by sophomore guard Brianna Mitchell and senior guard Allyson Bradshaw that stretched the lead for the Redhawks to 20-12.

Southeast converted on eight of its first 11 shots, while seven players accounted for the first 20 Redhawk points.

Saint Louis fought back with an 11-3 run to tie the game at 23-23.

The Redhawks didn't help out the situation by missing five straight shots during the run.

Both teams went basket for basket again until when the game was 27-27, but then Southeast went on a 6-0 run highlighted by a couple of jumpers by Bradshaw.

Saint Louis would not go away easily as junior forward Denisha Womack narrowed the gap with four points late in the first half to narrow the gap to just one point.

The Redhawks led at the break 34-33.

Bradshaw led the team into the half with 10 points, while Mitchell added five of her own. The team shot 14 of 29 in the first half for 48 percent including two 3-point baskets.

Coach Ty Margenthaler credited the lead at halftime to the energy the team showed.

"In the first half, I thought we had great energy," Margenthaler said. "I thought we had great communication and a great rotation off the bench and everything was clicking our way."

It was a tale of two halves as the Redhawks could not match the energy from the first half.

The Billikens took the lead early in the second half at 37-34 and senior guard Olivia Hackmann tied the game at that point with a 3-point bucket. But that's where the good times for the Redhawks ended when St. Louis when went on a 14-0 run to gain the lead at 51-37 and never looked back.

Southeast was unable to help itself get back into the game as they were able to get into the bonus midway through the second half, but were forced to come away with no points on a couple missed 1-and-1 opportunities.

The Redhawks as a whole went 9 of 17 in the second half.

The Billikens had its largest lead of the game at 21 when Womack was able to knock down a 3-point basket and the Redhawks were unable to recover falling by 18 points.

Womack led St. Louis with 16 points and sophomore center Saide Stipanovich added 14 points and a team-high seven rebounds.

The Redhawks were led by Bradshaw and Mitchell with 11 points and junior forward Erin Bollmann chipped in with six points.

The Redhawks shot only 5 for 20 in the second half and shot 19 of 49 for the game.

Bradshaw feels that they lacked the energy that they had in the first half and didn't carry it over after halftime.

"The energy level heading into the game was different than in the second half," Bradshaw said. "We all need to excited, whether it's when they turn the ball over or miss shots, we need to pick each other up."

Margenthaler feels that his team will grow from this loss and be a better team.

"We learned a lot tonight," Margenthaler said. "We went against a St. Louis team that had size and experience."

The Redhawks will take the court again Nov. 25 against Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi at 3 p.m. The next home game for Southeast is on Dec. 3 when it takes on Western Illinois at 11 a.m.