The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team let its defense do the talking in its first regular season game of the season when it cruised to a 66-38 victory over Alabama A&M.

It was the first time that a Southeast women's team has held an opponent under 40 points in a game since 2010, when it held Jackson State to 37 points.

The Redhawks started out the game with a quick 6-0 run which was highlighted by two offensive rebounds from junior forward Connor King to set the tone early on the boards.

The Bulldogs fought back to make it close with Southeast leading 11-7, but the Redhawks then went on a 14-4 spurt to widen the gap to 25-11.

Interim coach Heather Ezell credits the team's patience and a switch to a zone defense as the reasons for the run.

"I thought we were forcing things off the first pass," Ezell said. "I wanted the team to get some ball reversals and get the defense moving and then attack. I think we did that. We also noticed that they were attacking us inside and we moved to a zone and our players did a great job of knowing where they needed to be to clog the lane."

Alabama A&M was only able to muster 22 percent shooting from the field in the game on 14-63 shooting. This included not making a 3-point basket in the first half and only coming away with one in the second half which amounted to going 1-18 from beyond the arc for the game.

After the spurt by the Redhawks, they went into halftime leading 35-22.

Towards the end of the first half, senior guard Jasmine Robinson felt frustrated after a miserable performance in the half with making only two out of her 12 shots and removed herself from the game.

"I was missing layups and that's a big pet peeve of mine," Robinson said. "I was feeling really frustrated and needed to take myself out of the game and shake it off."

The Redhawks continued their dominance of the game in the second half using an 8-2 run at the start of the half that was punctuated by a 3-point bucket by junior guard Olivia Hackmann. Behind the game-high 19 points from Hackmann, the Redhawks continued to stretch the lead to as high as 30 points in the second half before a few late buckets from the Bulldogs set the margin of victory for Southeast at 28.

The main focus for the team on the night was reducing the number of turnovers after having over 20 in the exhibition game against Missouri Valley. The team accomplished the goal in committing 13 in the game.

"We did a really good job in making the smart pass and the smart play and not trying to force anything," Ezell said.

A key factor in the game for the Redhawks was that they outrebounded Alabama A&M 57-50. Southeast got big contributions on the boards from King, who had 10, and junior newcomer forward Erin Bollman with 13.

"I just thought that if I went all out 100 percent towards the basket, that I could rebound," Bollman said. "I thought my effort and intensity could outdo their size."

Bollman was able to be a force on the offensive end as well with 10 points of her own. Sophomore guard Brianna Mitchell was third on the team in scoring as she was able to tally eight points.

The Redhawks next game will be against Missouri on Monday, Nov. 17 in Columbia, Missouri, at 7 p.m. The next game in the Show Me Center for Southeast will be on Nov. 21 when it will go up against Saint Louis at 6:30 p.m.