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CAPE GIRADEAU, Mo. – Host Southeast Missouri remained perfect in conference play (5-0) and at home (6-0) thanks to a 66-55 victory over the Eastern Kentucky University men's basketball team Wednesday night in the Show Me Center. The Redhawks (10-5, 5-0 OVC) handed the Colonels (6-7, 3-2) their second straight OVC setback.
Freshman
Justin Stommes netted a personal-best 19 points while connecting on 4-of-7 (57.1 percent) three-point attempts to pace Eastern Kentucky. Junior
Mike Rose chipped in with 14 second half points.
Southeast Missouri shot 50 percent (24-of-48) for the game, forced 19 Colonel turnovers and tallied 41 bench points. Kenard Moore came off the bench to hit five three-pointers and finish with a team-high 17 points. Meanwhile, Brandon Foust came up just short of a double-double with eight points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
The Redhawks led throughout most of the evening and built its largest cushion of the first half when a Calvin Williams lay-up put SEMO ahead, 31-23, with 1:22 left. Junior
Ryan Wiersma came away with a loose ball right before intermission and converted a lay-up to make the score 31-25 heading into intermission.
Southeast Missouri still held an eight-point lead, 38-30, with 14 minutes remaining, but Rose scored eight straight points to even the game at 38-all. After another tie at 41-apiece, the Redhawks rolled off nine consecutive points to pull away. A few minutes later, Moore connected on back-to-back three-pointers to give Southeast Missouri its largest advantage of the game, 56-43.
Eastern Kentucky cut the deficit to back to seven points on two occasions late in the contest, but would get no closer. The Colonels shot just 34.7 percent (17-of-49) from the field against SEMO, their second worst shooting performance of the season.
Sophomore
Adam Leonard, who had started all 12 games for EKU this season, did not make the trip to Southeast Missouri due to an illness.
The Colonels return home to face Tennessee Tech on Saturday, Jan. 5. EKU and TTU went to double-overtime the last time the two teams met in McBrayer Arena.
