By Nate Perry, TTU Sports Information
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – Another huge road trip awaits the Tennessee Tech women's basketball team this week, as they will square off with two teams in the top half of the Ohio Valley Conference standings, beginning with Southeast Missouri on Thursday evening at 5:30 p.m. in the Redhawks' Show Me Center.
ROAD WARRIORS
The Golden Eagles have a chance to secure their eighth road victory of the year against SEMO, which would be the most in a season since the 2012-13 team finished 8-5 behind enemy lines.
BENCH BALANCE
Two of TTU's three leading scorers came from the bench Saturday against Murray State, as Kesha Brady scored a team-high 17 points and Mackenzie Coleman had 15, which led Tech's 45-point effort from its reserves. That total is the Golden Eagles' second highest this season.
KILLER KENT
Through 18 games this season, Kentoria Alexander was averaging 7.4 points per game. In three games since, she has nearly doubled that mark with a rate of 14.3 per tilt. That stretch includes Saturday's 16-point effort against Murray State, which matched a career high.
The best part of Alexander's recent scoring uptick is that it hasn't taken away from her typical do-it-all style. The senior grabbed at least six rebounds in all three games, recorded four assists in two of them, and kept the turnovers low with just 2.0 per contest.
Alexander has now hauled down at least six rebounds in 12 of her last 13 games, and is the team's second-best rebounder at 6.2 per game.
She's also one of two players on the team averaging more than four assists (4.1), joining Akia Harris at 4.9.
BOUNCE-BACK BRADY
Brady's 17 points on Saturday marked her second straight game in double figures. She was 8-of-15 from the field over those two games (53.3 percent), and 5-of-11 from 3-point range (45.5 percent).
She was a constant presence last Thursday against Austin Peay, scoring 12 points with five rebounds and a season-best three assists.
PERIMETER PROBLEMS
Over its last three games, Tech has had a hard time producing offense from behind the 3-point line, as the team has connected on just 14 of 62 attempts (22.5 percent). That clip is markedly different from its team rate of 35.9 percent through its first 18 contests, which was ranked in the top 40 in Division I.
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI PROFILE
The 1991-92 season was Southeast Missouri's first in the Ohio Valley Conference, where it has built an all-time record of 211-243 (.465) over 28 years.
The Redhawks reigned as back-to-back-to-back conference champions from 2006 to 2008, and won the 2006 and 2007 league tournaments to advance to the NCAA Tournament. However, due to NCAA penalties imposed later, the 2006 regular-season and tournament titles were vacated.
Coach Rekha Patterson is in her fourth season at the helm for SEMO, and has led the team to a 10-11 record so far this year, with a 5-5 mark in the OVC. They are currently tied with Austin Peay and SIUE for fifth place in the standings.
Tesia Thompson stars for the Redhawks with 17.6 points per game, which is fourth in the OVC. She has stepped up that production in league games, averaging 18.7 per game, which is tied for the league lead.
Thompson is also the team's leading rebounder, producing the OVC's eighth-best per-game rate with 7.3. She rips down 3.0 offensive boards per contest, and also ranks sixth in the league in steals with 1.9 per game.
Senior guard Adrianna Murphy is also a big piece of the equation for SEMO, as she leads the league in steals per game with 2.7, ranks eighth in assists with 3.9, 10th in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.3, and holds the team's best clip from 3-point range (35.6 percent).
Murphy is the team's second leading scorer (9.4 per game) and rebounder (4.0), and is the only Redhawk to have started all 21 games. Her team-high 33.1 minutes per contest ranks fifth in the conference.
Jocelyn Taylor and Kennedi Allen patrol the paint for Southeast Missouri, and are both ranked in the top 10 in the league in blocks per game with 1.1.
SERIES NOTES
Tech has won just over 60 percent of its 53 all-time meetings against Southeast Missouri, having compiled a 32-21 record against the Redhawks in Ohio Valley Conference play.
TTU opened with five straight victories over the first two seasons of the series before suffering its first loss, in Cape Girardeau, on Jan. 15, 1994. After winning four of the next five matchups, Tech took its first home loss to SEMO, 63-62, on Feb. 17, 1996.
Tech posted victories in 12 of the next 13 encounters, equating to its most impressive series lead, 21-4, through the end of the 2002 campaign.
Southeast Missouri began its climb back into the series starting in 2003. The Redhawks won the next four games in a row, and 14 of the next 18 total, which brought the overall head-to-head back to 25-18 in favor of the Golden Eagles.
Tech has rebuilt some of its separation over the last 10 matchups, owning a 7-3 ledger.
Kim Rosamond has split her two meetings with SEMO, winning the first one 74-63 in Cape Girardeau on Dec. 29, 2016 for her first OVC win at TTU.
Akia Harris had 12 points and eight rebounds in that game, which complimented a 30-point, 12-rebound double-double from Yaktavia Hickson.
SEMO took last year's matchup, 70-66, on Jan. 25. Jordan Brock posted her first-ever 30-point game in the loss, hitting seven 3-pointers, which was a career-high at the time. Anacia Wilkinson came off the bench to be Tech's other double-digit scorer with 12 points, and added a team-high six rebounds.
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Photo by Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
