By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – When a team is shooting as hot as Southeast Missouri was on Wednesday night, even when Tennessee Tech was doing the right things, it was overshadowed.
The Golden Eagles saw their three-game winning streak snapped on Wednesday in the Hooper Eblen Center, falling 79-70 to the visiting Redhawks.
"A lot of credit to SEMO," said Tech head coach Kim Rosamond. "They deserved it. They earned this. They were the toughest team on the floor tonight. We just really struggled defending them. They made big, big shots and shot the ball really well. They got very comfortable.
"On offense, we just weren't able to get into a flow the entire game. We were just on our heels all night. We were not aggressive and SEMO was the aggressor. They were the toughest team on the floor tonight and they earned it."
Tech (3-2, 1-1 Ohio Valley Conference) won't have time to dwell on the defeat long as they return to action on Saturday at Eastern Illinois for a 1 p.m. contest.
As for Wednesday night, the only word that describes it is tough.
Southeast Missouri ended the contest shooting 55.2 from the field, including 8-for-12 in both the first and fourth quarters. The Redhawks (3-4, 1-1 OVC) also outscored Tech 19-12 in the third, creating most of the separation in the contest following a 37-all tie at the intermission.
Tesia Thompson led SEMO with 21 points and 16 rebounds, collecting a double-double in the first half. She was 8-for-11 from the floor and 5-for-6 from the charity stripe. Sophie Bussard also scored 15 points, Roshala Scott had 13 and Taelour Pruitt, the Redhawks' OVC tournament hero, had 11.
"Tesia does that to everybody," Rosamond said. "That's the kind of player she is night in and night out. That wasn't surprising. What we did not do a good job of was containing the other players around her. They had four in double figures. Sophie Bussard played really, really big. Taelour Pruitt is a kid we're really familiar with (hitting a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to eliminate Tech in last year's OVC tournament). She's a gamer. She hits big shots.
Tech did have five players in double-digit scoring as Jordan Brock led the way with 15 points, including three 3-pointers – leaving her two made treys away from breaking Allison Clark's Tech career record for 3-pointers made. Mackenzie Coleman and Anna Jones each scored 13, Maaliya Owens added 11 and Kesha Brady scored 10, leaving the senior guard four points away from the 1,000-career point mark.
"Our players have been playing really, really well," Rosamond said. "We just struggled tonight. You're going to have those nights. That's where you have to dig in and get stops. We weren't able to do that tonight."
Rebounding had been one of Tech's strengths this season, but SEMO came out on top of that front, taking 43 boards to 26 for the Golden Eagles.
"When you're not shooting the ball well, you have to get extra possessions," Rosamond said. "We only had 10 offensive boards tonight. We were one and done a lot, then had to go down to the other end to defend them. We struggled on the defensive side as well, giving up 44 points in the paint. We had a tough time keeping the ball in front, tough time containing the ball, they got a lot of drives and kick-outs for 3s. They were 6-for-12 from 3."
On the floor, Tech ended the game shooting at a 40.3-percent clip, but was 4-for-17 (23.5 percent) in the third quarter.
