With a poor first-half shooting performance and an array of three-pointers from the Redhawks, the Lions (1-5) dropped their fifth non-conference game of the season to Southeast Missouri (SEMO) (6-4) on Saturday, 58-61.
The Redhawks shot over 80 percent from three-point range for the game, led by guard Corey Wilford, who went 5-for-5 from distance with 18 points.
“We gave them a lot of easy looks from the three-point line and didn’t finish on the other end,” said Lions guard Brandon Fortenberry.
The Lions jumped out to a 10-7 lead a little over five minutes into the contest, but the Redhawks continued to find the hoop and took the lead at the 13:11 mark with a three-pointer from Marland Smith.
 By the 6:00 mark in the first half, SEMO had built a 17-point lead over the Lions as the Lions went scoreless for over nine minutes. The Lions managed to cut down the deficit to 11 as Fortenberry ended the half with a jumper, and the Lions went into the half down 31-20. Collectively, the Lions shot 25 percent in the first half compared to the Redhawks 54 percent.
“It’s was a very poor shooting performance from us tonight,” said Yarbrough. “Seems like we just could not make a shot to save our lives. It was an extraordinarily frustrating day.”
The Lions opened the second half shooting well, but SEMO continued to excel from three-point range. After two made free-throw shots by junior guard Jeffery Ricard, the Lions trailed by eight points facing their smallest deficit since early in the first half. Ricard went 8-for-8 from the line adding 10 points off the bench for the Lions.
SEMO would continue to boost their lead as forward Nino Johnson gave the Redhawks a 53-39 lead with 8:30 remaining in the game. Johnson scored 10 points on the evening and grabbed game high 16 rebounds.
Late in the game, Southeastern chipped away at the lead. Despite it looking like SEMO would come away with an easy win, the Lions began coming back at the two-minute mark. With 2:07 left, the Lions trailed by 10.
“Coach just told us to get two stops and this thing would be down to four or five before you know it and you’ll have a chance to win it,” said Fortenberry. “We just ran out of time.”
With consecutive three pointers from guards Fortenberry and Dre Evans, the Lions cut the lead to five with 49 seconds remaining.
With five seconds remaining, guard Jeremy Campbell tipped in a Fortenberry miss that made the game 60-58. The Redhawks would get fouled and make one of two free throws, forcing a full court shot from Fortenberry as time expired and SEMO earned the win.
“I knew what we saw at the end is in us,” said Yarbrough. “Our inability to just get a rhythm offensively and go into the very long scoring drought is very frustrating.”