CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. — After an extended break from competition for final exams, the Sugar Bears return to action at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday when they face the Southeast Missouri Redhawks in Cape Girardeau.
The Sugar Bears (5-1), winners of four straight, will be playing just their third road game of the season, having previously split a pair of road contests at Murray State and Tennessee. They'll meet up with a Redhawks team that is 6-4 and coming off wins over Wichita State and Lipscomb.
The Sugar Bears last played on Dec. 3, getting a 93-38 win over Crowley's Ridge College – a game in which
Olivia McWilliams had a breakout performance with 21 points and 5 rebounds in 23 minutes, and
Raquel Logan had her second double-double of the season with a career-high 17 points and 13 rebounds.
The Redhawks, who are in their first season under head coach Rekha Patterson (previously the associate head coach at Ball State and former Baylor and Creighton assistant), will be without leading scorer Olivia Hackmann (16.4 points per game), who is out indefinitely with a foot fracture.
With Hackmann shelved, the Redhawks will likely lean more heavily on 5-foot-6 junior guard Bri Mitchell (12.0 points per game, 3.7 rebounds per game) and 5-11 senior forward Erin Bollmann (10.1 ppg, 7.8 rpg). Sophomore forward Deja Jones also averages 6.8 points and 6.9 rebounds for the Redhawks, who average 67.9 points per game but have scored 78 or more four times including a season-high 89 against Western Illinois.
On the flipside, the Sugar Bears have allowed 40 or fewer points in three straight games – the program's first such stretch since the 2011-12 season – and are giving up 51.5 points per game for the season and just 41.4 outside of the 102 allowed to then-No. 4 Tennessee.
Sunday's meeting will be the 7th between the two programs, with SEMO holding a 4-2 series lead, including taking four of the five meetings since the Sugar Bears moved to Division I in 2006. The Sugar Bears are 0-2 in Cape Girardeau, having lost 60-41 in 2008 and 64-60 in 2006. The Redhawks defeated the Sugar Bears 48-46 last season in Conway, scoring 9 of the game's final 10 points to escape with the come-from-behind victory.
The Sugar Bears are 2-0 this season against teams from the Ohio Valley Conference, getting a pair of 10-point wins over Murray State. The Redhawks were picked last in the OVC preseason poll, while Murray was picked 10th of the 12 teams.
After Sunday's game, the Sugar Bears will return to action in the Farris Center on Tuesday against Central Baptist College.
