OVC CHAMPIONS • 2006-07 • 2007-08 // TOURNAMENT CHAMPS • 2006-07 • 2019-20
COACHES
REKHA PATTERSON
Head Coach Sixth Season // North Carolina A&T, 2001 In just five seasons, Rekha Patterson has elevated the Southeast Missouri State Women’s Basketball program from a preseason last place selection in 2015 to winning the 2020 OVC Conference Tournament Championship. This collection of talent, earned the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, a first in 13 years and was projected to win a 1st round game before being cancelled due to COVID. As Patterson enters her sixth season at the helm, she and her staff have been able to recruit, retain and develop a plethora of talented student-athletes. They have tutored a Conference Tournament MVP, Freshman of the Year, the 1st ever in program history Defensive Player of the Year and an All-OVC performer in each season. In her fifth season, Patterson was named OVC Coach of the Year as she led the Redhawks to a 25-7 overall record and third-place finish to the regular season with a 14-4 mark in OVC play. It was SEMO’s highest OVC finish since the 2007-08 season. The 2019-20 team also had the highest winning percentage in the Division I era and were ranked 21st in the final CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Poll following the historic 2019-20 season. Patterson has guided the Redhawks to five-consecutive Ohio Valley Conference Tournament appearances, a first since 200509. Patterson also lead the Redhawks to just the second OVC Tournament title in program history and first since 2006-07. The 19-20 Redhawks achieved their success after being predicted to place sixth in the league’s preseason poll. Statistically, SEMO led the OVC in scoring offense (74.5 ppg) and scoring margin (+10.6), while ranking third with a .343 three-point field goal percentage. The team also achieved an 11 game winning streak during conference play. The Redhawks finished their non-conference slate with an 8-3 record. SEMO recorded a dominating 70-53 win over SEC member Ole Miss for its first road win over an SEC school in program history. This was just the second all-time win against a SEC foe in program history and first since 1998. SEMO went 3-0 in the tournament to earn the automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament before the season ended abruptly due to COVID-19. The Redhawks outscored their opponents 263-227 in the
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REKHA PATTERSON tournament, garnering double-digit victories against the tourney’s top-two seeded teams. Patterson garnered her first OVC Tournament win with an 82-81 overtime win over Tennessee Tech in the first round of the 2020 tournament. Taelour Pruitt’s long range step back 3-pointer at the buzzer against Tennessee Tech sent SEMO to the semifinals against No. 2 Belmont. The buzzer beater was the top play on ESPN SportsCenter Top-10 on March 6, 2020. SEMO shattered program and conference records with a 114-99 victory over No. 2 Belmont in the semifinals of the OVC Tournament. Tesia Thompson scored a career-high 39 points, Carrie Shephard poured in 29 and Taelour Pruitt added 21 in the record-setting game that ended Belmont’s streak of four-straight OVC Tournament titles. The Redhawks broke OVC Tournament single-game records in points scored and 3-point field goal percentage (82.4 percent). SEMO missed only three times from beyond the arc going a staggering 14of-17. Combined, SEMO and Belmont scored 213 points, also an OVC Tournament record for total points in a game. A day after a staggering offensive showcase, #3 SEMO used a remarkable defensive effort to stomp #1 UT Martin and win the 2020 OVC Tournament Title. Defensively, SEMO held UTM to only 33.3 percent (18-of-54) from the field and did not give up a 3-pointer to a Skyhawk team which entered the game as the second-most accurate 3-point shooting team in OVC play. The Skyhawks had a 3-pointer in every game this year except this one. They were 0-of-11 from beyond the arc. The Redhawks 2019-20 All-OVC honorees include Tesia Thompson (First-Team, OVC All-Tournament Team MVP), Carrie Shephard (First-Team, OVC All-Tournament Team), and Taelour Pruitt (OVC All-Tournament Team). In the last three seasons, Patterson has mentored Thompson who secured her third-straight All-OVC accolade following the 2019-20 season. She was named OVC Freshman of the Year before claiming first-team honors in back-to-back seasons. She averages 19.6 points and 7.8 rebounds per game in conference play, ranking third and ninth in the OVC in those categories, respectively. Thompson dished out 41 assists, five blocks and 25 steals, as well. For the year, she averaged 18.6 points per game as the Redhawks top scorer. Thompson became just the 10th Redhawk in the Division I era to surpass 1,000 points. She reached the milestone at Ole Miss (Dec. 14) in the first quarter. Patterson also mentored Shephard, who broke her own SEMO single-season record in 3-pointers made with 88 this past year. In her junior and senior seasons, Shephard made a combined 161 threepointers which place her fourth all-time at SEMO in career 3-pointers made. She is second on the team in scoring with 16.6 points per game and leads the team with 67 steals and rates second with 101 assists. In 2018-19, four Redhawks logged over 200 points, with Tesia Thompson leading the team and the conference with 529 points. Carrie Shephard (288), Murphy (258) and Jocelyn Taylor (234) also scored over 200 points. Carrie Shephard set the single-season record for three-pointers attempted (217) and three-pointers made (73).
2020-21 SOUTHEAST MISSOURI WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
