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OVC Basketball Tournament: Southeast Missouri State dancing after win over Tennessee Tech

By Harry Schroeder

Southeast Missouri Head Coach Brad Korn celebrates with Southeast Missouri’s Chris Harris (5) following their victory over the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles in the OVC men's championship at Ford Center on Saturday, March 4, 2023.Ns Semo Ttu 030423 1245
Southeast Missouri Head Coach Brad Korn celebrates with Southeast Missouri’s Chris Harris (5) following their victory over the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles in the OVC men's championship at Ford Center on Saturday, March 4, 2023.Ns Semo Ttu 030423 1245 /
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Southeast Missouri State won the OVC Basketball Tournament, beating Tennessee Tech. The title is SEMO’s first OVC tournament title since 2000.

Southeast Missouri State is going dancing for the first time since 2000. The Redhawks took an unlikely route to the dance, but pulled it off Saturday in Evansville. SEMO blew a seven-point lead in regulation only to outscore Tennessee Tech 13-2 over the last 2:24 of overtime and prevail 89-82.

Senior Chris Harris scored 26 points and sophomore Phillip Russell tallied 21, including seven in the extra session as the Redhawks (19-16) claimed their second Ohio Valley Conference Tournament title.

The Ohio Valley Conference has a hashtag slogan of #OVCit and the entire tournament and the championship final lived up to the slogan. SEMO defeated sixth-seeded Lindenwood, fourth-seeded Tennessee State, and the conference champion Morehead State on the way to the title game.

Tennessee Tech (16-17) was picked eighth in the OVC preseason poll and finished second in the wild and reconstructed OVC. The Golden Eagles (11-7 in the OVC) defeated third-seeded UT Martin in the semifinals. TTU and SEMO split a pair of regular season games, as Southeast won in double overtime and Tech won on a last-second shot.

Harris scored 81 points during the OVC championship run and was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. Russell joined him on the all-tournament team. Tech’s Jaylen Sebree and Diante Wood and UT Martin’s Jordan Spears filled out the rest of the tournament honorees.

Russell eclipsed the career 1,000 points during the championship game.

During the tournament’s quarterfinal game between Southern Illinois Edwardsville and UT Martin, three players were ejected as punches were thrown. Martin had to play its semifinal game without two players that were suspended because of the incident.

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SEMO is the first five-seed to win the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament championship since Austin Peay turned the trick in 2005.

As the conference champions, Morehead State has qualified for the National Invitation Tournament.