Eastern head coach Mike Miller told his assistant coaches at halftime that he’s seen Southeast Missouri score 50 points in a half many times.

Miller saw it first-hand when the Redhawks did that in the teams’ first meeting Jan. 4. Miller’s words to his assistant proved prophetic, but the 50 second-half points SEMO scored this time didn’t result in an Eastern loss.

Instead, the early lead Eastern jumped out was the difference in the Panthers’ 77-69 win Tuesday night at Lantz Arena.

And the credit can go to Eastern’s defense in the first 20 minutes when the Panthers held SEMO to 19 first-half points.

The Panthers jumped out to a 37-19 halftime lead, holding SEMO to 26 percent shooting and forcing nine Redhawk turnovers.

Miller said a change in getting defenders back was key to stopping SEMO. The Panthers used their three guards to get back and defend, instead of going for the rebound, and the style worked out in Eastern’s favor.

“We would hopefully not give up a lot of transition points, because SEMO might be the best transition team in the league,” Miller said.

The plan worked, with SEMO only scoring six fast-break points the entire game.

The offensive efficiency SEMO displayed that night in Cape Girardeau, Mo., wasn’t anywhere to be found in the first half Tuesday night.

SEMO’s first-half offense was like the winter storm that hit Tuesday in Charleston.

It started out cold and kept getting colder.

The Redhawks scored four points in first 11 minutes, which helped Eastern jump out to a 20-4 lead.

“That team’s a driving team, real athletic team,” said junior center Jake Byrne of SEMO. “We’ve just been working and getting in the gaps real hard. We just gave them nothing.”

Forward Brandon Foust, SEMO’s leading scorer coming into the game, missed all three of his field goal attempts and did not play in the second half.

SEMO head coach Scott Edgar used four substitutions to start the second half. Edgar said he did this trying to look for the right combination on the floor.

That right combination was not there in the first half.

After guard Roderick Pearson scored to tie the game at four with 15:54 left, SEMO went nearly eight minutes without a field goal.

In that time span, Eastern went on a 16-2 run to separate itself from the Redhawks.

SEMO cut it to 12 at one point, but after Eastern’s Romain Martin made two free throws, Eastern’s lead was 33-13.

SEMO wasn’t hitting from outside either, connecting on only one of 11 3-point attempts. “We airballed some wide-open 3-point shots, which is unusual for us,” Edgar said. “Hindsight’s always 20-20, but when you’re shooting 37 percent from the 3-point line, you do want to shoot some 3-point shots. I don’t think, of the 11, not many really had a guys’ hand in their face. We had some good looks in the first half.”