CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. ? The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team enjoyed a career-night as a team from behind the 3-point line, but it was Indiana State senior Leah Phillips, who posted a career-high 27 points that helped the Sycamores to a key 75-72 road victory over the RedHawks.

ISU won its second consecutive road game to improve to 2-2 while SEMO fell to 3-2.

“This was a great game played between two teams that put it all out on the floor,” head coach Jim Wiedie said. “You hate to see a loser in a hard-fought game like this. Both teams made big plays and the game was decided by just one or two plays at the end. Fortunately those plays went our way and we were able to get a big road victory.”

Phillips hit 6-of-8 3-pointers to score 27 points in the win. She was 9-of-12 from the field and was 3-of-4 from the free throw line as she led all scorers in the game. She needed that effort as SEMO, which entered the game having hit 13 3-pointers through their first four games of the year, hit 12 3-pointers ? including nine in the first half ? to keep the game close throughout.

“Leah played a great game,” Wiedie said. “She has played with a lot of confidence this season and she was able to keep us in it before the half. We had a lot of kids step up tonight across the board.”

Southeast Missouri State's Sonya Daughtery connected on the RedHawks final 3-pointer of the game to give them a 66-63 advantage with 5:11 left on the clock. Phillips drilled her last of six triples to answer with 3:53 left to knot the score at 66 all.

ISU forced Daugherty into a turnover and then Kelsey Luna converted a traditional 3-point play to stake ISU to a 69-66 lead with just over three minutes left. After Daughtery answered with a conventional 3-point play of her own with 2:18 left to tie the score at 69, Deja Mattox came through with a big bucket off dribble penetration to take a 71-69 lead.

The game saw its sixth and final tie at the 1:15 mark when Daugherty hit a whirling shot, but was answered by a wide-open lay-up from Shannon Thomas with 54 seconds left to give ISU a 73-71 lead. Cooley hit 1-of-2 free throws with 14 seconds left to make it 74-71. After Mattox was whistled for a foul on the defensive end with nine seconds left, Szandra Pal of SEMO hit 1-of-2 free throws to make it 74-72.

With ISU up by two points, Mattox found herself at the free throw line and hit a pair of free throws to take the Sycamores to a 75-72 advantage with eight seconds left. The lead held as SEMO's Tarina Nixon's last second heave at the buzzer sailed wide left and ISU was able to escape with the win.

SEMO came into the game hitting just under 25 percent of their 3-point field goals, but they lit the nets on fire during the first half, hitting 9-of-17 shots from long range en route to taking a 41-40 advantage into halftime.

The RedHawks stroked a trio of 3-pointers in the first three minutes to race out to a quick 11-5 advantage, and the SEMO advantage would grow to as many as 10 points in the early going as they took a 15-5 lead just four minutes into the game.

“When we got down in the first half we didn't back down and were able to battle back,” Phillips said after posting her career-high 27 points. “The key for us was to stop their dribble penetration and we were able to be aggressive and get to the basket, especially in the second half. So many of my teammates stepped up during the game in this win.”

The Sycamores gathered themselves from the hot SEMO start and started to battle back. Senior Leah Phillips hit back-to-back 3-pointers to get them back into the contest and ISU got within a point with 50 seconds left on a jumper by Thomas. Thomas actually missed a lay-up with seven seconds left, which would have given ISU its first lead.

Instead, ISU trailed 41-40 at the half, and the victory over SEMO was the first for ISU when trailing at the half since the Sycamores overcame a 32-28 deficit against Southern Illinois in the regular season finale last season at Hulman Center.

Phillips recorded 27 points and Luna had 13. It marked the first game this season in which Luna had not been the team's leading scorer. Despite only two Sycamores reaching double figures scoring, Kara Schilli ? who returned to her native area of Southeast Missouri ? scored a season-best nine points while Thomas had eight and Mattox and Kelsie Cooley scored seven.

ISU out-rebounded the Redhawks by a 36-29 margin and posted 34 points in the paint. The Sycamores did commit 21 turnovers and allowed 29 points off them, but were able to score 10 points themselves off of SEMO miscues.

With the win, ISU improves to a perfect 4-0 all-time against SEMO, and sent Wiedie to an 11-1 record against members of the Ohio Valley Conference.