• Preseason Releases: Men, Women | Media Day Recap
The Southeast Missouri men's team was picked second while the women's team was predicted ninth in the 2025-26 OVC Preseason Poll voted on by league head coaches and communications directors.
The predictions were released as part of the OVC Basketball Media Day powered by
Centerpoint Energy, which was held on October 14.
For only the third time in program history, SEMO was voted as high as second in the league's preseason poll (the others were 1999-00 and 2013-14). The defending regular season champions return forward Brendan Terry, a second-team All-OVC pick from last year and SEMO's third-leading scorer (11.2 points/game). He started all 33 games and finished second on the team with 4.5 rebounds per contest. Guards Braxton Stacker and BJ Ward are also among the OVC's players to watch. Stacker rated fourth on the team in scoring with 8.9 points and third in rebounding with 3.1 boards per game last season while Ward was fifth behind Stacker with 8.4 points per game in 32 starts.
The SEMO women's team is under the direction of second-year head coach Briley Palmer. Among her returning players to watch are graduate student guard Lexi McCully and sophomore center Ainaya Williams.McCully is the leading scorer from the 2024-25 campaign where she averaged 11.2 points per game scoring 324 points over 29 games played. She shot 34.7-percent from the field, 31.2-percet from three, and was an impressive 86-percent free throw shooter a season ago. Williams is the leading rebounder returning from a freshman campaign that saw her average 5.2 rebounds per game. She collected a total of 136 rebounds, 53 coming on the offensive end (2.0 ORPG). She also led the Redhawks with 53 blocked shots (2.0 BPG) which put her in the top 10 in program history for blocks in a single season.
The SEMO teams will look to be one of eight teams in each gender to qualify for the 2026 OVC Basketball Championships, which will be played March 4-7 at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana. For more information on the championship,
click here.
BELOW VIDEOS
Head Men's Coach
Brad Korn
Senior Forward
Brendan Terry
Head Women's Coach
Briley Palmer
Graduate Guard
Lexi McCully