Southeast looks to enter the win column

Rockhurst visits the Show Me Center for Southeast's home opener.

By Marty Mishow ~ Southeast Missourian

When the season began, Rockhurst University men's basketball coach Bill O'Connor thought he had the kind of team that might give Southeast Missouri State University problems.

But entering tonight's Southeast home opener against Division II Rockhurst -- set for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff at the Show Me Center -- O'Connor isn't so sure.

"At the start of the year, I thought we'd be able to compete with any team on our schedule. Not necessarily win, but compete," O'Connor said. "But we've gotten out of the blocks slow. We're disappointed in the way we've started out.

"Playing a fine program like SEMO is going to be a difficult task for us. But I've always enjoyed playing Division I teams. I hope we play well enough to help SEMO improve, and we also want to improve."

Rockhurst, from Kansas City, Mo., returned four starters from last year's 14-12 squad, but the Hawks are just 1-3 so far. Their win was against St. Mary's of Kansas, while the losses were to William Jewell, Seattle and Lewis & Clark.

"We thought we were going to be really solid going into the season, with four starters back, a lot of veteran guys," O'Connor said. "We haven't shot the ball well, but hopefully we'll start playing a lot better."

The Hawks' leading scorer is 5-foot-11 senior guard Terrance Dopson, who is averaging about 16 points per game.

While Rockhurst has already played four games, Southeast is 0-1 after losing 77-73 at Bradley Friday night. Southeast trailed by 15 points at halftime and by 20 points early in the second half, then twice trimmed the deficit to two points in the final minute before falling short.

Senior forward Dainmon Gonner scored a career-high 36 points for Southeast while senior guard Brett Hale added 16 points (he was originally credited with 13 points but a 3-pointer Hale hit was mistakenly given to another player).

"Dainmon had a great game, and I was really pleased with Brett," Southeast coach Gary Garner said.

But overall Garner didn't like that many things about the way his squad played. Numerous injuries have held Southeast well under 10 players for many practices, thus limiting the team's opportunities to scrimmage. Garner said that has caused Southeast to be well behind offensively.

"I did not like the way we played, but boy, can we get better," Garner said. "But it's not going to happen overnight.

"We're not a good offensive team right now. We were so much further along last year offensively at this time, it's not even close."

Garner knows lower-division opponents are always dangerous, but he's hoping Southeast's recent exhibition loss to Division II Harding will help his players take Rockhurst a bit more seriously than they might normally.

"You always worry about these games because Rockhurst will really come in here really ready to play, and there's no way you can get your players to approach this game like if they were playing Murray State or somebody like that," Garner said.

Southeast signs player

Garner announced Monday that Tyrell Curry, 6-7, 215-pound sophomore at State Fair Community College in Sedalia, Mo., signed a national letter of intent with Southeast during the weeklong early signing period that recently ended.

Curry played at Cincinnati State Community College last year, averaging 11 points and nine rebounds per game. He is originally from Tacoma, Wash.

"We're really happy about signing him," Garner said. "He plays hard and really rebounds the ball."