WKU presses its case

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -- Southeast Missouri State coach Gary Garner said before playing Western Kentucky that if his team could take care of the basketball, it would be in the game with a chance to win.

Southeast did not even come close to taking care of the basketball, ultimately was not really in the game and had absolutely no chance to win.

WKU's trademark pressure defense, keyed by a small yet extremely quick and athletic group of players, forced Southeast into 29 turnovers as the Hilltoppers romped 74-53 Wednesday night.

A crowd of 3,882 at Diddle Arena saw WKU remain unbeaten at 4-0, while Southeast suffered its third road loss and fell to 1-3.

"Their press just totally annihilated us the whole game," Garner said. "They're quick and athletic, but we should have handled it much better. I knew the press would bother us some, but I had no idea it would be like this."

Said Southeast senior forward Reggie Golson: "Their press is pretty good. They have a lot of quick, athletic guards. When you're on the road, it feels like there's 10 people on the court for the other team. But we should have taken care of the ball better."

Not only did Southeast commit all those turnovers, but WKU turned them into 40 points. Conversely, the Hilltoppers had only 12 turnovers, which Southeast converted into just 11 points.

The Hilltoppers entered play Wednesday forcing an average of nearly 22 turnovers per game, but Southeast had been turning the ball over an average of less than 15 times per contest.

"We usually handle the press well, but tonight we were just bad against the press," Garner said. "And they had so many easy baskets off the press."

Southeast continued to be plagued by a bad run of injuries. This time, senior guard Brett Hale, the team's third-leading scorer at 16.3 points per game, missed the contest after suffering an unusual injury earlier in the week.

Hale, during a practice, had a ball hit hard off the end of the ring finger on his left (non-shooting) hand. Instead of simply jamming the finger, some skin tore loose and Hale had to have three stitches. He suited up Wednesday but the finger was too tender for him to play, although he said he should be able to go Saturday when Southeast hosts South Dakota State.

"I've never seen that happen before, where you have to have stitches with something like that," Garner said.

It's debatable whether Hale's presence would have done much to slow down WKU's onslaught, although he and fellow senior guard Derek Winans -- who has not yet played because of a stress fracture in his left leg -- would have likely added much-needed maturity on the court.

"I'm sure we could have used them," Garner said. "But Western Kentucky has a very good basketball team, and they just beat us pretty good."

Senior forward Dainmon Gonner led Southeast offensively with 12 points. Golson and sophomore guard Terrick Willoughby both added 11 points. Junior center Waylon Francis, a junior college transfer, had his best game to date with 10 points and nine rebounds.

"Waylon played well," Garner said.

Junior guard Anthony Winchester and freshman swingman Courtney Lee led WKU with 19 points apiece.

"The press is working better than we thought it would," Lee said. "Defense leads to offense, and it leads to easy baskets."

Turnovers were not the only reason Southeast wound up getting pounded. Despite using three and four guards at the same time much of the night, WKU held a 42-35 rebounding edge, including 25-11 on the offensive glass. That translated into a 20-9 WKU advantage in second-chance points.

Southeast held two brief leads early, the last at 9-7. And Southeast was looking pretty good late in the first half, trailing just 30-28 with a little more than three minutes remaining.

But three quick turnovers and several missed shots led to a 9-0 WKU run in about two minutes as the Hilltoppers went ahead 39-28. A three-point play by Francis with 12 seconds left made it 39-31 at the intermission.

Any chance Southeast had of hanging around in the second half pretty much ended right off the bat as WKU took advantage of several more turnovers to score the first seven points and lead 46-31.

Southeast got within 46-34 seconds later, but a 16-4 WKU run made it 62-38 and ended all comeback hopes. The Hilltoppers led 72-40 with a little more than six minutes left. Their starters came out moments later, allowing Southeast to make the final margin a bit less lopsided.

"We talked at halftime about getting the lead back up and keep putting pressure on them," Winchester said.

It worked.

"They have a tough press. It's the toughest press we've seen so far," said Southeast senior guard Mike Nelke, who saw his first action since the season opener because of a sprained wrist. "But we still had so many unforced turnovers."

Southeast actually shot much better from the field than WKU (45.8 percent to 35.7 percent). But the Hilltoppers, because of all those turnovers and offensive rebounds, had a whopping 22 more attempts than Southeast.