With his large and muscular 6-foot-10, 280-pound frame, Southeast Missouri State University backup center Terry Rogers is being counted on by coach Gary Garner to supply the Indians with solid rebounding and defense inside.
But Rogers showed Tuesday night that he might be able to deliver some offense as well.
On a night when many of the Indians sputtered, Rogers came off the bench and provided a spark with 17 points as Southeast pulled away in the second half to beat Missouri-Rolla 87-63 in front of 3,946 fans at the Show Me Center.
The Indians improved to 2-0 after their second win over a Division II opponent. The Miners fell to 1-1.
Rogers, a junior-college transfer, had missed Friday's season-opener against Truman State with bronchitis. Although he said he's still not at full strength, you couldn't tell it by his play as he hit seven of eight shots from the field and also tied for team-high rebounding honors with six.
"Coach emphasizes me getting rebounds and playing hard. My role is defense and rebounding, but it felt good to get some points," said a smiling Rogers. "It was good to play. I'm still a little sick, but I wanted to get my wind up."
Garner came away impressed with the play of his big center, who did all of his damage in only 17 minutes of action.
"I thought Terry played really well," Garner said. "He's got soft hands and he can catch the ball. He has a really nice touch with the hook around the basket and he's powerful."
Senior point guard Michael Stokes hit six of 10 shots -- including three of five 3-pointers -- and scored 15 points while also dishing out six assists and grabbing six rebounds.
Senior forward Emmanuel McCuthison added 13 points, as did senior guard Amory Sanders off the bench. Sanders hit three of five 3-pointers and also distributed five assists.
Senior guard Antonio Short, seeing his first action of the season after completing a suspension for violating team rules, had eight points. Sophomore forward Drew DeMond added seven points and blocked three shots, giving him seven blocks in the first two games.
The Miners, who used just seven players, got 24 points from freshman center Brian Westre and 17 from guard Kasim Withers. Westre hit 10 of 16 shots and also pulled down 11 rebounds.
For the second straight game, the Indians could not run away and hide from an outmanned foe. UMR led by as many as seven points early and Southeast did not go ahead for good until 8:06 remained in the first half when Rogers put in a short hook for a 20-18 lead.
After a sluggish start, the Indians actually gained control of the game with Stokes and four reserves -- Rogers, Sanders, Tim Scheer and Damarcus Hence -- on the floor.
"We were down by five and then we got up by nine with most of the starters out," said Garner. "Those guys off the bench gave us a lift."
Southeast opened up a 31-20 lead late in the first half but settled for a 36-29 halftime advantage.
The Indians scored the first eight points of the second half and steadily pushed their lead out to 17 points before UMR pulled to within six with just under 10 minutes left. But five points by Rogers started a 15-1 run that put Southeast up 75-55 and buried the Miners.
Southeast shot 51 percent from the field (31 of 61) and 46 percent from 3-point range (11 of 24) but it was still not an overly impressive performance, although Garner said it's hard to evaluate just where the Indians are right now because they have faced significantly inferior competition during their opening two games.
"It's hard to evaluate," said Garner. "But we weren't very smooth and I'm disappointed again that we never really took the game. One thing I thought we did well is find the open man on the break. We didn't do that Friday night (against Truman State).
"And it was really good to get Tone (Short) and Terry back. You want to have your whole team out there."
If it's been hard for Garner to make a decent evaluation of his team through these first two games, that won't be the case later this week as the Indians travel to Kansas City for an eight-team tournament.
Southeast faces Toledo -- picked as one of the top teams in the Mid-American Conference -- Friday and could meet Auburn in Saturday's semifinals.
Asked if his team was ready for the rugged tourney that features three NCAA Tournament teams from last year, Garner smiled and said, "I can't tell you. But one good thing about going to Kansas City, we'll really know a lot about our team on the bus coming back home Sunday night."
INDIAN NOTES: Freshman guard Joel Shelton did not get into Tuesday's game. Explained Garner, "Joel hadn't done some of the things the coaches wanted him to do (in the days leading up to the contest) so he didn't play. It was a coach's decision."
Garner said that Shelton would see action in Kansas City.
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