COLLEGE BASKETBALL: SEMO STEPS ON REEBOK

College basketball is back and the Southeast Missouri State University Indians tipped off the season with a 106-70 exhibition win over Team Reebok at the Show Me Center Saturday night.

Southeast enjoyed an outstanding campaign in the 1999-2000 season. The Indians captured their first Ohio Valley Conference championship and qualified for the NCAA Division I Tournament for the first time. They came close to pulling off the upset of the tournament in a 64-61 loss to ranked LSU.

With four players scoring in double figures and all 12 players getting quality playing time, Southeast shot a blistering 61 percent from the floor and outrebounded Team Reebok 53-28.

"We accomplished a lot of the things that we wanted to and maybe one of the biggest was to take a look at all of our players," said Southeast coach Gary Garner. "The most important thing tonight wasn't to win, although we wanted to win, but to get everybody in the game and see how different groups looked playing together."

With 1,850 fans in attendance, Reebok kept the game close throughout the first half with Southeast leading 45-40 at the intermission.

Southeast's superior height and depth began to take its toll in the second half as the Indians began to pull away. From that 45-40 advantage, the Indians outscored Team Reebok 16-6 to begin the second half as they opened up a 61-46 bulge.

From there, the game basically turned into a total rout. Team Reebok got as close as 61-49, but a 10-0 Southeast run ended all hopes of a comeback victory by the visitors. The Indians' 104-67 lead in the final moments of the contest was their biggest advantage of the night.

Leading the scoring for the Indians were guard Amory Sanders with 18 points and small forward Emmanuel McCuthison with 17. Sophomore transfer power forward Daniel Weaver chipped in with 16 and center Nyah Jones knocked down 14 to go with a team-leading eight rebounds. Michael Stokes led in assists with five.

Finding replacements for graduated key frontline players Roderick Johnson, Mike Branson and Brian Bunche has been a major concern for Garner.

But he seemed pleased with the performance of his current inside players.

"Overall, I thought Nyah (Jones) and Terry (Rogers, who had nine points and seven rebounds) did well and I thought Daniel Weaver played extremely well," said Garner. "I feel better now than I did before the game about our inside players. If we get good inside play, with our guards, we're going to have a good basketball team."

Asked if he saw any pleasant surprises, Garner singled out Weaver, who hit six of seven shots from the field.

"I really think Daniel Weaver played well," said Garner. "We know he's going to be a good player. He's just a sophomore, but he's kind of been off for two years. He went to Memphis for one year and didn't get to play any and then he had to sit out last year because of the transfer rule. That kind of player is pretty rusty; you have to have competition."

Team Reebok, composed of former college players and based in St. Louis, was led by the 24 points of ex-Central Missouri State star guard Antonio Rivers.