COURT SESSION: EIU WIN A VERY BIG ONE FOR INDIANS

The 72-71 win at Eastern Illinois Saturday night was really a great victory for our basketball team.

It leaves us with a chance to win or tie for the Ohio Valley Conference championship with one week left in the regular season, it gives us momentum as we close out the regular season, and it leaves our players feeling good about themselves.

The win was truly a team victory. Every player made a contribution to the win and three players came up big in the final 20 seconds of the game.

As the clock ticked down with our team trailing by one, Roderick Johnson was double-teamed on the baseline, but he kept his cool and found a cutting Emmanuel McCuthison, who put in the game-winning shot with five seconds remaining.

Emmanuel did a great job of continuing to try to get open and finally found the spot down the lane where Roderick could get him the ball.

Eastern Illinois called a timeout after the basket. Following the timeout, we saw how Eastern was lining up for the inbounds play and we called a timeout to make sure we had everything covered. We wanted them to throw the ball to one of their big men in the backcourt and that worked out.

Eastern inbounded the ball to center John Smith, who tried to make another pass to midcourt, and Antonio Short alertly cut in front and made the steal that preserved the victory.

Three big plays in the final seconds that sealed a great win.

Roderick had a tremendous game with 26 points, seven rebounds, two assists, two steals and one block. He continues to lead the OVC in field-goal percentage at .619 after going 9-for-13 from the floor at Eastern. He was also 8-for-10 from the line.

Amory Sanders came off the bench to hit two pressure 3-pointers in the final minutes of the game; Nyah Jones played 18 minutes and was 4-for-6 from the field; Michael Stokes had 13 points, including a big four-point play in the second half; Fred Abraham had a key back-door basket late in the game;

Drew DeMond gave us quality minutes in the first half and hit his only field-goal attempt; and Brian Bunche played his usual stellar defensive game and hit a big jumper when we were making our comeback in the second half. Mike Branson didn't have a big scoring night, but he had a big basket late in the game when he worked in our offense to hit a big shot inside.

It was a great victory. We learned before the game that our bus driver had become ill and would not be able to drive us back after the game, but we were able to ride back with Coach Ed Arnzen and his women's team. It made for crowded conditions, but both teams were coming off big wins and that made it easier.

The win at Eastern Illinois and the way we won the game should give us confidence in our two road games this week. Although we are playing the ninth and 10th place teams in the OVC, the games are on the road and it is always tough on the road.

Morehead State, who we play Thursday night, is a tremendous 3-point shooting team that leads the OVC in 3-point field-goal percentage.

The Eagles also still have a chance to qualify for the OVC Tournament if they win their final two games and Tennessee State loses to Austin Peay. They will be highly motivated to make the tournament. We will have to be ready.

Eastern Kentucky, our opponent Saturday afternoon, has been eliminated from any tournament consideration, but we will be playing the Colonels in the final game of the season. They will be completely relaxed and ready to just go out and have fun. That makes them a very dangerous team.

Our win at Eastern Illinois means that we will host a first-round OVC Tournament game at the Show Me Center Tuesday night. It is great to have another game at the Show Me Center because of the tremendous support you fans have provided all season.

Gary Garner is the head men's basketball coach at Southeast Missouri State University