COURT SESSION: INDIANS FEEL GOOD ABOUT 5-0 RECORD

It feels good to be 5-0 at this point in the season and it feels particularly satisfying to be 1-0 in the OVC with a road win at Tennessee Tech.

Thursday night's win over the Golden Eagles was definitely our most satisfying to date. It was a road win, a conference win and it got us started on the right foot in the OVC race. We can now enjoy being in first place or at least a tie for first until at least the year 2000.

I thought the demeanor of our three seniors -- Mike Branson, Roderick Johnson and Brian Bunche set the tone for the win.

The seniors were very focused and displayed great leadership to the rest of the team on the bus, in the restaurants, in the hotel, at practice and in the game. The new players followed their lead and we beat a very good Tech team.

Although Tech battled back to make the game interesting late, I thought we controlled the game throughout. Mike Branson had an outstanding game with 24 points, including 5-for-7 from 3-point range. Michael Stokes made four crucial free throws in the final 22 seconds to seal the win and we got contributions from many different players, especially Matt Morris.

I love to talk about Morris because he is my kind of player. He is a walk-on who loves to practice and compete. He competes hard in every practice and in every drill.

As a freshman, we had some injuries down the stretch and Matt came in and did a great job. We wouldn't have won at Middle Tennessee that year if he had not come through. Then last season, he saw very little playing time, but continued to practice hard every day.

This season it again appeared that Matt might not get a lot of playing time, but when Antonio Short went down with an injury we needed another guard for our rotation and I didn't hesitate to call on Matt because I knew he would be prepared.

Matt got his first real playing time at Tech and responded with eight points, three rebounds and one assist in 17 minutes. He hit a big 3-pointer and made five of six free throws down the stretch.

In athletics, you never know when you will be called on, but you always have to be ready. Matt was ready and was a key part of our biggest win so far this season.

Saturday night, we beat Oakland City and in the process built up enough of a lead that everybody got some quality minutes. That is one of the reasons we schedule a couple of Division II games a year.

This week we are off to the University of Montana Tournament in Missoula. All reports are that they put on a really good tournament and it looks like the field is wide open, with any of the four teams capable of winning the title.

We open with Montana Friday night, and you will remember we had a great game with them on Nov. 27 at the Show Me Center when we survived by five points. That gives them a revenge motive and we will need a top effort to win and move to the championship game Saturday night.

Hopefully you will tune into the games both Friday and Saturday nights on K-103 and hear us pick up two wins.

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