COURT SESSION: INDIANS WERE NO MATCH FOR RUGGED CARDS

It was not a good night for our basketball team Monday, primarily because we ran into an extremely talented Louisville squad and the Cardinals put it to us 91-69 in our last non-conference game of the season.

As a coach, it always bothers you to lose. If you were playing the Lakers, you'd want to win the game.

But some games really don't bother you as much as others. Take the SIU game (an 81-62 loss on Dec. 11), where we had a really poor performance. That kind of game really bothers you.

Against Louisville, however, we had our intensity for 40 minutes. When we got down, we didn't give up. Our guys played really hard. But, like I said, Louisville is just a very talented basketball team. A lot of teams can go into Freedom Hall this year and lose by 20. Them beating Kentucky was certainly not a fluke.

Even though we lost the game, what an atmosphere it was, to play in front of almost 19,000 fans in one of the most tradition-rich programs in the country. And Freedom Hall is such a great place to play. I don't think there's one bad seat in the house.

Not only did we lose the game to Louisville, but we suffered another injury when David Montgomery sprained his ankle in the second half.

First we lost our tallest player, 6-10 Bud Eley, to a broken foot in the SIU game. Bud is progressing well but he's still probably going to miss at least a few more games.

And now David, our second-tallest player, goes down. He was x-rayed Tuesday after we got back from Louisville and there is no break.

But it was a pretty good sprain. David is being treated and he's going to be reevaluated again Friday. We hope, and our trainer Lance McNamara thinks, that David will be able to play Saturday. How effective he'll be we don't know, but hopefully we'll have him because we really need him on the floor.

Demetrius Watson, who hurt his knee slightly against Louisville, is fine. He could have gone back into the game but there was no reason to take a chance.

Demetrius really had a good game against Louisville with 17 points as he hit seven out of 11 shots. He has really been playing well since moving into the starting lineup three games ago. He's 16 for 22 shooting during that time.

Kahn Cotton also had a very good game with 23 points and seven assists. He's really been shooting the 3-pointer well.

Now we are through playing non-conference games and it's nothing but Ohio Valley Conference action the rest of the season. Those are the most important games of the season because your conference determines everything, including possibly getting into the NCAA Tournament, which is the goal of every college basketball team.

We face a very important OVC road trip this weekend, playing Morehead State Saturday and Eastern Kentucky Monday. Hopefully David will be ready to go because we really need him.

I hope everybody had a terrific holiday season. Everybody associated with Southeast Missouri basketball appreciates the support of all our great fans. See you at the next home game.

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