COURT SESSION: TEAM EFFORT A BIG KEY TO SOUTHEAST'S OVC RECORD

We're at the halfway point in our Ohio Valley Conference season and I'm really pleased with the effort and the togetherness of our basketball team. This team has worked very hard to get into position to have a chance to win the OVC title.

We are 8-1 and in second place behind Murray State. We just have to continue to play one game at a time, beat Murray State at their place and hope someone else beats the Racers.

The conference race is really starting to take shape. The surprise teams appear to be Eastern Illinois and Morehead State and they are our next two opponents, with both games on the road.

I think our team will continue to get better. Our new players are just starting to fit into the system and they will become even more productive in the second half of the season.

Kahn Cotton is just now getting in game shape and he will continue to get better. Kahn now leads the OVC in assist-turnover ratio. He has 52 assists and only 28 turnovers, which is outstanding.

Kahn is also a player who likes to have the ball in his hands when the game is on the line. He made the winning basket earlier at Arkansas State. He scored our final nine points against Murray State, with three of the baskets giving us the lead and the other creating a tie. He hit the 30-footer at the buzzer to send the Tennessee-Martin game into overtime.

Bud Eley just continues to play very consistent basketball. His scoring has fallen off a bit in the last couple of games, but he continues to rebound, block shots and hand out assists. He had a career-high six assists in the Tennessee-Martin game.

Bud is being double and triple teamed and he is dishing off to the open man. We do need to do a better job getting him the ball in a position where he can score before being double-teamed.

My comments on Kahn and Bud illustrate how our entire team is starting to understand how each individual can contribute and how each player can help make us a better team.

Starting out our three games last week, we came out and just dominated Austin Peay on the way to a victory. Our first half was as good a half as we have played this season.

Going into the Murray State game, I knew our team was very emotional with a great desire to beat the Racers. I think they wanted to do so well so bad that they were tight and tentative in the first half. We played hard, but rushed our shots and fell behind. The second half, we were more patient and continued to battle hard enough to get back in the game.

Kahn put us ahead with five seconds remaining and we wanted to foul whoever brought the ball down at about half-court because they still weren't in the bonus. We didn't foul, and Aubrey Reese made a tough shot to give Murray State the win.

The Murray State loss was really hard on the team and effected our play Saturday night against Tennessee-Martin. I could tell at practice Friday that the team was trying to practice hard, but they were still carrying the Murray State loss with them.

We didn't play that well against Tennessee-Martin, but we played hard and when Kahn's shot went in at the buzzer, we had a chance to win in overtime and we did.

Rod Johnson got us off to a good start in the overtime with a conventional three-point play and we got the victory. Rod has really been playing well. He is finally shaking off all the rust from a year-and-a-half away from competitive basketball.

As I look at the OVC statistics, it is good to know that we have the top two field-goal shooters in the league in Bud (.599) and Rod (.580) and the top two free-throw shooters in Cory Johnson (.950) and Kahn (.838).

Cory is 22-for-22 from the line in OVC games and 38-for-40 on the season. He is also gradually building up his 3-point percentage, currently shooting .425 from beyond the line.

Our road games the next two Saturdays are crucial if we are to stay in the hunt for the conference title. Eastern Illinois, our opponent this Saturday, is a very solid basketball team that spreads you out on defense. We will have to play very well in order to win.

Thanks to you fans, the crowd at the Murray State game was outstanding. That type of atmosphere is what builds school spirit and makes alumns happy. Thanks for being there!

Gary Garner is the head basketball coach at Southeast Missouri State University. His weekly column is sponsored by Rust Communications