EAGLE UPSET BID REJECTED BY ELEY

Relief was the operative word for Southeast Missouri State University's basketball team Monday night.

The Indians needed a late surge -- and a brilliant performance from senior center Bud Eley -- to avert a major disaster.

With getting the first triple-double of his Southeast career and with senior forward Demetrius Watson contributing a big performance, the Indians rallied past Morehead State 71-69 in front of 3,946 fans at the Show Me Center.

The victory broke a three-game losing streak for the Indians, who remained in a first-place Ohio Valley Conference tie with Murray State at 4-0. Southeast is 7-5 overall.

Morehead fell to 4-8 overall, 1-3 in the OVC.

"This could have been a really bad loss for us," said Southeast coach Gary Garner, who spent a considerable amount of time in the Indians' locker room before emerging for his post-game radio show. "You cannot lose a game like this and have a chance in the conference.

"I'm just relieved and happy that we won."

Garner can primarily thank Eley for that. Although as a team the Indians were basically outworked and outscrapped by the Eagles, Eley played like a man possessed and simply refused to let Southeast lose.

The 6-foot-10 Eley reached double digits in three major categories as he scored 24 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and blocked a school-record 10 shots. Eley, who hit eight of 10 shots from the field, threw in three assists and a steal for good measure.

"If Bud doesn't have a great game, we lose by eight, 10 points," Garner said. "Bud just dominated the game."

Eley, who earlier in the day was named the OVC Player of the Week for three recent strong outings, tried to downplay his individual performance but he did acknowledge how fortunate the Indians were to have survived.

"We didn't play like we're capable and coach was pretty upset after the game," he said. "We played really bad. The win is nice, but we were lucky to get it.

"Morehead State has really improved this year and I think they'll give a lot of teams in the OVC problems."

Of his own dominance, Eley said, "I just wanted to help my team win. If it wasn't me doing it, it would have been somebody else."

Watson, making only his second start of the season after being a key player off the bench earlier, hit seven of 12 shots and scored 15 points. Watson also pulled down seven rebounds.

"Coach wasn't too happy tonight," said Watson. "We didn't play our best and we were lucky to win."

Cory Johnson added 13 points for the Indians but he hit just three of 12 shots.

Southeast shot just 43 percent from the field (23 of 54). Take away the combined 15-for-22 of Eley and Watson and the Indians really struggled. The Indians also committed 20 turnovers.

"I was really concerned about this game," said Garner. "It's one we should win, but Morehead State has been playing a lot of good teams really close. They've got a much improved team and if they get it going, they can play with anybody in the league."

The Eagles of second-year coach Kyle Macy, the former Kentucky standout, have certainly upgraded their talent base from last year's 3-23 squad. Junior-college transfer Brett Bohanan scored 18 points to lead the way while dazzling freshman Erik Brown had 14 and fellow freshman Kyle Umberger added 12.

Morehead led by nine points early in the game and carried a 34-31 lead into halftime.

Southeast went ahead a few times early in the second half, but Morehead again took control and held the lead for the majority of the final 20 minutes.

The Indians trailed 60-56 with under five minutes left when they used a 9-0 run to go ahead for good.

Watson's follow shot tied things at 60 with just under four minutes remaining.

Then Eley blocked a shot and converted a basket and free throw at the other end to put the Indians ahead 63-60 with 2:45 left.

Johnson's two free throws completed the spurt and made it 65-60.

But the Eagles were far from finished. They pulled to within 70-69 in the closing moments before Kahn Cotton made one of two free throws with nine seconds left for a 71-69 lead.

Bohanan then appeared to draw some contact as he put up a shot from just inside the key, but there was no whistle and the shot was an air ball as the buzzer sounded.

"We're happy to win, but we have to play a lot better when we go on the road," said Eley.

The Indians will have two games on the road the rest of the week, against Middle Tennessee Thursday Tennessee Tech Saturday.

INDIAN NOTES: Forward Roderick Johnson took a blow and went down midway through the second half. He went to the bench apparently dazed and did not return...

With 35 seconds left in the game, many of the lights at the Show Me Center went out. Most of the lights came back on and play resumed after a delay of only a few minutes, but the court was still not as well lit as earlier.