ELEY ASSAULTS SE RECORD BOOK FROM NUMEROUS ANGLES

Bud Eley's brilliant basketball career at Southeast Missouri State University is about to produce another major milestone.

The Indians' 6-foot-10, 260-pound senior center needs just 11 more rebounds to become the school's all-time leader in that department.

Eley is currently in third place with 829 career rebounds, trailing only second-place Kermit Meystedt (834) and all-time leader John Sanchez, who pulled down 839 rebounds from 1976-80.

The record could very well fall Saturday when the Indians play at Morehead State. If it doesn't happen that night, it almost certainly will next Tuesday when Southeast plays host to Tennessee State.

Eley is fourth on Southeast's all-time scoring list with 1,423 points, although he's not likely to move up any higher since he is still more than 250 points out of third place.

Eley is already the all-time school record-holder in blocked shots with 153. With 53 blocks so far this season, he has broken his own single-season school record of 51 set during the 1995-96 campaign.

"Bud is just having a tremendous season," said Southeast coach Gary Garner. "He's really a dominating player on the defensive end."

Eley leads the Indians in scoring (14.6 ppg), rebounding (10.2), blocked shots (2.9) and field-goal percentage (60.7 percent). He is second on the team in assists with 42 and third in steals with 14.

Eley also leads the Ohio Valley Conference in rebounding, blocked shots and field-goal percentage. He ranks 12th nationally in field-goal percentage, 13th nationally in blocked shots and 14th nationally in rebounding.

Already this season, Eley has recorded 10 double-doubles by reaching double figures in scoring and rebounding. Eight of those performances have come in the past 11 games.

The native of Detroit, Mich., is certainly a major reason why the Indians, 12-6 overall, are a second-place 9-1 in the OVC.

* Southeast boasts the OVC's top two free-throw shooters in senior guards Cory Johnson and Kahn Cotton.

Johnson has missed just three of his 50 attempts this season and is shooting 93.9 percent. He only this week met the NCAA minimum of 2.5 made free throws per game to be in the national rankings and figures to be near the top when the newest statistics are released today.

Johnson, who is 30-for-31 from the charity stripe in OVC games, led the OVC in free-throw shooting last season at 87.3 percent. He is also shooting 42 percent from 3-point range this year to rank second in the conference.

Cotton is second behind Johnson in OVC foul shooting at 87.2 percent. He also leads the league in assist-to-turnover ratio with 2.11 (59 assists, 28 turnovers). In the last five games, Cotton has 30 assists and only five turnovers.

"It's such a luxury to have the ball in the hands of Cory and Kahn late in the game," said Garner. "If they get fouled, you feel pretty secure that they're going to step up there and make them."

* Entering the season, Garner knew what returning regulars Eley, Johnson and Cotton could do. He felt comfortable with their abilities.

Garner didn't quite know what he would be getting out of the two newcomers who would be joining the starting lineup -- junior forwards Roderick Johnson and Mike Branson. But Garner couldn't be happier with the play of those two.

R. Johnson, a transfer from Wisconsin-Milwaukee who practiced with the Indians last year but was ineligible for games, is averaging 11.3 points per game to tie C. Johnson for second on the team behind Eley. R. Johnson is also second in OVC field-goal percentage at 56.9.

Branson, a transfer from Meramec Community College in St. Louis, is fourth on the squad in scoring at 10.8 points per game.

"I wouldn't say either one of them have been surprises, but they're both playing well," Garner said. "Roderick is just now rounding into form after sitting out. He's a much better defensive player than I thought. He's really an alert defensive player.

"Mike has been one of our most consistent players and he's really a complete player, more than I thought. He can shoot the three, put the ball on the floor, go inside, play defense, rebound. He's just been really solid."

* The Indians continue to lead the OVC in scoring defense and field-goal percentage defense.

Opponents are scoring just 64.6 points per game against Southeast and they're shooting only 40.6 percent from the field.