'Hawks hit up EIU for first OVC road win

~ Southeast found its shooting touch for a comfortable 72-60 victory.

CHARLESTON, Ill. -- Coach Gary Garner has said all along he believed Southeast Missouri State was a much better shooting team than its 40 percent season average indicated.

For one game at least, the Redhawks proved Garner right -- and it couldn't have come at a better time.

The Redhawks posted their first Ohio Valley Conference road victory of the season -- and also won two straight for the first time in 2005-06 -- by cruising past Eastern Illinois 72-60 Thursday night.

"Any time you win on the road in the conference, it's big, I don't care what conference you're in. A road win is probably the most satisfying thing for a coach," Garner said. "And this is one we really needed."

Southeast improved to 6-7 overall and 3-4 in OVC play, while the Panthers fell to 2-9 and 1-4.

"This feels really good, to finally get our first OVC road win," senior guard Roy Booker said. "This is a new year, 2006, and we're looking at it that way. We're ready to start rolling."

What was especially pleasing to Garner and the Redhawks is that they finally got their stagnant offense untracked.

Except for a blowout of NAIA Central Methodist -- in which Southeast shot 59 percent -- the Redhawks' best shooting performance had been just over 47 percent, and that was during a nonleague win at South Dakota State.

Against EIU, Southeast shot 50 percent in the first half in building a 37-27 lead -- and the Redhawks never cooled off. They shot 57.9 percent in the second half and finished at 53.1 percent (26 of 49), bettering their previous OVC high for the season by a wide margin.

"When we shoot the ball well and don't turn it over, we can beat a lot of teams," said Garner, whose squad had just nine turnovers, after entering play averaging nearly 17 turnovers per game. "This is just one game, but hopefully this will really get our offense going."

The Redhawks, who have shot 3-pointers well most of the campaign -- they entered play at 37.7 percent -- bettered that Thursday by making eight of 19 (42.1 percent).

"We shot well as a team for really the first time, other than Central Methodist," junior guard Terrick Willoughby said.

Booker bounced back from a poor shooting performance during Monday's home win over Eastern Kentucky to make nine of 16 field goals on his way to a game-high 26 points. He also led the Redhawks with five assists.

"Even when my shot is off one game, I have confidence I'll come back and hit my shot the next game," Booker said.

Willoughby, who had been in a miserable shooting slump before the past two games, had his best performance in a while. He scored 15 points on 6-for-9 shooting, including three of four from 3-point range.

"It felt good. Everybody struggles and goes through slumps," Willoughby said. "You could see that Roy came out with a lot of confidence, and I just fed off that."

Said Booker: "It was good to see Terrick come out of it. He'd been in a slump, but he's too good an offensive player."

Although no other Redhawks players scored more than six points, Southeast got solid contributions from the six other players who saw action.

Junior guard Eric Burtin hit two of four 3-pointers and scored six points.

Rapidly improving senior center Waylon Francis had another strong performance off the bench with six points and a team-high six rebounds.

"It was a team effort," Booker said.

As sweet as the road triumph was for the Redhawks, perhaps equally satisfying was the fact they had control virtually all night, and kept a comfortable lead most of the way.

"They never really made a run at us late," Garner said. "That's unusual on the road."

After two early lead changes and ties, the Redhawks went ahead for good, 11-9, on Willoughby's basket with 12:12 left in the first half.

The Redhawks steadily increased their lead and opened up their biggest advantage of the period when Willoughby's 3-pointer at the 4:03 mark made it 31-19. It was 37-27 at halftime, thanks in large part to 14 points from Booker and 10 from Willoughby.

Booker -- who had hit his first two shots of the game -- duplicated that feat to begin the second half as the Redhawks went ahead 41-27.

EIU then made a run, scoring nine quick points to close within 41-36.

But Booker, Francis and freshman guard Eric Jones had baskets in a 6-0 spurt that boosted the Redhawks back to a 47-36 advantage.

Southeast's lead never dipped under nine points the rest of the way, and the biggest margin was 63-48 on Willoughby's 3-pointer with 5:46 left.

"Roy and Terrick really got us going in the first half, and in the second half we got scoring inside," Garner said. "We've really been waiting all season for that kind of play."

The Redhawks visit Murray State on Saturday night.