INDIANS ATTEMPT TO BEGIN ASCENT FROM EARLY HOLE

Southeast Missouri State University men's basketball coach Gary Garner is both realistic and optimistic as he assesses the Indians' precarious position in the Ohio Valley Conference race after just four league games.

"I don't want to mislead. We've dug ourselves a hole," said Garner. "But there is still a lot of basketball left to be played. If we can keep our heads up, we can get back in the conference race.

"My second year at Missouri (where Garner was an assistant in the 1970s), we were 4-3 in the Big Eight after the first round of play. We were in something like third or fourth place. We won our last seven games and won the conference outright."

Garner is trying to stay as positive as he can with the Indians following Thursday night's 60-58 home loss to Murray State, Southeast's second two-point OVC home defeat of the season.

The Indians, saddled with a 1-3 OVC record, have just one less conference loss than they had all of last season when they tied with Murray State for the league's regular-season title.

Southeast, 9-6 overall, will try to salvage a split of its two-game homestand when Tennessee-Martin (4-7, 0-2 OVC) visits the Show Me Center tonight for a 7:30 tipoff.

"Morale is the biggest thing right now," Garner said. "When you're 1-3, your kids probably feel like they're out of it. I don't feel like we're out of it, but we've definitely put ourselves in a tough position.

"The biggest thing is to take it one game at a time. That's always important, but right now it's maybe even more important than ever."

While the Indians are backed into a corner, UTM's Skyhawks have some problems of their own, mainly because of a brutal start to their conference schedule.

UTM began OVC play at Murray State last Saturday, followed by a game at Eastern Illinois Thursday. After facing Southeast tonight, the Skyhawks play their first league home game Monday against heavy preseason favorite Austin Peay.

So the Skyhawks' first four conference games will have been against four of the premier squads in the nine-team league.

"I don't know what we did to upset (OVC commissioner) Dan Beebe, but the schedule has certainly not been in our favor," said UTM coach Bret Campbell with a laugh. "We're opening with maybe the best four teams in the league, and three of them are on the road. But we're playing pretty good basketball, and I feel like if we can just keep our head above water, we'll be okay."

The Skyhawks have certainly performed admirably in their first two OVC games. They were tied with Murray State late before losing by seven and they trailed Eastern Illinois by just five points late before falling by 12.

Campbell, previously an assistant at Austin Peay, took over the UTM program last season and paid immediate dividends as he led the Skyhawks to the OVC Tournament for the first time in school history. Once in the tourney, UTM nearly upset eventual champion Southeast, losing the first-round game at the Show Me Center 76-74 after a 3-pointer at the buzzer bounced off the rim.

UTM, which upset Southeast at home last season, features three double-figure scorers in 6-foot-5 senior forward Hayden Prescott (13.5 ppg), 6-5 sophomore guard Okechi Egbe (11.6 ppg) and 6-6 junior center Jeremy Sargent (10.6 ppg). Sargent is the OVC's No. 6 rebounder with 7.6 a contest.

Egbe, who attempted the late 3-pointer that nearly bumped Southeast from the OVC tourney last season, is shooting 50 percent from long range.

Another key player for the Skyhawks is Brian Foster (8.6 ppg), who starred at Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff last season.

Garner has plenty of respect for the Skyhawks, especially after what happened between the teams last season.

"They beat us once and almost beat us in the conference tournament," he said. "I think this is the best Tennessee-Martin team in the four years I've been in the league."