INDIANS' 'BRANSON FLU' LEAVEST TIGERS NAUSEOUS; ILL SOUTHEAST FORWARD NETS 19 POINTS IN 79-46 ROUT

Mike Branson should always be this sick.

Branson, Southeast Missouri State University's senior forward, was suffering from the flu Thursday. He threw up in the morning, missed the Indians' shoot-around and was listed in the pre-game notes as questionable for that night's contest with Tennessee State.

But you'd have a hard time convincing the Tigers that Branson was under the weather. He tossed in 16 first-half points -- hitting four of six 3-pointers -- and finished with a game-high 19 points as the Indians rolled to a 79-46 victory.

A crowd of 4,891 at the Show Me Center saw the Indians record their largest margin of victory against an Ohio Valley Conference team, the previous most lopsided OVC triumph being a 98-72 win over Austin Peay during the 1993-94 season.

Southeast also claimed its second-most lopsided win ever against a Division I opponent, the No. 1 rout being a 100-63 pasting of Prairie View during that same 1993-94 campaign.

"I had some chicken noodle soup, my mom's home remedy. I guess that did the trick," said a smiling Branson. "Really, I didn't feel too bad. I had a little stomach flu, but I rested all day."

Said a laughing Southeast coach Gary Garner, "I'm going to find out what kind of flu Mike had and inject him with it before every game."

It was that kind of fun night for the Indians, who improved to 9-2 overall and 2-0 in OVC play heading into Saturday's big 3 p.m. home game against Austin Peay.

TSU fell to 1-10 overall as it dropped its OVC opener, but no way did Garner expect the Indians to have such an easy time.

"I didn't expect this margin at all. You never expect to beat a conference team by this margin, I don't care what conference you're in," Garner said. "I know they were 1-9, but I was really worried about this game.

"I thought our depth really came into play. Their depth isn't good and I think that was a big factor."

Nyah Jones, the Indians' 6-foot-11 center who had been struggling some with his shot in recent games, came off the bench to post career highs of 13 points and 13 rebounds, the latter figure helping Southeast control the boards by a 47-36 count. Jones was 6-for-8 from the floor.

"Nyah came in and really played strong inside," said Garner.

Roderick Johnson added 11 points and seven rebounds while Emmanuel McCuthison came off the bench to score 10 points and grab six rebounds in just 10 minutes of action. Amory Sanders contributed nine points and backup point guard Fred Abraham had a team-high four assists.

The game was such a rout that no Indian played more than 25 minutes and 12 of the 13 players who dressed out got at least seven minutes, with all 13 seeing action.

"I didn't expect us to win by this much," Branson said. "It's nice, but it's just one game."

Kurtis Murry led the Tigers with 13 points and Kevin Samuel had 11. Jamie Roberts, averaging more than 18 points per game, scored only eight.

TSU actually held a few early leads and the Tigers trailed only 26-23 with just under six minutes left in the opening half. At that point, the game resembled anything but a major blowout.

But the Tigers would not score again until more than three minutes had elapsed in the second half, their drought spanning more than nine minutes.

Southeast scored the final 17 points of the first half getting a 3-pointer from well beyond the arc by Michael Stokes just before the buzzer to lead 43-23 at the intermission.

Before the Tigers scored in the second half, the Indians had built their lead to 53-23. Southeast's biggest advantage was 38 points at 73-35.

The Indians finished the game shooting 48 percent from the field (29 of 61), but they shot a sizzling 58 percent (18 of 31) in the first half. TSU shot 29 percent for the game (17 of 59).

Now the Indians will prepare for a talented Austin Peay team that will no doubt be smarting after Thursday night's 75-73 loss at Eastern Illinois in a game the Governors led by 19 points at halftime.

Austin Peay and Southeast were picked in a tie for second in the OVC preseason poll, right behind Murray State.

"That should be a barnburner," said Branson.