Indians continue to struggle, fall to 0-4

Southeast Missourian

The frustration continued for Southeast Missouri State University's Indians Saturday night.

A 71-58 loss to Western Illinois in front of 3,926 fans at the Show Me Center dropped Southeast to 0-4 for the first time since the 1950-51 season, when the Indians started out 0-9.

"We're struggling right now, there's no question about it," said Southeast coach Gary Garner.

On the other hand, Western Illinois is on a roll. Just a year after beginning the season 0-16 on their way to a 5-23 record, the Leathernecks are 4-1 and that includes solid road victories over Ohio Valley Conference teams Eastern Kentucky and now Southeast, along with a home victory over Drake.

"They're so difficult to beat here," said WIU coach Jim Kerwin of the Indians. "They're going to get better and better as they mature. They've got a lot of young guys."

The Leathernecks are certainly not a dominant squad, but they are fundamentally sound and quite experienced as they returned all five starters from last year. They had little trouble in holding off the young and inexperienced Indians.

"They're not a great basketball team, but they're solid, they're very well coached and they're an experienced team," Garner said.

Southeast, in suffering its most lopsided loss of the season to date, struggled offensively, as has been the case in most of its games. The Indians, shooting 42 percent from the field for the season, shot 36 percent Saturday, on 21 of 58. They went just two of 16 from 3-point range for just under 13 percent.

"We didn't play well offensively tonight," said Garner. "Overall, I didn't think we played as well as we played agains0t Southwest Missouri and Arkansas-Little Rock.

"I thought we played hard. We played with effort and we fought them. But we didn't play very well."

Tim Scheer was the lone Indian who had anything resembling a solid offensive night. The junior forward scored a season-high 19 points as he hit seven of 14 from the field. Scheer also grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds and had three assists.

But most of the other key Indians struggled offensively. The only other Southeast player in double figures was Derek Winans with 11 points, but the redshirt freshman guard hit just four of 16 shots and he missed all eight of his 3-point attempts. Winans had totaled 47 points in his first two collegiate games.

WIU placed five players in double figures, which is right on average for the Leathernecks. Shawn Mason, a strong inside player, hit seven of 13 shots and scored 16 points. Lorenzo Lawrence added 14 points, J.D. Summers had 11 and Quentin Mitchell and Luis Rivas added 10 apiece.

"Their inside guys dominated ours. We're getting beat bad inside," Garner said. "The Mason kid had a really good game. He's a good player."

The Leathernecks, who shot 49 percent (30 of 61) and hit six of 12 3-pointers, controlled most of the contest after Southeast held a few brief early leads.

WIU opened up a 35-19 bulge late in the first half and led 35-23 at halftime.

Southeast closed to within six points twice early in the second half, but WIU again asserted control and coasted to victory.

"I thought our defense was superb in the first half and our inside play was good in the second half," Kerwin said. "It's a good win for us."