INDIANS FINALLY SOLVE NAIL-BITERS 60-59; WIN AVENGES LOSS TO TENNESSEE STATE

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- What goes around comes around as far as Southeast Missouri State University's basketball team is concerned.

The Indians avenged an overtime home loss last month to Tennessee State by rallying past the Tigers 60-59 Tuesday night in front of 2,164 fans at the Gentry Complex.

Southeast improved to 8-7 overall and 4-3 in Ohio Valley Conference play.

TSU, picked to finish second in the OVC, fell to 5-8 overall and 2-4 in the league with its third straight conference defeat. The Tigers have lost eight of their last 10 games.

"Oh boy, this one feels good," said a relieved Southeast coach Gary Garner, whose squad had lost four down-to-the-wire games previously this season. "You almost get paranoid when you lose all those close games.

"Confidence is such a big factor in sports. You lose close games like we did and it really starts to get to you. Hopefully this one will really get us going."

Cory Johnson led the Indians offensively with 16 points. Also in double figures were Demetrius Watson with 14, Kahn Cotton with 11 and Calvert White with 10.

"It's a good win for us," said Johnson. "It's good to get revenge after they beat us last time and it's good to win a close game after losing all those close ones. Hopefully we can break away from that."

Cotton, the Indians' point guard, had an impressive all-around floor game with eight rebounds, four assists and only two turnovers.

"Kahn was really good tonight," Garner said. "It was his most complete game of the season."

White grabbed 11 rebounds and had four assists while Watson added eight rebounds.

The Indians also got a big lift from the return of 6-foot-10 center Bud Eley, who had missed the previous seven games with a broken bone in his right foot.

Eley did not start but he wound up playing 21 minutes. Although somewhat rusty with his offense, Eley did score seven points and, more importantly, pulled down 11 rebounds as Southeast won the battle of the boards 50 to 43.

"I was out of shape and I was hurting. My offense is a long way away," said Eley. "But coach told me just to worry about rebounding and passing."

Said Garner, "Bud really helped us. His presence inside is really a factor, not just rebounding but his intimidation."

Early in the game, it looked like the Indians might blow the slumping Tigers out of the Gentry Complex.

After falling behind 4-2 in the opening moments, Southeast scored 13 straight points -- nine coming on three Johnson 3-pointers -- to build a 15-4 lead at the midway point of the first half.

The Indians opened up another 11-point lead with six minutes remaining before halftime when Cotton's 3-pointer made it 21-10.

But Southeast struggled the rest of the half, being outscored 17-3 to fall behind 27-24 at the break.

The lead changed hands eight times over the first 13 minutes of the second half before the Indians finally went ahead for good on Cotton's 3-pointer that made it 49-47 with 6:49 remaining.

Eley scored inside 40 seconds later to put the Indians ahead 51-47.

White's driving shot with 2:34 left again built the Indians' lead to four points at 55-51.

Watson, who just seconds earlier had grabbed a huge offensive rebound with the Indians nursing a three-point lead, made two free throws at the 1:38 mark to put Southeast ahead 57-52.

Southeast could have coasted home to a comfortable win from there but White, Cotton and Watson all missed two free throws within a minute so TSU was still very much alive at 57-54.

Johnson, the OVC's most accurate free-throw shooter, hit a pair with 14 seconds left to put Southeast ahead 59-54. Johnson is now a perfect 22-for-22 on foul shots in OVC play.

Keith Samuel's tip-in with six seconds left pulled TSU back to within 59-56.

Eley was fouled with five seconds remaining and, after missing the first shot, he bounced in the second to make it 60-56 and seal the win.

TSU's Kareem Gilbert's 3-pointer at the buzzer was only window dressing for the Tigers.

"A little rim helped me out," said a grinning Eley in describing his clinching foul shot.

Added Johnson with a smile, "The way we've been losing those close games, I was telling Kahn that if Bud misses that last free throw, you know they'll tie it up. We were glad Bud made it."

Southeast won despite shooting just 33 percent from the field (18 of 54). TSU was even worse at 32 percent (24 of 76).

"We didn't shoot the ball well, but I thought we were getting good shots," Garner said. "But I thought our defense was good."

Jason Johnson paced the Tigers with 18 points and Gilbert added 10.

The Indians will return to action Thursday when they visit Tennessee-Martin for a 7 p.m. OVC contest.