custom ad
SportsMarch 6, 2000

Southeast's Drew DeMond blocked a shot by Murray State's Chris Shumate in the second half of the OVC Tournament championship game Sunday in Nashville. NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Southeast Missouri State University's men's basketball team is going to the NCAA Tournament as a Division I program for the first time ever -- and not even perennial Indian killer Aubrey Reese can do anything about it...

Southeast's Drew DeMond blocked a shot by Murray State's Chris Shumate in the second half of the OVC Tournament championship game Sunday in Nashville.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Southeast Missouri State University's men's basketball team is going to the NCAA Tournament as a Division I program for the first time ever -- and not even perennial Indian killer Aubrey Reese can do anything about it.

Last year, in the championship game of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament, Reese's unbelievable shot at the buzzer lifted the Racers to a one-point victory over Southeast, denying the Indians a berth in the NCAA tourney.

But Sunday afternoon, at the Gaylord Entertainment Center, the Indians made arrangements to attend the 'Big Dance' for the first time as they gained sweet revenge against Murray State with a 67-56 victory in the OVC Tournament finals.

The triumph gives the second-seeded Indians a 24-6 record as they continue their best-ever Division I season. Southeast will learn next Sunday where and who it will play in the 64-team NCAA Tournament when the entire bracket is revealed on national television.

Murray State, which had won the past three OVC tourney championships, fell to 23-9. The top-seeded Racers, who shared the OVC regular-season title with the Indians, stand a good chance of earning an NIT berth.

"To be going to the NCAA Tournament for the first time...it's hard to put into words," said an emotional Southeast coach Gary Garner. "It's more like I'm stunned. Roderick (Johnson) said he didn't think I was excited. But I was so happy, it's hard to express.

"It's a tremendous thing for our program, for our players and our coaches, and for the school and entire community."

Johnson, the Indians' senior forward who was named the tournament's most valuable player, said, "I don't even know what to say, I'm so happy. I'm sure it's going to take a couple of days to really sink in. But I know we're going to the NCAA Tournament. To be part of the first Southeast Missouri team that goes means a lot to me."

Johnson scored 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds Sunday, one day after he provided 14 points and 17 rebounds during a semifinal romp past Middle Tennessee. Johnson hit six of seven shots from the field against the Racers.

"Roderick has been so consistent all year," said Garner.

Three other Indians joined Johnson on the six-player all-tournament squad: Mike Branson, Antonio Short and Michael Stokes.

Branson, a senior forward, scored a team-high 21 points as he hit four of five 3-point attempts and seven of eight free throws. Branson also grabbed seven rebounds.

"Emotional," said Branson of his feelings about making the NCAA Tournament. "We've been working for it all season."

Short, a junior guard, scored 13 points, including a long 3-pointer just before the first-half buzzer that sent the Indians into the locker room with a 30-29 lead after they had fallen behind by 12 points early in the game.

"It's a great feeling," said Short, who also grabbed five rebounds and had two of the Indians' nine blocked shots.

Stokes, a junior point guard, played all 40 minutes and scored 10 points to go with seven assists.

And, perhaps more importantly, Stokes played splendid defense against Reese, Murray State's senior guard who is the OVC Player of the Year. Reese, in probably the worst performance of his career, scored just three points as he missed all but one of his 18 field-goal attempts.

"Stokes did an unbelievable job on Reese, who is a great player," Garner said.

Said Stokes, "I could see him (Reese) getting frustrated. All players get that way when things aren't going well."

Reese was indeed frustrated, in part because of Stokes' defense and in part because he missed several open shots.

"That's the worst game I've ever played," Reese said. "These are the types of games you have in your nightmares."

Southeast's fifth starter, senior center Brian Bunche, scored just three points but played his usual solid defense and also had five rebounds.

Receive Daily Headlines FREESign up today!

"I can't say enough about the job our three seniors have done all year," said Garner of Johnson, Branson and Bunche.

The Indians also got another lift off the bench from redshirt freshman forward Drew DeMond, who did not score but had four rebounds and two blocked shots.

"Drew has really been coming on and he's going to be a very good player for us," Garner said. "Amory Sanders came in and hit a big three and Nyah Jones and Emmanuel McCuthison gave us some solid minutes. It was a total team effort."

Isaac Spencer, Murray State's lone representative on the all-tourney team, scored a game-high 25 points and had nine rebounds. But no other Racer had more than six points as Murray State shot just 26.8 percent in the game (19 of 71).

"Our defense has been strong all year and it was again today," said Garner.

Early, however, the Indians were shaky offensively as they fell behind 21-9 less than nine minutes into the game. The start was eerily similar to what happened during a 17-point thrashing the Racers gave the Indians when the teams met Feb. 12 in Cape Girardeau.

"We started slow. We didn't have patience on offense," Garner said. "But I don't think our players ever questioned themselves, even though they beat us so bad last time and we got off to the slow start.

"We learned more from that one game (the Feb. 12 loss to the Racers) than we've learned from a game in a long time."

The Racers still led 27-17 with just over five minutes left in the first half, but then the Indians began to heat up offensively. A 10-0 Southeast run, capped by two Branson free throws with 48 seconds left, pulled the Indians into a 27-27 tie.

Murray State went back ahead 29-27, but Short's long 3-pointer with three seconds left gave the Indians a 30-29 halftime lead as the nearly 2,000 Southeast fans in attendance roared their approval.

"We knew it would be a game of streaks," Johnson said. "When Antonio hit that shot, it was big. We took momentum into halftime."

After heating up toward the end of the first half, the Indians ran their offense well for the majority of the second half as Southeast shot 54.5 percent (12 of 22) over the last 20 minutes. The Indians finished the game at 47.9 percent (23 of 48).

An 8-0 Southeast run early in the final half -- Short had four points while Johnson and Stokes each added two -- gave the Indians a 40-31 lead.

The Indians were ahead 45-38 when the explosive Racers used a 9-0 burst to go up 46-45 as approximately 1,500 Murray State fans made plenty of noise.

Murray State held one more lead at 48-47, but Branson's 3-pointer with 9:29 remaining put the Indians on top 50-48 and they would not trail again.

The contest was tied at 50-50 when Stokes hit a 17-footer and Branson drilled an 18-footer for a 54-50 Southeast lead.

Murray State went more than three minutes without scoring, but the Racers were still very much alive as Southeast also hit an offensive lull. The Indians did not make a field goal over the final 4:03.

The Indians led 57-53 heading into the game's final minute and, with Murray State still struggling offensively, Southeast was able to ice the victory by making 10 of 12 free throws in the last minute.

Stokes made both ends of a one-and-one with exactly one minute left to put Southeast ahead 59-53. Branson hit one of two with 46 seconds left for a 60-54 lead.

Bunche made the first of two foul shots with 36 seconds remaining for a 61-54 lead, and he was able to grab the rebound of his second miss. Bunch was immediately fouled and this time hit both to make it 63-54.

By this time, the Indians' fans were in a frenzy as they were beginning to realize that the Racers probably wouldn't be close enough at the end for Reese to work his usual late-game magic against Southeast.

Branson hit four of four free throws in the last 26 seconds to officially end the Racers' OVC domination and send the Indians to the NCAA Division I tourney for the first time.

As the final few seconds ran down, Southeast's fans chanted "OVC, OVC," and then changed that to "We're No. 1, We're No. 1."

On this day, the Indians certainly were. And as a result, they'll get to put on their dancing shoes.

Story Tags
Advertisement

Connect with the Southeast Missourian Newsroom:

For corrections to this story or other insights for the editor, click here. To submit a letter to the editor, click here. To learn about the Southeast Missourian’s AI Policy, click here.

Advertisement
Receive Daily Headlines FREESign up today!