Indians inflict Hale damage

FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- Southeast Missouri State University's Indians have already had a few near-misses on the road this season.

But Saturday afternoon they finally got over the hump -- thanks to a game-winning shot by Brett Hale with less than one second remaining that lifted the Indians to a thrilling 77-75 victory over Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne.

Southeast improved to 7-4 with their first road victory. The Mastadons fell to 2-11.

After seeing a 17-point, first-half lead evaporate on a furious IPFW rally that netted the tying basket with 20 seconds remaining, the Indians faced the prospect of enduring a long bus ride home.

But Hale saved the day. With time running down, the junior guard knifed just inside the free-throw line and tossed up a shot over a much taller defender that rolled around the rim several times before falling through with just 0.8 seconds remaining.

After a length-of-the-court pass by IPFW was intercepted by senior center Brandon Griffin, the Indians had escaped.

"I don't think I've ever hit a game-winning shot in my life on any level," Hale said. "It's a great feeling."

Hale said junior forward Dainmon Gonner was supposed to get the ball late, but he was cut off. Instead, Hale wound up needing to make a play.

"I knew time was really running down and I had to get off a shot," Hale said.

Said Southeast coach Gary Garner, whose squad has lost competitive games at Southern Illinois, Montana, Arkansas and DePaul while beating California-Santa Barbara on a neutral site at the Montana Tournament. "It's always great to win a road game, I don't care who you're playing. And what a shot by Brett to bail us out."

"It feels good to get a road win," Gonner said. "We've been close against some really good teams, and we finally got one."

Not that IPFW is any kind of powerhouse, but the third-year Division I program recently posted a home win over Morehead State, which is one of the Ohio Valley Conference's top teams.

"They've got some talent, some very good players," Garner said. "They have to play so many games on the road for money, it's hard to have a good record playing that kind of schedule. I feel good about this win."

The Indians gained momentum entering Thursday's OVC opener at home against defending champion Austin Peay. And they were able to bounce back from Wednesday's tough seven-point loss at DePaul on the first leg of their two-game road swing.

"We didn't want to come back home with two losses," Griffin said. "Now we're ready for the conference."

Southeast used some sizzling first-half shooting to build a 17-point lead late in the period, which was trimmed to 51-40 at the intermission.

The Indians hit nine of 13 first-half 3-pointers -- Gonner made all three of his attempts and Hale was three of four -- while shooting 64.3 percent overall from the field at 18 of 28.

"We came out and really shot well," Hale said. "We got good shots and knocked them down."

Gonner led the Indians with 18 points, including 15 in the first half. Junior guard Derek Winans scored 16 points as he inched closer to the 1,000-point mark for his career. Winans is just six short. Hale added 15 points, 11 in the first half.

Griffin had a solid game battling IPFW's NBA prospect David Simon, a mobile 6-foot-10, 250-pounder. Griffin finished with nine points, 10 rebounds and five assists.

Simons led the Mastadons with 22 points and 15 rebounds.

"Simon is a heck of a player," Garner said.

Southeast's shooting tailed off to 34.6-percent shooting in the second half to finish at 50 percent. They wound up hitting 54.5 percent on 3-pointers (12 of 22) and had just 10 turnovers.

IPFW shot 51.9 percent, hitting 10 3-pointers and 47.6 percent from behind the arc. The Mastadons had 16 turnovers.

Southeast led 41-24 late in the first half and 51-40 at the intermission.

"I was a little worried at halftime, because we shot the ball so well and still only led by 11," Garner said.

The Indians were still ahead 66-51 with just under 13 minutes left, but then IPFW stormed back and finally pulled into a 75-75 tie on Simon's follow shot with 20 seconds left. Hale's heroics lifted Southeast.