Indians pack intensity, whip Colonels

Southeast bounces back from loss with 93-77 road win over Eastern Kentucky.

By Marty Mishow ~ Southeast Missourian

RICHMOND, Ky. -- Southeast Missouri State University went from Ohio Valley Conference agony to ecstasy in the span of six days.

After opening OVC play last Saturday with a discouraging home loss to Eastern Illinois, the Indians bounced back on the road Thursday night by routing Eastern Kentucky 93-77.

Both teams are 1-1 in OVC play. The Indians, who scored a season-high point total, improved to 6-7 overall to match their win total from last year. The Colonels fell to 6-6.

"To win by 17 points on the road, you had to feel really good about our team," Southeast coach Gary Garner said.

Garner certainly didn't feel good about his team last Saturday. He thought the Indians lacked the proper intensity against Eastern Illinois so he shook up his starting lineup Thursday, senior Demetrius King and true freshman Cole Grapperhaus replacing junior Damarcus Hence and senior Tim Scheer at the forward positions. It was the first career start for Grapperhaus.

There's no telling how much of an affect those moves had -- Hence and Scheer still played plenty and Scheer was Southeast's' second-leading scorer with 18 points -- but Garner believes it at least got the Indians' attention.

To be sure, the Indians seemed to play with much more fire than during their previous game as they totally dominated the Colonels in most areas to handily win what most thought would be a close contest.

"I did not make the changes to pick out any one or two players," Garner said. "But after Saturday night, I felt some kind of change had to be made."

Scheer, who hit eight of 11 field-goal attempts, had no arguments with what Garner did.

"It was a little bit of a message from coach to get me to play harder, and to get the whole team to play harder," Scheer said. "We played with much more energy tonight. It's always good to get a conference road win."

Sophomore guard Brett Hale hit 10 of 14 shots from the field and scored a career-high 27 points, surpassing his previous career best of 22 points last year against Vanderbilt. Hale made three of five 3-pointers.

While Hale was happy with his scoring, he was even more pleased by his eight assists, which tied sophomore guard Kevin Roberts for team-high honors. Roberts also grabbed six rebounds.

"The scoring was good, but I'm really happy about the assists," a smiling Hale said. "It was a total team effort tonight. Everybody did a good job."

Junior center Brandon Griffin scored 14 points and pulled down a season-high 15 rebounds as the Indians dominated the boards 38-24.

"We came out with a lot more intensity," Griffin said. "We played more like a team."

Also scoring in double figures for the Indians were King with 11 points and sophomore guard Derek Winans with 10. King added six rebounds.

"I thought this was Brett's best game since he's been here. Not just his scoring, but his shot selection was good and his defense was excellent," Garner said. "Brandon was a man among men on the boards. Demetrius had one of his better games. Tim played well. I think he wants his starting position back. We got help from a lot of players."

Southeast shot 59.6 percent from the field (31 of 52), 47.1 percent from 3-point range (8 of 17) and had 27 assists to just 14 turnovers. EKU shot 45 percent (27 of 60).

"Coach has been getting on us all week about our effort," Winans said. "This is a big-time win for us."

The Indians, using early runs of 11-0 and 6-0, basically put the game away in the first half as they built a 46-28 lead against an EKU team that is considered much improved from the past few years.

In the opening 20 minutes, the Indians shot 60 percent from the field (18 of 30), 55.6 percent from 3-point range (5 of 9), limited EKU to 35.7-percent shooting (10 of 28) and held a 23-11 rebounding edge.

Hale came within one of reaching his season-high point total in the opening period as he scored 16. Griffin, with 11 first-half rebounds, had as many boards as the entire EKU squad.

The Indians, who never trailed, broke an early 3-3 tie with an 11-0 run that featured five points from Winans and four from Scheer.

After EKU scored a basket, the Indians came back with six straight points, a Hale 3-pointer making it 20-5.

Although the Colonels were able to get within 22-13, the Indians basically spent the rest of the first half building their lead.

A strong move inside by sophomore center Adam Crader, who also drew an early charge that had Southeast's enthusiastic bench up on its feet, put the Indians up 32-15 with 7:19 left.

"Adam made two really big plays," Garner said. "The early charge really helped get us going."

As most home teams do, the Colonels made several runs in the second half, closing to 11 points six times and then finally getting the deficit into single digits on Ben Rushing's 3-pointer that made it 84-76 with 3:54 remaining.

But the Indians scored the next nine points to win going away.

"The first possession of the game, I could tell we were either going to win or it would be really close," Garner said. "I could tell right away how much more intensity we had."

Guards Rushing and Shawn Fields both scored 20 points to pace the Colonels.

Southeast will conclude its two-game road trip to Kentucky with a Saturday night contest at league-leading Morehead State.