Summary:
Three victories a major boost for SEMO basketball.
We've just completed a very successful road trip with three straight wins over three good teams.
We had wins over Austin Peay, picked third in the OVC; Tennessee State, picked second in the OVC; and Arkansas State, the defending Sun Belt champions who are again picked to win the league.
It was great to win on the road, but it will also be great to be at the Show Me Center tonight to go against Eastern Kentucky in an OVC contest. We're currently 2-0 in the OVC and a win tonight would put us on top of the league going into 1999.
Eastern Kentucky has a young but talented team that can beat anybody on a given night. We will have to guard against a letdown and be ready to play tonight. Hopefully we will have a big crowd to give us an extra edge.
As I look at our three wins on the road, there are some common threads that led to our success. Kahn Cotton played for the first time this season in the three games and he really adds another dimension to our team. He still lacks conditioning and his timing is still a little off, but he provides great leadership and gives this team confidence.
During a timeout late in Tuesday's Arkansas State game, Kahn told everyone that we were not going to lose...we were going to win.
The other common threads in the three wins were good defense and rebounding. If you play defense and rebound, you can be in a position to win on the road and we proved that to be correct.
We also hit free throws down the stretch in close games at Austin Peay and Arkansas State. Earlier this year at Bradley, we hit just two of eight in the final minutes and we lost.
At Austin Peay, we hit 24 of our final 25 free throws. At Arkansas State, we hit 11 of 12 in the second half and eight in a row in the final 3:48 when the game was on the line. Roderick Johnson was 4-for-4 in those final minutes while Kahn was 2-for-2 and Bud Eley was also 2-for-2. They were pressure free throws and our players responded.
The win at Arkansas State was a non-conference win, but I think it should really be a big victory for our basketball program. Success breeds success and I think our two OVC road wins last week really set us up to win at Arkansas State.
It is hard to believe that we had 31 turnovers at Arkansas State and still won. The 31 turnovers is a very negative statistic, but despite the errors our team found a way to win and I think that shows the character of this team. We have tough players who have learned how to win.
Kahn and Brian Bunche both had strong games at Arkansas State as they returned to their home state for the first time. Both Kahn and Brian had large family groups at the game and they performed well. Brian hadn't practiced since suffering a severe ankle sprain at Austin Peay, but he came off the bench to score seven points and grab three rebounds in 13 minutes of play.
Bud Eley turned out to be our second-half weapon in all three road wins. He picked up two early fouls in all three games and I held him out until the second half.
Bud responded with 10 points and three rebounds in the second half at Austin Peay; 13 points and eight rebounds in the second half at Tennessee State; and 10 points and four rebounds in the second half at Arkansas State. His efforts in the two OVC wins earned Bud OVC Player of the Week honors.
Another key ingredient in the three wins was team play. We had different players step up at different times and in different games.
Mike Branson had a career-high 17 points and six rebounds at Arkansas State while Demetrius Watson gave us quality minutes off the bench, particularly in the Tennessee State game when he had to play the post position because of fouls and Brian's injury.
Cory Johnson is just shooting the lights out again. He is 20-for-20 from the free-throw line this season and is hitting key 3-pointers despite the fact he is being shadowed everywhere he goes.
As I mentioned earlier, defense, rebounding and great free-throw shooting kept us in the Arkansas State game and gave us a chance to win. I called timeout with 16 seconds left and our team down by one.
We decided to go to our two play. The first option was to go inside to Roderick, but he was well defensed. At the same time, we had Cory coming off a double screen but he was defensed. All this opened up the court for Kahn to penetrate and make a great shot with 2.7 seconds remaining. It was a great win!
Thanks for your support. I hope to see you at the Show Me Center tonight.
Gary Garner is the head basketball coach at Southeast Missouri State University. His weekly column is sponsored by Rust Communications.
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