INDIANS RUN INTO RAIDERS `A' GAME; MTSU POWERS PAST SOUTHEAST 70-55

Southeast Missouri State University's Indians got their intensity back Saturday night, but it didn't matter. Middle Tennessee State was simply too good.

The Raiders put on a clinic of textbook basketball at both ends of the floor as they rolled to a 70-55 Ohio Valley Conference victory.

MTSU improved to 10-3 overall and 4-1 in OVC play while Southeast fell to 7-7 overall, 3-3 in the league.

A crowd of 4,427 at the Show Me Center saw why the Raiders are regarded as one of the OVC's top teams and why they already own a win over heavy league favorite Murray State.

Southeast displayed a much better performance than it had during Thursday's sluggish win over Tennessee Tech.

But it would have probably taken a perfect game for the Indians to have a chance on this night.

"You're always down after a loss, but we just got beat by a better basketball team tonight," said Southeast coach Gary Garner. "I didn't think we played badly. I thought we play okay.

"Middle Tennessee was just a great basketball team tonight. If they play like they did tonight, they can beat most teams in the country. I don't know if they're that much better than us, but tonight they were."

The Raiders hit 52 percent of their shots from the field (22 of 42) and 54 percent of their 3-point attempts (seven of 13). They also shot a sizzling 91 percent from the free-throw line (19 of 21) and had only eight turnovers.

"To only have eight turnovers against our defense, that's exceptional," Garner said. "I thought for the most part we played good defense. But they were hitting some tough shots and that wears on you."

MTSU coach Randy Wiel agreed with Garner about the level of the Raiders' performance.

"We played well. We executed, we shot the ball well and we played good defense," said Wiel. "It was one of our better performances as far as putting two good halves together."

Point guard Richard Duncan had a masterful game with 15 points, seven assists and only two turnovers as he ran the Raiders' offense to near-perfection.

Aylton Tesch and Freddie Martinez both scored 13 points while reserve Ali McGhee added 11.

McGhee was particularly a thorn in Southeast's side in the first half. He entered the game averaging barely five points a contest and had hit only three of 16 previous 3-point attempts.

But McGhee connected on all three of his 3-point tries in the first half as he led the Raiders with 11 points.

"McGhee comes in three for 16 and he hits all three of his 3-pointers," said Garner, shaking his head. "That's the kind of shooting they did all night."

Southeast got 15 points from Cory Johnson, 12 from both Calvert White and David Montgomery and 10 from Demetrius Watson.

But Johnson was shut down completely in the second half after scoring all 15 of his points in the opening half. Kahn Cotton also did not score in the second half as the Indians' starting backcourt combined to hit just five of 18 shots, which contributed greatly to Southeast's 44-percent shooting overall (18 of 41).

The Indians also hit just two of 17 3-pointers (12 percent). They had hit at least five treys in every previous game this season.

"I have great admiration for Johnson," Wiel said. "He made us change everything (in the second half). He can really shoot and he doesn't need a whole lot of room."

MTSU started strong and led 13-3 in the early going. The Indians finally righted themselves and took their first lead of the game with just over four minutes left in the opening half as Johnson followed his own miss for a 28-26 Southeast edge.

The Indians went ahead 32-28 a short while later on a Montgomery basket. It was Southeast's biggest lead of the game, but they didn't have it for long.

McGhee drilled a 3-pointer at the end of the first half to put MTSU up 36-34 at the break.

Southeast held the lead only once in the second half, on Watson's layup that made it 42-41 with 14:24 left.

MTSU quickly regained the lead on a Tesch basket. The Raiders never trailed again, although Southeast hung close for a while.

The Indians trailed 52-48 with just under 10 minutes left. But MTSU went on a 9-0 run to effectively put the game out of reach at 61-48. Southeast never got closer than eight points again.

"We lost our defensive intensity for a short while in the second half when they made their run," Garner said. "We didn't play our best game of the year but we were okay. They just played a great game."

Southeast will return to action Tuesday night at Tennessee State.