INDIANS SECURE 2ND, SEEK MORE; SE BARRELS OVER RAIDERS 69-55

Tuesday night, Southeast Missouri State University's basketball team had plenty of rough spots during a seven-point win over Tennessee State that wasn't secured until the final seconds.

Thursday night, the rough spots were reduced dramatically -- and, not coincidentally, the Indians coasted to victory as they led virtually from wire to wire during a 69-55 triumph over Middle Tennessee State in front of 5,817 fans at the Show Me Center.

The Indians, winning for the eighth time in their last nine games, clinched at least second place in the Ohio Valley Conference, marking their highest OVC finish ever. Southeast is assured of hosting a first-round OVC Tournament game.

And the Indians, who are now 15-6 overall and 12-1 in OVC play, stayed hot on the trail of Murray State in the chase for the conference championship. The Racers, who were idle Thursday night, are 13-0 in league play as they lead Southeast by a game.

Southeast and Murray will square off next Thursday night in Murray, Ky. Before that contest, the Indians will close out their three-game homestand Saturday night against Tennessee Tech.

"I told our players (before the homestand started) that a lot of people think we can't win three in a row because we have Murray coming up," said Southeast coach Gary Garner. "But our guys have done a good job of staying focused. And if we win Saturday night, we control our own destiny."

Although the Indians were far from perfect Thursday against MTSU (8-16, 6-7 OVC) -- they had 19 turnovers -- they were never seriously in any danger.

The Indians, who have had a lot of close calls at home in recent games, fell behind 4-0 in the opening moments. But they scored the next seven points and held the lead the rest of the way.

Southeast led 36-29 at halftime, saw the Raiders pull to within 43-40 with 13 minutes left in the game and then used a 7-0 run to take control again. The Indians led by as many as 17 points in the late going and Garner even got to play his seldom-used walkons in the final 1:16.

"It's nice to finally have a comfortable win at home," Garner said. "Even though we had some unforced turnovers that hurt us, I felt like we were in complete control of the game."

Senior center Bud Eley continued his stretch of recent monster games as he recorded his 12th double-double of the season by scoring 23 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Eley hit eight of nine shots from the field and seven of 10 free throws.

During Southeast's current five-game winning streak, Eley is 32-for-40 from the field for a sizzling 80 percent. Eley, who entered the game ranked ninth nationally in field-goal percentage, is now up to 64 percent for the season.

"We're just clicking right now, but we're still not at 100 percent," said Eley. "We're just trying to take it one game at a time, like coach always emphasizes. Saturday's game is the biggest one of the season right now."

Mike Branson scored 14 points, four coming on two rim-rattling alley-oop dunks that have become one of the junior forward's staples this season.

"That's one of our favorite plays," said a smiling Branson. "Anybody who can dunk loves to do it. I thought more teams would have picked up on it by now but we've had a lot of success with it."

Roderick Johnson added 12 points for the Indians.

MTSU got 15 points from Cedrick Wallace and 10 from Gerald King.

Eley, hitting all seven of his field-goal attempts, scored 16 first-half points to get the Indians off to a good start.

After the Raiders pulled to within 43-40 in the second half, Branson hit an 18-footer, Cory Johnson nailed a long 3-pointer and Branson drilled a 15-footer to boost Southeast's lead to 50-40. The Indians were in no danger the rest of the night.

"It was a good all-around team effort," said C. Johnson. "We're just taking it one game at a time."