Indians stumble on grizzled Bears

The contrasts in the Southeast Missouri State University and Southwest Missouri State basketball teams are glaring.

While the Indians lost their top four scorers from last season, the Bears returned their top three point-producers and four of their top five scorers overall.

While the Indians have only one senior on their roster -- and he is currently ineligible -- the Bears have four seniors and all of them start.

Throw in the fact Southeast will have only six scholarship players available tonight and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to determine that the Indians will have their work cut out for them when the squads hook up at the Hammons Center in Springfield, Mo.

"They'll be very hard for us to beat," acknowledged Southeast coach Gary Garner.

Garner said the Bears -- who like the Indians lost their season opener Nov. 16 -- will no doubt be bent on revenge after Southeast defeated SMS 73-71 at the Show Me Center last year.

"They really want us, but that's OK," Garner said. "It's one game and we're going after it, whether we have six or 50 scholarship players. It's competition. It's fun."

SMS coach Barry Hinson said he knows better than to overlook the Indians, despite their current short-handed situation. He emphasized that the Bears are not in a position to take any opponent for granted.

"We're 0-1 coming off a 13-16 year," Hinson said. "We absolutely cannot take anybody lightly in any shape or form, but more so this year. As far as I'm concerned, we're playing the LA Lakers."

Hinson, in his third year with the Bears, led them to a 23-11 record and an NIT berth during his first season before SMS slumped last year.

Now, with a veteran team, expectations are fairly high once again in Springfield and that hasn't changed even though the Bears were surprised by North Texas 79-77 in their opener.

"We still have high hopes, even though we got beat our first game on the road," said Hinson. "We have experience this year, which we did not have last year, and all our guys are healthy."

Scott Brakebill, a 6-foot-8 senior forward, was the Bears' leading scorer last year as he averaged 12.6 points per game despite missing quite a bit of action with a broken arm.

Mike Wallace, a powerful 6-5 senior forward/center, was right behind Brakebill last year with 12.4 points per game as he shot 58.3 percent from the field. Wallace paced the Bears in rebounding at 7.2 per contest.

Other top players back from last season are senior point guard Robert Yanders (9.6 ppg, team-high 105 assists) and 6-7 senior forward Daniel Novak (8.0 ppg, 43.6-percent 3-point shooting).

Wallace had a monster game in the opener against North Texas as he scored 25 points -- on 11-for-16 shooting -- and grabbed 16 rebounds. Brakebill added 14 points.

"Wallace is a very good player. He's a bear," said Garner. "Their entire front line is strong. Their ability to rebound and post up inside are big concerns. They hurt us inside last year.

"They're a very good basketball team, much better than Birmingham Southern."

The Indians, using five scholarship players, lost to Birmingham Southern 62-51 in their opener at the Show Me Center.

Southeast will at least have one more scholarship player available tonight than it did in the opener as forward Drew DeMond and guard Derek Winans will see their first action of the season.

DeMond missed the opener with a hand injury while Winans, a redshirt freshman who will be making his collegiate debut, was serving a one-game suspension for an inadvertent NCAA violation stemming from him playing in one Cape Girardeau City League basketball game last year.

But missing tonight will be center Daniel Weaver, who scored 14 points against Birmingham Southern. Weaver will be attending his older brother's wedding.

Still out for two more contests is sophomore forward Damarcus Hence, who was suspended by Garner for the first three games of the season because of an unspecified violation of team rules.

And out for five more games are senior forward Monte Gordon, junior guard Kenny Johnson and sophomore guard Justin Smith, who are all ineligible until the second semester.