INDIANS SUFFER FLAT AT UT-MARTIN, LOSE 75-66

MARTIN, Tenn. -- Southeast Missouri State University men's basketball coach Gary Garner was afraid of this.

With an Ohio Valley Conference showdown at Murray State coming up Saturday night, Garner was worried that the Indians might not take Tennessee-Martin seriously enough.

Whether Southeast looked past the Skyhawks is up for debate, but the Indians sure put up a clunker of a performance Thursday night -- particularly in the first half -- as they suffered a 75-66 defeat.

A crowd of 3,978 at Skyhawk Arena saw UTM hand Southeast its first OVC loss of the season. The Indians, 11-3 overall, fell to 4-1 in league play. Murray State is now 3-0 after beating Eastern Illinois 83-69.

UTM improved to 4-9 overall and 1-2 in the OVC.

Garner seemed to have no doubt that his team overlooked UTM after a dismal first-half performance that ended with the Indians trailing by 12 points.

"That was the poorest effort we've had (in the first half) in three years," said Garner. "They played so much harder than us in the first half.

"Everything I feared came about. We were apparently so flat. We did not get ourselves mentally ready to play."

Garner, asked if he had sensed before the contest that the Indians were not totally focused on the Skyhawks, said, "It's so hard to tell. I kept asking my assistants, but you just really don't know."

Said first-year Austin Peay coach Bret Campbell, "When we lost to Murray last week, we let it get away from us in the first half. We came out more ready to play tonight.

"I have so much respect for coach Garner and the team they have. Hopefully this is a good jumpstart into the rest of the conference."

Michael Stokes paced the Indians offensively with 21 points, 17 coming in the second half as he fueled a belated comeback. Mike Branson followed with 18 points and Roderick Johnson had 13.

Andrae Betts led UTM with 14 points. Freshman Jared Bledsoe had 13 points, Donald Elder scored 12 and Byron Benton had 11.

Elder also grabbed 13 rebounds as UTM won the battle of the boards 50-41.

The Indians suffered through a horrendous first half as they trailed 32-20, marking their lowest opening-half point total of the season, the previous worst offensive effort being 21 points against Rockhurst.

Southeast shot just 28 percent in the opening 20 minutes on seven of 25.

UTM was even worse at 25 percent on nine of 36, but the Skyhawks made up for that by hitting 13 of 15 free throws (compared to five of seven by Southeast) and grabbing a whopping 14 offensive rebounds as they controlled the boards by a 29-20 count.

"Their intensity was so much greater than ours at the start of the game. We were so flat," Garner said. "They had 14 offensive rebounds (in the first half) and we had four. And they're not as big as we are. They shot poorly, but they got so many more opportunities."

The Indians actually led 6-2 early, but Southeast then went more than six minutes without scoring as UTM used a 10-0 run to go up 12-6.

Southeast came back with six straight points for a 12-12 tie.

The contest was also knotted at 14-14 before the Skyhawks put together another 10-0 run -- Betts scored seven of the points -- to take control at 24-14 with under four minutes left in the half.

Southeast got back within 24-17, but UTM closed the period with an 8-3 spurt and entered the locker room up by 12 after a follow shot by Elder in the closing seconds.

Elder did all kinds of damage with 10 first-half points after he had been averaging just 2.8 per contest entering the game.

The Indians had little success shaving much off UTM's lead in the first portion of the second half, never pulling closer than nine points.

Southeast finally got within eight as an Amory Sanders 3-pointer with 11:01 left made it 45-37.

But, in the next 40 seconds, Bledsoe hit an 18-footer and a 3-pointer to put the Skyhawks up 50-37.

UTM held its biggest lead when a 3-pointer by Betts with 8:51 remaining made it 55-39.

A Stokes 3-pointer with 6:58 to play brought the Indians to within 56-46, but again Bledsoe answered with a personal 5-0 run, hitting two free throws and a 3-pointer, as UTM went back up 61-46.

"Bledsoe really hit some big shots," said Campbell.

Then, finally, Southeast put on a serious charge that at least made things interesting.

The Indians, pressing furiously, scored 16 of the game's next 22 points, closing to within 67-62 on a Stokes steal and basket with 2:39 left.

Southeast got within five points twice more, the last on a Stokes shot with 1:05 remaining that made it 71-66, and the Indians then had a chance to get even closer, but Antonio Short missed from in close.

UTM then iced the victory with four straight free throws.