INDIANS TRY TO BUCK RACER TRADITION; SEMO, MURRAY BRACE FOR KEY OVC BATTLE TONIGHT

Southeast Missouri State University basketball coach Ron Shumate acknowledges that this is not a vintage Murray State team.

But that doesn't mean the Racers will be an easy touch in tonight's key Ohio Valley Conference contest at Racer Arena (7:45 tipoff).

Far from it. In fact, if the Indians can knock off Murray tonight, it will mark their first victory in Murray since 1947.

How's that for trying to buck tradition?

"Murray State is not as talented as they've been in the past, but they're still very good," said Shumate. "We've played some good games over there in the past, but we haven't been able to win. It's always an extremely difficult place to play."

Adding to tonight's degree of difficulty will be the fact that the Racers are in dire need of a victory. Murray is coming off a surprising 86-78 loss at Morehead State Monday night and, although it's still early in the conference season, the Racers certainly don't want to drop this one at home.

"They have their backs to the wall," Shumate said. "It seems like every team we play has their backs to the wall. It was that way with Tennessee Tech (which beat Southeast 86-82 Monday night) when they were coming off a loss."

The tradition-rich Racers have been the OVC's dominant team over the past decade. Murray has won eight of the past nine OVC regular-season titles and they have reached the OVC Tournament championship game the last seven years.

"They've got a great tradition," said Shumate.

This year the Racers are 9-6 overall and 4-3 in OVC play, good for a three-way tie for fourth place.

Meanwhile, Southeast doesn't possess the Racers' Division I tradition -- but the Indians are making plenty of early-season OVC noise of their own. Southeast, 8-10 overall, is in a three-way tie for first with Middle Tennessee State and Eastern Illinois. All three squads are 5-2 in league play.

"I wish we were all alone on top of the league, but we are in first and it sounds good to hear people talking about Southeast Missouri and first place in the OVC," said Shumate. "But we've got a critical stretch of games coming up and it starts with Murray."

Murray lost nine lettermen from last year's OVC regular-season championship team, including OVC Player of the Year Marcus Brown. Four of the Racers' five starters are first-year players at Murray.

Still, the Racers possess plenty of talent and firepower, led by their one returning starter, Vincent Rainey. A strong and smooth 6-foot-4 senior guard/forward, Rainey averages nearly 24 points and nine rebounds per game. He earned first-team all-OVC honors last season.

Deteri Mayes, a 6-3 junior guard, is averaging nearly 20 points a game while 6-1 junior point guard Chad Townsend averages nearly 13 points and eight assists per contest.

Darren Dawson, a 6-5 sophomore, started nearly half the time last season but has strictly been coming off the bench this year. Still, he's the squad's fourth-leading scorer at 7.7 points per game.

While the Racers lack depth -- Rainey, Mayes and Townsend all play an average of at least 35 minutes a game -- they are still mighty explosive.

"Rainey is an excellent player and their guards are good," Shumate said. "Coach (Mark) Gottfried does an excellent job.

"They've got the top two scorers in the conference (Rainey and Mayes). They're very guard-oriented. We'll have to try and do a good job on their guards and also not let them hurt us inside."

Murray has won the last eight meetings with Southeast, including all five at Racer Arena since the Indians joined the OVC.

Southeast's last win over Murray was an 80-75 triumph at the Show Me Center during the Indians' first season in the OVC in 1991-92.

SEMO vs. Murray State

7:45 p.m., Murray, Ky.

Probable Starters

SEMO (8-10, 5-2 OVC)

Player Pos. Yr. Ht. Avg.

David Montgomery F So. 6-8 8.9

Richard Lyte F Jr. 6-6 6.9

Bud Eley C Jr. 6-10 15.7

Calvert White G Jr. 6-4 14.2

Allen Hatchett G So. 5-10 9.0

MSU (9-6, 4-3 OVC)

Player Pos. Yr. Ht. Avg.

Vincent Rainey F Sr. 6-4 23.7

Mike Turner F Fr. 6-7 1.5

D.J. Dahl C Jr. 6-11 5.5

Deteri Mayes G Jr. 6-3 19.9

Chad Townsend G Jr. 6-1 12.6

Series: 20-11 MSU

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