INDIANS WALTZ BY TENN. ST. 71-53; SOUTHEAST SALVAGES ROAD SPLIT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Saturday afternoon, Bubba played and the Indians paid.

Monday night, Monty watched and the Indians waltzed.

Southeast Missouri State University's basketball team, after being burned by Austin Peay's Bubba Wells in its Ohio Valley Conference opener, bounced back with a 71-53 win over Tennessee State.

The Indians thus were able to salvage a split of their road trip as they now look forward to three straight OVC games at home, starting Thursday night with Tennessee-Martin.

Southeast improved to 4-9 overall and 1-1 in the league. TSU is 2-8 overall, 0-2 in the OVC.

"It's a very big win for our basketball team," said Southeast coach Ron Shumate. "I'm real pleased to come up with a win. It's been a long dry spell."

Wells, the OVC's top player who had been out all season with an injury, returned to the court Saturday and poured in 39 points as Austin Peay dropped the Indians 96-85.

TSU's Monty Wilson is also one of the league's top players. He, like Wells, has been saddled with an injury. But unlike Wells, Wilson was in street clothes Monday night.

Without Wilson, who has only played two games this year, the Tigers continued to struggle. And the Indians capitalized with a big second half that saw them outscore TSU 41-26.

Bud Eley, despite being plagued by early foul troubles, led the Indians with 19 points, 15 coming in the second half. Calvert White scored 16 while Allen Hatchett and David Montgomery added 14 and 12, respectively.

"We needed this one. And we need a lot more," said White. "Now we get to go home for three games and hopefully this one will get us going."

Southeast dominated the boards by a 53-31 count. Eley grabbed 11 rebounds while White and Devron Kirksey both had eight rebounds and Montgomery added seven.

The Indians also picked up their shooting in the second half, hitting 52 percent after shooting just 38 percent over the opening 20 minutes.

"We shot the ball well in the second half and we really hit the boards," Shumate said. "We had a lot of guys play well. Allen Hatchett had a very good game and David Montgomery had a monster game coming off the bench."

Said Montgomery, "We played really relaxed tonight. It's a big win for us."

Southeast got off to a strong start, scoring the game's first four points on baskets by Eley and Kirksey.

TSU answered with a 7-0 run to go ahead 7-4, but Southeast responded with a 12-0 spurt of its own to grab its biggest first-half lead.

White's driving basket put the Indians ahead 8-7. Then Hatchett scored on a drive and White and Hatchett drilled consecutive 3-pointers to make it 16-7.

Eley, Southeast's leading scorer at nearly 16 points per game, picked up two fouls in the first 3:26 of the contest but remained on the court. However, he was hit with his third foul with 11:03 left in the first half and spent the remainder of the opening stanza on the bench.

Southeast led 16-11 when Eley went out. TSU chipped away and finally pulled into a 25-25 tie on a Steve Walston dunk with 1:56 left.

The teams were also tied at 27 before White's 3-pointer with 46 seconds left put the Indians ahead 30-27 at the intermission. White led the Tribe with 12 first-half points.

TSU scored the first four points of the second half to grab its first lead since early in the contest at 31-30.

Then the foul troubles became reversed as TSU's leading scorer, Jason Johnson, picked up two personals in the first 1:43 of the second half, giving him four fouls. So he and his 16-point average went to the bench.

Johnson went out with the Tigers ahead 31-30. Southeast scored four quick points to regain the lead and later the teams were deadlocked at 34 and 36.

David Montgomery's fast-break dunk put the Indians ahead 38-36 and they would not trail again.

It was 40-38 when Hatchett went on a personal 7-0 run. First he nailed a 3-pointer, then his two driving baskets put the Indians ahead 47-38 and had TSU coach Frankie Allen screaming for a timeout with 12:07 remaining.

With his team in trouble, Johnson came back into the game and quickly hit two jumpers to make it 47-42.

But then Eley, avoiding fouls and playing freely, scored five straight points. And when Montgomery's hook shot after an offensive rebound went down, the Indians had a 54-42 lead with just under nine minutes left.

TSU got to within 54-47, but the Indians scored the next seven points and cruised home to victory. They put a final exclamation point on the romp when Reggie Crisp bombed in a long 3-pointer at the buzzer.