MIGHTY OAKS LOOM BETWEEN TRIBE, 5-0 START

All that stands in the way of Southeast Missouri State University's best-ever Division I start in men's basketball is an Oakland City team that figures to be outmanned considerably by the Indians.

But tonight's 7:30 tipoff against the Division II Mighty Oaks at the Show Me Center is just the kind of game that puts some fear into Southeast coach Gary Garner."The worry any time you play a Division II team is that your players don't take the opposition seriously enough," said Garner. "As a coach, it's hard to lie to your players and tell them that this will be one of the better teams you play, because then you lose credibility at some point later in the season."But your team has to realize that any time you step on the court, you can be beat. Any time a Division II team plays a Division I team, it's a huge game (for the Division II squad). That's the kind of thing that could make their season if they beat you."And it's not like the Mighty Oaks, located in Oakland City, Ind., don't have a solid Division II program. They went 23-7 last year and are 3-3 so far this season.

Southeast, meanwhile, is riding high after Thursday night's thrilling 84-79 win at Tennessee Tech that marked the Indians' only Ohio Valley Conference game until January.

The Indians improved to 4-0 to match the program's best start since the school moved up to the Division I level in 1991. The 1992-93 Southeast squad also began the season 4-0 before losing its next game."It feels good to be 4-0. We haven't been 4-0 since I've been here," said Garner, in his third season at Southeast. "But we still have a long way to go."Even Garner admits, however, that the Indians have made tremendous strides since their first exhibition game less than a month ago. In that contest, a surprising loss to the Dreambuilders, Southeast looked like anything but even a decent team.

But Garner warned everybody that the Indians would look bad at times early. And they still do struggle some, but slowly but surely, things are rounding into form."We've definitely come a long way since the Dreambuilders game," said Garner with a laugh.

Southeast had an impressive performance at Tennessee Tech, building an 18-point lead and then holding off a huge rally by the Eagles."That was a great win for us," Garner said. "I was really proud of the guys. We made some mistakes but we really held our poise, especially at the end of the game."If the Indians had not kept their poise down the stretch, Tech likely would have been able to come all the way back for the win. Southeast hit nine of 10 free throws in the final minute, with Michael Stokes going 4-for-4 in the last 23 seconds to ice things."We needed just about every one of those free throws," said Garner.

The Indians got major contributions from a host of players Thursday, led by senior forward Mike Branson, who scored a career-high 24 points. Branson hit eight of 14 shots from the field, including five of seven 3-pointers. He is now 10-for-19 on 3-pointers for the season.

Stokes, the Indians' cool-as-ice junior point guard who seemingly never gets tired, scored 16 points, dished out six assists and had three steals while playing the entire 40 minutes.

Stokes, averaging nearly 37 minutes a game, was the main reason the Indians were generally able to break Tech's press the entire night.

Junior guard Amory Sanders, starting now instead of coming off the bench because of Antonio Short's broken wrist, scored 14 points and hit four of six 3-pointers. Sanders is 10-for-22 from 3-point range on the season.

Senior forward Roderick Johnson had 12 points and helped get the Indians going early by scoring their first five points. Johnson leads the OVC in field-goal percentage at 69.2 percent.

Senior center Brian Bunche again did a lot of the dirty work with six rebounds to match Johnson for team-high honors.

And junior center Nyah Jones and junior guard Matt Morris both contributed eight big points.

Morris, a walkon, who had played just two minutes previously this season, hit his only field-goal attempt a 3-pointer made five of six key free throws and also grabbed three rebounds in 17 minutes of action.

While the Indians probably won't be nearly as sharp tonight as they were Thursday, Garner is hoping Southeast is more than sharp enough to derail any upset hopes Oakland City might have."Human nature tells you we could have a letdown, because that was a such a big win (against Tech)," Garner said. "But hopefully we'll still play pretty well."INDIAN NOTES: Tonight's contest will be `Pack the Gym Night.' All tickets are $7 in an attempt to sell out the Show Me Center.

Call 651-2113 for tickets, or they can be purchased at the Show Me Center box office beginning at 6:30 tonight.