One that got away

The first Division I basketball program to offer Adam Leonard a scholarship was Southeast Missouri State.

But Leonard wound up signing with Eastern Kentucky -- and Saturday night the freshman guard was a major thorn in the side of the team that he once considered playing for.

Leonard matched his career high with 22 points as the Colonels continued their hot streak with a 66-61 victory.

It was EKU's fifth consecutive win and avenged an 88-74 loss to the Redhawks on Jan. 2 in Richmond, Ky.

The Colonels (15-9, 10-6) remained in fifth place in the Ohio Valley Conference, but they're just one-half game behind Tennessee Tech and Murray State, who are tied for third/fourth place.

The top four finishers earn home games for the first round of the conference tournament.

"This was a big win for us," Leonard said.

He played a major role, primarily with his long-range shooting that has marked his impressive rookie season of college basketball.

Leonard hit six 3-pointers to tie his career high, and he missed just four times from beyond the arc. Several of those were highly contested and from NBA range.

For the season, Leonard has now made 76 of 175 3-pointers (43.4 percent).

Saturday's performance allowed Leonard to pass Southeast senior guard Terrick Willoughby for the OVC lead in 3-point accuracy. Willoughby is second at 42.9 percent.

"The main thing is that we're really playing well now," said Leonard, who averages 12.2 points per game.

Leonard, a native of the Kansas City suburb of Lee's Summitt, said he might very well have wound up at Southeast had he not become enamored with EKU.

"They [Southeast] were actually the first school that started recruiting me," he said. "But I went to visit Eastern Kentucky and I just really liked it so I decided to go there."

Cape Girardeau is still a substantial distance from Kansas City, but it's a lot shorter trip than Richmond, Ky. -- which is why Leonard had a personal cheering section of about 25 family members and friends at the Show Me Center on Saturday.

"They don't get to see me play much, so they came down here," he said. "It was nice to have them here."

Had Leonard signed with Southeast, he would have been reunited with former high school rival and AAU teammate Roderick Pearson, the Redhawks' talented freshman point guard who is from the Kansas City suburb of Raytown, Mo.

"We've known each other since sixth grade," Leonard said. "We were district rivals in high school, but we also played together on some teams."

Although they haven't necessarily been directly matched against each other on the court, Pearson did spend some time guarding Leonard in their two meetings this season.

In fact, after Leonard scored 11 first-half points Saturday and then lit up the Redhawks for nine more points over the first 6 minutes of the second half, Pearson began to shadow Leonard whenever he got close to his considerable 3-point shooting range.

Leonard did not have a field goal over the final 13-plus minutes, but he did make two big free throws in the closing seconds that helped the Colonels hold off the Redhawks (10-16, 8-9), who are sixth in the OVC.

"It's been a lot of fun playing against him," Leonard said of Pearson.

Consider them even so far during their college careers.

Although Leonard scored 17 points in the first meeting with Southeast, Pearson stole the show with 22 points, 11 assists and five steals as the Redhawks romped.

Round two went to Leonard and the Colonels, although there figure to be several more battles in the future.