OVC RACE HEATS UP DOWN THE STRETCH

Although they hope it's not the case, this could be the last week of home games for Southeast Missouri State University's basketball Indians.

The Indians have only two regular-season home contests remaining, Thursday night against Tennessee-Martin and Saturday night against Ohio Valley Conference leader Murray State.

Of course, if the Indians are able to close out the season extremely strong -- and have Austin Peay falter a bit -- then they just might be back at home on Feb. 24 for the first round of the OVC Tournament.

Southeast stayed right in the hunt for a fourth-place OVC finish -- and a first-round tournament home game that goes to the top four teams -- with Saturday's big 85-76 win at Middle Tennessee State.

"It was really a big win for us and we definitely had one of our best performances of the season," said Southeast coach Gary Garner during his weekly media conference Monday morning. "It was a great team effort. I know you hear that a lot, but it really was."

The win over the Raiders capped a strong road week for the Indians, who also won at Austin Peay and lost at Tennessee Tech.

"It was really a good week," Garner said. "We'd hoped to win all three, but any time you play three conference games on the road, I think any coach in the country would take two out of three.

"Considering Middle Tennessee had won 15 straight at home and Austin Peay had won 18 of 19 at home, we really won at two extremely tough places."

The Indians are 12-11 overall and 8-7 in OVC play with three regular-season games remaining, including a Feb. 21 contest at Eastern Illinois.

Southeast, which has won four of its last five contests, is in fifth place in the league but still just one-half game behind fourth-place Austin Peay, which is 8-6. The Indians won both meetings with the Governors this season, so if they tie Austin Peay for fourth place they will get the tie-breaker nod to host a tournament game.

Austin Peay would appear to perhaps have a bit more of a favorable schedule to close the regular season, hosting Middle Tennessee and Tennessee Tech and visiting Murray State and Tennessee-Martin.

The Govs will be favored to beat both Tech and Martin, they'll be a solid underdog at Murray State and the Middle Tennessee game, since the Govs have it at home, is probably something of a tossup.

Meanwhile, Southeast will be favored against Martin and the underdog against both Murray and Eastern Illinois.

Of course, that's all on paper. The only thing important is what happens on the court, as Garner was quick to point out.

"We just have to take care of our business and also do a little praying," he said with a laugh. "I don't know if it's right to pray for somebody else to lose, but we will.

"I really think that if we win two out of these last three, that will get us in. Of course, things usually never turn out like you figure they will. And maybe we can win all three, who knows."

While the race for fourth place figures to be between the Govs and Indians (although Tennessee State is still within striking distance at 6-8), the race for first is definitely a three-team battle.

Murray (12-2) is one-half game ahead of Eastern Illinois (12-3) and one game ahead of Middle Tennessee (11-3).

The Racers play at Eastern Illinois Thursday night in a huge game while Middle Tennessee visits Austin Peay the same night in another key contest that will tell the Indians a lot about their chances of finishing fourth.

* On the injury front, junior forward Demetrius Watson, who suffered a broken foot on Jan. 26, returned to practice Monday and will be available for action Thursday night.

"Having Demetrius back will really give us a big lift as far as depth on the front line," Garner said.

Freshman guard Nathan Owen, who played Saturday with an extremely sore foot, practiced only briefly Monday. He is expected to play Thursday.

Senior guard Lakeo Keller, continuing to be bothered by a bad knee, did not play Saturday but he practiced Monday and should be able to play Thursday.

Senior forward Travis Smith, who played Saturday with a sore groin, is doing better and practiced Monday.

Meanwhile, junior guard Cory Johnson continues to be plagued by a bad back but he has not missed any game time because of it.

* The Indians rank high in several OVC team and individual statistical categories.

As a team, Southeast leads the league in free-throw percentage (.700) and the Indians are shooting 82 percent in their last five games.

Southeast is also second in 3-point field-goal percentage (.374) and second in 3-pointers made per game (7.78).

Johnson tops the individuals as he leads the OVC in 3-point percentage (.460), free-throw percentage (.868) and 3-pointers per game (3.8). Johnson is also third nationally in 3-pointers per game and he is third in the OVC in scoring (15.3 ppg).

Junior forward David Montgomery is second in the OVC in field-goal percentage (.616).

Junior point guard Kahn Cotton and senior forward Calvert White are both among the OVC's assists leaders, averaging 3.9 and 3.7 a game, respectively. That ranks them fifth and seventh.