OVC TOURNEY VISITS SHOW ME CENTER; INDIANS, EASTERN ILLINOIS HOLD REMATCH

Southeast Missouri State University basketball coach Gary Garner firmly believes his team isn't 22 points better than Eastern Illinois.

EIU coach Rick Samuels hopes Garner is right.

Tonight, both men will find out.

The Indians -- fresh off a 92-70 home victory over EIU in Saturday's regular-season finale -- will welcome the Panthers back to the Show Me Center for a 7:30 p.m. first-round Ohio Valley Conference Tournament game.

And the stakes tonight will be much higher than they were over the weekend because the winner moves on to Saturday's OVC Tournament semifinals in Nashville, Tenn., while the loser is done until next season.

"This is it," said Garner, the excitement in his voice rising noticeably as he spoke Monday. "The winner goes on and the loser goes home. If you can't get excited for this, then you can't get excited for anything."

Garner said he realizes that Southeast and EIU are much closer in ability than the previous score indicates. And he has to convince his players of that.

"It's got me scared do death, because we pounded them, and we're not 22 points better than them," Garner said. "Some people think they're the third-best team in the league. I expect a very tough ballgame."

Samuels figures the Panthers have no choice but to use what happened just a few days ago as a source of motivation, to prove that they are a much better team than what they showed over the weekend.

"It has to be a positive," said Samuels. "I think our kids feel like they didn't play our `A' game the other night. What we have to find out is if our `A' game is good enough.

"We have to realize there's a whole different ballgame to be played and I think we'll bounce back. But (Southeast) is a very good team."

Just how solid a regular season Southeast has had can be seen in several different areas. For starters, at 18-8 overall and with a 15-3 OVC record that netted them second place, the Indians posted their most overall wins, most OVC wins and highest OVC finish since moving up to the Division I level eight years ago.

And Southeast also became the first OVC team other than Murray State to win 15 conference games in a season. The league champion Racers, at 16-2, finished one game ahead of the Indians this year. Murray State also won 15 league games in the 1993-94 season.

"Most years in the OVC and in most conferences in the country, 15 wins will win the title," said Garner. "We really had an outstanding conference season."

But Garner knows that will mean little tonight as the Indians host their first-ever OVC Tournament game and seek to advance to the OVC tourney semifinals for the first time ever.

"We're the No. 2 seed and Eastern Illinois is the No. 7 seed, but last year, Eastern Illinois was the No. 2 seed and they lost in the first round to the No. 7 seed, Tennessee State," Garner said. "We've talked about that with the team. And when I was an assistant at Missouri, we were seeded eighth and won the Big Eight Tournament.

"Crazy things can happen in the postseason. What happened in the regular season is kind of thrown out the window."

Despite being only the seventh seed, EIU finished just one game out of a third-place tie in the extremely scrambled middle of the pack. Four teams tied for third at 9-9 while the Panthers tied for seventh at 8-10. EIU is 13-15 overall.

The Panthers rely on three standout perimeter players to do the bulk of their scoring. Kyle Hill, a 6-foot-2 sophomore who has been coming off the bench in recent games, leads the way at 16.4 points a contest.

Also in double figures are 6-5 junior forward Marc Polite (14.5 ppg) and 6-foot senior point guard Jack Owens (12 ppg), who has a league-high 156 assists. No other Panther scores more than seven points a game.

Polite and Owens both shoot 41 percent from 3-point range while Hill is at 37 percent.

"Hill, Polite and Owens are as good as any perimeter players in the league," said Garner. "If they get hot, they can beat anybody in the league. That's what really scares you."

Samuels said that all five of Southeast's starters scare him, from center Bud Eley (15.1 ppg) to forwards Roderick Johnson (12.1 ppg) and Mike Branson (10 ppg) to guards Cory Johnson (11 ppg) and Kahn Cotton (8.1 ppg).

Eley leads the OVC in rebounding at 10.5 per game, blocked shots with 2.5 a contest and field-goal shooting at 61 percent.

"They're one of the most balanced teams in our league. All five players are dangerous," Samuels said. "The key is not to give them easy baskets."

Riding a three-game winning streak, Garner likes the way the Indians are playing right now, from the starters to key reserves Demetrius Watson, Brian Bunche, Nathan Owen and Fred Abraham.

"You hope to develop a bench as the season goes along and our bench is really performing well," Garner said. "I like the way our entire team is playing right now."

Garner said there will be increased intensity tonight as postseason play begins. But a team must guard about being too uptight.

"You must have that intensity. Now it's one loss and you're done," he said. "But you worry about players being too uptight at the beginning of the game. I've had teams where it takes a half to settle down. You certainly don't want that to happen."

Eastern Illinois at SEMO

OVC Tournament, First Round

7:30 p.m., Show Me Center

Probable Starters

SEMO (18-8, 15-3 OVC)

Player Pos. Yr. Ht. Avg.

Mike Branson F Jr. 6-6 10.0

Roderick Johnson F Jr. 6-7 12.1

Bud Eley C Sr. 6-10 15.1

Cory Johnson G Sr. 6-0 11.0

Kahn Cotton G Sr. 5-10 8.1

Eastern Illinois (13-15, 8-10 OVC)

Player Pos. Yr. Ht. Avg.

Marc Polite F Jr. 6-5 14.5

Merve Joseph F So. 6-3 6.3

Michael Shaver C Sr. 6-10 3.9

Michael Forrest G Jr. 6-3 5.3

Jack Owens G Sr. 6-0 12.0

Series: Tied 8-8

This season: SEMO won both meetings, 81-70 and 92-70

Radio: K103