Redhawks seek first win in home opener

~ Southeast opens its home schedule after dropping its first three games on the road

The road has not been kind to the Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team so far.

Southeast hopes the comforts of home provide a boost in the form of its first win of the year. One squad will notch its first victory tonight when the Redhawks (0-3) make their regular-season Show Me Center debut against Grambling State (0-4) in a 7 p.m. tipoff.

"It will be good to play in front of our fans," said Southeast coach Dickey Nutt, whose squad was the host for both its exhibition games. "We've been on the road a long time.

"We're low on confidence right now. Hopefully we can get home and have some success. But just because we're at home doesn't mean something is automatically going to happen."

Southeast's latest road loss was Saturday's 70-62 setback at Missouri-Kansas City.

The Redhawks also have fallen at Florida Gulf Coast 89-78 and Alabama-Birmingham 78-56.

"Life on the road is not easy," Nutt said.

Grambling opened its season with three straight lopsided road losses: 87-52 at Baylor, 86-57 at Rice and 75-52 at Arkansas. The Tigers played their first home game Saturday, falling 74-70 to Florida Gulf Coast.

The Tigers went 7-21 overall last year, including 4-14 in the Southwestern Athletic Conference as they finished eighth among 10 teams.

Grambling, under interim coach Bobby Washington, did make the SWAC tournament and pulled off the biggest upset of the event by beating regular-season champion Jackson State.

Washington had his interim tag removed in April as he was named Grambling's full-time coach.

While Grambling is picked to finish toward the bottom of the SWAC, it does feature the league's top returning scorer in 5-foot-7 senior guard Donald Qualls, who averaged 15.2 points per game as a junior to rank fourth in the conference.

Qualls is averaging just nine points so far. The Tigers' top scorers are 6-8 junior college transfer forward Brandon Wilson and 6-7 junior forward Justin Patton at 11.3 each.

Grambling has size in 7-foot, 250-pound sophomore center Peter Roberson, who is averaging five points, five rebounds and two blocks.

"They're going to come in here thinking that this is a winnable game," Nutt said.

The Redhawks won't have long to enjoy home cooking. Following tonight's game they have another road contest Wednesday at Arkansas in one of the Redhawks' three "guarantee" games this season.

Arkansas is paying Southeast $85,000, after Alabama-Birmingham paid $90,000. Southeast will receive $75,000 for its Dec. 6 matchup at Iowa State. All the money goes to the university's general athletic department revenue.

After visiting Arkansas, the Redhawks have three straight home dates beginning Saturday against Arkansas State.