Redhawks seek road upset of Bradley

~ Southeast men play their final contest tonight before opening their OVC schedule.

The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team will wrap up its Missouri Valley Conference tour tonight with a game at Bradley.

Southeast also will complete its magical, mystery bus tour that, in the past 10 days, has seen the Redhawks log plenty of miles.

Last week, Southeast traveled more than six hours each way for the Chicago Invitational Challenge, followed by a trip of about eight hours each way for Wednesday's game at Louisiana Tech.

Friday's approximately 4 1/2-hour, one-way trek to Peoria, Ill., for tonight's game must have seemed like a breeze to the Redhawks.

"It seems like we've been going all over the country," Southeast coach Scott Edgar said. "I'm sure our guys are tired of getting on a bus.

"But it's all helping us get prepared for the marathon of the conference schedule. ... We'll have a lot of long bus rides."

After tonight, the Redhawks -- who have had only two home dates -- will be able to turn their attention to their 20-game Ohio Valley Conference slate.

Southeast opens league play with two contests at the Show Me Center next week, Thursday against Tennessee State and Saturday against Tennessee Tech.

But first, the Redhawks (4-3) would love to upset the Braves (5-2) when the squads meet in a 7:05 p.m. tipoff at Carver Arena.

Bradley, coming off a 22-13 season that saw it advance to the NIT, has been picked to finish second in the MVC by most preseason polls.

"When you're picked to finish second in a conference rated as highly as the Missouri Valley, you've got a very good basketball team," said Edgar, whose squad has won two straight games and four of its last five.

The Redhawks already have played two MVC teams, losing at Illinois State 90-71 and beating Evansville at home 87-77.

"We've played a team picked at the bottom of the Missouri Valley [Evansville] and we've played a team picked in the middle of the Missouri Valley [Illinois State]. Now we're playing a team picked toward the top," Edgar said. "It's going to be a big challenge for us."

The Braves, coming off consecutive 22-win seasons for the first time since 1960, returned arguably the MVC's premier backcourt in seniors Daniel Ruffin and Jeremy Crouch.

Ruffin, a quick 5-foot-10 point guard, and Crouch both averaged 13.8 points per game last year to rank as the MVC's top returning scorers.

The 6-5 Crouch tied for the national lead in 3-point shooting as a junior, hitting 50 percent (83-of-166), while Ruffin recorded 172 assists and is the nation's active career assists leader with 525.

This year, Ruffin leads the Braves in scoring (17.3 ppg), followed by Crouch (13.3 ppg) and 6-5 sophomore guard Andrew Warren (12 ppg).

Ruffin is shooting 43.8 percent from 3-point range (21-of-48) and Crouch is at 41.8 percent (23-of-55).

"We know they'll be a really good team, but we've got a little streak going," said Southeast senior forward Brandon Foust, who has scored 36 points in the last two games. "We want to see if we can keep it going."

Bradley, which already has wins over Iowa and Iowa State, has won 28 consecutive home games against nonconference opponents.

But the Redhawks, above .500 for the first time under second-year coach Edgar, are feeling good after Wednesday's 59-54 win at Louisiana Tech.

"We're going to go to Bradley and see if we can get another road win," said junior swingman Jaycen Herring, who has 40 points in the last three games.