SE FINDS NO PAY FOR OT; EIU EDGES INDIANS 81-78

Southeast Missouri State University basketball coach Gary Garner believes that eventually the law of averages will work in his team's favor and the Indians will start to win some of these overtime games.

But after yet another overtime loss Saturday night, even Garner must be wondering.

Eastern Illinois rallied from a 10-point second-half deficit, lost a late four-point lead but escaped with an 81-78 overtime victory in front of 5,305 fans at the Show Me Center.

The Panthers improved to 10-7 overall and 7-2 in Ohio Valley Conference play.

Southeast fell to 8-10 overall and 4-6 in the league with its third straight loss. The Indians have suffered four of their six OVC defeats in overtime, with two coming in double overtime.

"We really played hard," said an emotionally drained Garner after the game. "I'm just really disappointed for our players, the fans, our staff.

"We come so close, but there's no column for that. We just keep coming up short."

Cory Johnson led the Indians offensively with 18 points while Kahn Cotton had 15 and Bud Eley and David Montgomery both added 12.

But Eley, the Indians' 6-foot-10 center who recently returned to action after missing seven games with a broken foot, played only five minutes after halftime and he did not score in the second half or overtime.

According to Garner, Eley at some point in the first half injured his left foot -- the one that had not been broken previously.

"We don't know what happened," said Garner, who added that Eley was scheduled to have the left foot x-rayed late Saturday night.

Conya Robinson scored a career-high 17 points to pace the Panthers, who also got 16 from Jack Owens, 14 from Rick Kaye and 13 from John Smith.

But Kaye, who entered the game averaging an OVC-best 21 points a contest overall and 26 in league play, hit just two of 15 shots from the field and never was a serious offensive factor as primarily Calvert White -- with some help from others -- put the clamps on the explosive 6-5 guard.

"I thought if we could hold Kaye to 15 or so we would win the basketball game," Garner said.

Where the Panthers basically won the game was at the free-throw line. They were a sizzling 27 of 31 (87 percent) and attempted 10 more foul shots than the Indians, who went 13 of 21 (62 percent).

"We outscored them from the field, but they went to the line a lot and right there was the big difference," said Garner. "We just put them on the line too much.

"This might have been our best defensive performance of the season, but they hurt us with rebounding. Rebounding is kind of our Achilles heel right now. We can rebound better."

EIU held only a 44-40 overall rebounding edge, but it seemed like every time the Panthers needed a big offensive rebound in the second half, they got it.

After trailing for most of the first half, Cotton's 3-pointer at the buzzer forged a 37-37 halftime tie.

The Indians surged over the first 10 minutes of the second half and opened up their biggest lead of the night when White's driving shot made it 61-51 with 10:02 remaining.

But then the Indians hit an offensive funk, going more than five minutes without a point. EIU used a 14-0 run to go ahead 65-61 with just over five minutes remaining.

Southeast, however, battled back and managed to go ahead 69-67 on Johnson's 3-pointer with 1:37 left.

Robinson hit a follow shot with just over one minute remaining for a 69-69 tie.

The Indians had two good opportunities to prevent the overtime but Montgomery's short bank shot with 40 seconds left just rolled off the rim and then White's open 15-footer at the buzzer was short off the front of the rim.

Southeast grabbed an early 72-69 lead in the five-minute extra period before five straight EIU points put the Panthers ahead 74-72.

The Indians never led again, but they did force ties at 74, 76 and 78, the latter coming on two Johnson free throws with 18 seconds left.

With six seconds left, the 6-7 Smith hit a 10-foot baseline shot and was fouled. He completed the three-point play for an 81-78 EIU lead and the Panthers had the win when White's 3-point try at the buzzer was well off the mark.

Southeast will return to action Thursday night when Morehead State comes to the Show Me Center.