SE HITS UPON OVC INTERLUDE

ATLANTA -- Despite their 4-15 record, Southeast Missouri State University men's basketball coach Gary Garner has respect for the Morris Brown College Wolverines.

But entering tonight's 6 o'clock non-conference game against the host Wolverines, Garner said he is concentrating more on what the 10-7 Indians do than how Morris Brown performs.

"They've played some good teams and they've played some of them really well," said Garner. "They don't have many home games (only nine all season) so this will be a big game for them.

"But this is one of those games where it's much more important what we do than what they do."

Garner realizes that how he handles the Indians mentally perhaps more than physically from here on out will hold a big key as to what kind of season his squad ends up having.

The Indians are still reeling after another disappointing Ohio Valley Conference loss, Saturday night's 83-71 setback at Eastern Illinois that was much closer than the final score indicates.

Southeast erased almost all of a 15-point second-half deficit to pull within two points with more than five minutes remaining. But the Indians could get no closer against the talented Panthers.

"We're so close, but we just can't get over the hump," said Garner, pointing to the pair of two-point OVC losses the Indians have suffered at home, against Tennessee Tech and Murray State.

Close or not, the bottom line is that the defending OVC regular-season co-champion Indians are 2-4 in conference play, good for just seventh place in the nine-team league, and are fast losing any realistic hope of challenging for the regular-season title.

In fact, the Indians will have to do some serious playing over the final 10 conference games in order to even have a chance at finishing in the top four in the final standings, which is important. The top four finishers earn first-round home games for the OVC Tournament.

"It's always frustrating to lose," Garner said. "You keep beating a dead horse, but those two conference games we lost at home...If we win those two, we're 4-2 in the league and one game behind (leader) Tennessee Tech (which is 5-1).

"We always talk at the beginning of the year about protecting our home court. We haven't been able to do that this season."

Garner said the main thing is for the Indians to remain positive, which is easier said then done.

"Staying positive is the biggest thing, because realistically our chances of winning the league are pretty slim, and that was one of our goals going into the season," said Garner. "You always preach taking it one game at a time. Now it's maybe more important than ever to do that.

"We can still have a good season. And there's nobody in our league that we can't beat in Nashville (site of the OVC Tournament semifinals and championship game). That's why it's so important to get that (first-round league tourney) home game, so you have a good shot to at least get to Nashville."

What's probably as frustrating as anything to Garner is that the Indians' have not really played all that poorly in OVC games so far. With a little luck, they could be 5-1 or at least 4-2. But teams are seemingly coming up with superior efforts against Southeast, which Garner knew would happen.

"I reiterated to all the players before the season, that we are the hunted this year, after winning the (conference) championship last year and going to the NCAA Tournament," Garner said. "We've got on our backs OVC champions and NCAA Tournament. We're getting everybody's best shot.

"I don't know if our players realized it then, but they do now."

Following the loss to Eastern Illinois, the Indians remained in Charleston, Ill., Saturday night, then bused to Bloomington, Ill., Sunday morning and flew from there to Atlanta. They practiced Sunday evening at John H. Lewis Arena on the Morris Brown campus.

Morris Brown, a new NCAA Division I member, has had some solid showings despite its poor record. The Wolverines opened the season by beating a decent Missouri-Kansas City team at home. They have lost at the likes of Mississippi, Michigan, West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Minnesota, the latter setback being by just nine points.

Anthony Adams, a 6-foot-2 junior guard, leads the Wolverines offensively with nearly 15 points per game and he shoots better than 40 percent from 3-point range.

Kareem Allison, a 6-6 junior forward, scores almost 12 points a contest.

"Watching them on tape, they've got some good players," said Garner. "Adams is a good player."

Garner said he normally does not like to play a non-league game during the conference season, but because of the quirks of scheduling, he was forced to do it this time. The Indians have a home-and-home series with the Wolverines this year, Morris Brown scheduled to visit the Show Me Center on Feb. 14.