SE HOPES TO STREAK INTO OVC TOURNEY

Thanks to Saturday night's thrilling victory over Eastern Illinois, Southeast Missouri State University's men's basketball team has a very real chance to enter the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament with a five-game winning streak.

"That's our plan," said senior swingman Emmanuel McCuthison, whose tip-in with one second left lifted the Indians past Eastern Illinois 75-73. "We want to win our last five and then get ready for the tournament."

Having now won three straight for only the second time this year, the Indians will close out the regular season with two more home games this week, Thursday night against Eastern Kentucky and Saturday night against Morehead State.

Not that those two opponents will be pushovers both came close to beating Southeast earlier in the season but the Indians will be solid favorites in each contest.

"If we can win out, I like our momentum going into the tournament," said Southeast coach Gary Garner during his weekly media conference Monday. "It's hard to win very many games in a row. You look at the teams in our league and not many have gone on long winning streaks.

"Are we good enough to win four in a row and five in a row? I think we are. But Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State are both good enough to beat us."

The Indians, who are closing out the regular season with four consecutive home games, have improved to 16-11 overall and 6-8 in OVC play, which puts them in a three-way tie for fifth place with Morehead State and Tennessee State.

Garner and his squad have known for a while that they will have to play a first-round OVC Tournament game on the road next Tuesday, since the top four finishers host opening-round contests and the Indians have been eliminated from fourth-place contention for several weeks.

But Garner knows the Indians would definitely leave Cape Girardeau next week with plenty of confidence if they can end the regular season riding a five-game winning streak.

"We're trying to build our confidence for that game next Tuesday," Garner said.

Southeast probably won't know where it will be heading for the start of the OVC tourney until all of Saturday's games are complete, but the Indians will likely play a first-round game against one of three opponents: Austin Peay, Eastern Illinois or Murray State.

* The Indians' offense has been impressive during the last three games as Southeast has averaged shooting nearly 60 percent from the field over that span.

Garner attributes the Indians' improved offense to their emphasis on getting the ball inside in order to create easier scoring opportunities.

"The biggest reason we've shot the ball well is we're getting the ball inside. I've demanded in practice that we get the ball inside," Garner said. "The last few games, our patience on offense has been the difference in our team."

And as a result, the Indians appear to be getting to the point where Garner thought they would be all along.

"I've always felt like if we could get it all together, we could have a good basketball team," he said.

* This week's two opponents, Morehead State (12-13, 6-8) and last-place Eastern Kentucky (7-17, 1-13), both gave Southeast plenty of problems earlier on their home courts.

The Indians trailed Morehead State by 17 points with 12:50 remaining before rallying for a 74-71 overtime victory on Jan. 27.

Southeast and Eastern Kentucky were tied with under a minute to play before the Indians scored the final six points and prevailed 65-59 on Jan. 29.

* Barring some upsets, the OVC regular-season championship will be decided Thursday when Murray State hosts Tennessee Tech.

Tech leads the league at 11-3 and Murray State is 10-4. Tech's other remaining game is Saturday at Tennessee-Martin while Murray hosts Tennessee State tonight.

Eastern Illinois and Austin Peay are tied for third at 9-5 and both teams would need just about everything to break their way this week in order to gain a share of the conference title.

* At both Southeast games this week, raffle tickets for a chance to win a 2001 Ford Ranger will be sold in the lobby of the Show Me Center. Tickets are $10 each and all proceeds will benefit Cystic Fibrosis.

Tickets can also be purchased at Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Missouri and Ford Groves until April 28.