SE SUFFERS 4TH STRAIGHT LOSS

MURRAY, Ky. -- The free fall for Southeast Missouri State University's men's basketball team continued Thursday night.

For the first time since Gary Garner took over as their coach four seasons ago, the Indians are the not-so-proud owners of a four-game losing streak.

And it had to pain the Indians that the team relegating them to that dubious honor was none other than arch rival Murray State, which posted a 65-54 victory in front of 4,889 fans at the Regional Special Events Center.

Southeast, which until this week had last lost three in a row during Garner's first season in 1997-98, fell to 13-11 overall and 4-8 in the Ohio Valley Conference as the Indians dropped into eighth place in the nine-team league.

MSU, which had its 47-game home winning streak snapped by the Indians last season, improved to 12-10 overall and 7-4 in conference play.

"It's extremely frustrating," said Garner. "We're 4-8 in the league and I think that's the worst we've been since I've been here. The year we're having, there's not any way it can keep from hurting your confidence some.

"But, considering everything, we're hanging in there. We're still fighting. Things just aren't going our way right now."

A poor shooting performance did as much as anything to doom the Indians as they hit just 18 of 53 from the field (34 percent) and made just one of 13 3-point attempts.

"The biggest thing is we didn't shoot the ball well," Garner said. "Overall, I was pleased with the way we played, but we couldn't make any shots. And I thought we got a lot of good looks."

MSU coach Tevester Anderson, whose team also didn't light it up offensively -- the Racers shot 35.5 percent from the floor -- credited his defense for coming up big.

"I thought we played really, really great defensively," said Anderson. "We've challenged our team that, if we're going to win a championship, it has to be done defensively."

Emmanuel McCuthison was Southeast's only double-figure scorer as he had 14 points.

Justin Burdine paced the Racers with 18 points while Isaac Spencer and Antione Whelchel each added 14. Whelchel grabbed 13 rebounds and Spencer had 12 as MSU won the board battle 47-35.

The first half, which ended with MSU ahead 32-22, was no work of art. The teams combined to make just 21 of 62 shots from the field, including four of 20 from 3-point range.

Southeast, which led 8-3 in the early going, staggered offensively for the rest of the opening period, shooting 32.1 percent.

MSU was only a bit better over the first 20 minutes, hitting 35.3 percent of its shots.

"I thought we missed some easy shots in the first half," said Garner. "We should have been a lot closer than we were."

The Racers quickly went ahead 36-23 in the opening moments of the second half as they matched their biggest lead of 13 they had held late in the opening period.

Then the Indians suddenly caught fire. Drew DeMond's offense and defense (against Spencer) fueled a 16-2 run that ended with a Daniel Weaver layup, putting Southeast ahead 39-38 with just under 13 minutes remaining. It was the Indians' first lead since the game's early minutes.

After the Racers regained a 40-39 lead, DeMond (who had eight points and 10 rebounds) scored on a driving shot and then hit one of two foul shots -- he had his remarkable consecutive made free-throw streak of 24 snapped in the process -- to put the Indians back on top 42-40.

But the Racers then took control with a 10-0 run. Spencer's basket from in close at the 10:44 mark put MSU up for good at 43-42.

Terry Rogers then missed a dunk that would have given the Indians the lead right back. Whelchel followed with a conventional three-point play to make it 46-42 and the Racers had grabbed a 52-42 advantage before Southeast could score again.

The Indians never could quite recover from that burst. Southeast was able to get within 58-52 on a Michael Stokes 3-pointer with 2:30 remaining, then they had the ball with a chance to get closer but a shot was off the mark. Four straight free throws by the Racers then iced the victory.

"We had the big run to go ahead, then they come back with their run, but that's the way college basketball is," Garner said. "It's a game of runs."

Now the Indians will have to get ready for their third straight road game this week as they visit surging Tennessee-Martin Saturday night.

"We're not going to give up (on the season)," said Garner. "We're going to keep fighting. That's all we can do."