Short-handed 'Hawks face OVC-leader Tenn. Tech

~ Southeast will play a seven-man rotation against a deep Eagles squad.

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee Tech fields one of the Ohio Valley Conference's deepest -- not to mention most talented -- men's basketball teams, with 10 players averaging at least 10 minutes of action per game.

Conversely, Southeast Missouri State's bench has been short all season -- and it got even shorter Thursday night when junior guard Eric Burtin suffered a broken leg late during a 68-63 loss at Tennessee State.

Burtin underwent surgery late Thursday and is out for the season.

So the Redhawks (6-10, 3-7 OVC) will basically field a seven-man rotation tonight when they close out their two-game road trip with a 7:30 p.m. tipoff against first-place Tennessee Tech (13-5, 8-2).

Southeast is ninth among 11 OVC squads.

"It's going to be a really big challenge for us, playing maybe the most talented team in the conference, and definitely one of the best teams," Southeast coach Gary Garner said.

Burtin, while not one of Southeast's top scorers -- he was averaging 5.8 points per game -- had started the past six games after Garner shook up the lineup following a shooting slump by second-leading scorer Terrick Willoughby.

"Eric struggled early, but he was getting better and better," Garner said. "But more than that, he's just really a great kid. It's a shame he got hurt, but the doctors say he should make a full recovery, and he should be back ready to go next season."

Southeast has also lost David Johnson for the season after hernia surgery, which leaves just eight healthy scholarship players. Of those, three are centers, leaving little playing time for Terrell White.

The Redhawks have now lost three straight and they sorely need a victory -- but a win tonight would likely rank as among the OVC's bigger upsets of the season.

Tech won the OVC regular-season champion title last year and returned many of the key players from that squad. After a strong start, the Eagles suffered three consecutive OVC defeats, but they have bounced back with five straight wins to emerge at the top of the standings.

"They are a great basketball team. They slumped for a while, but they're playing really well now," Garner said. "They're on a roll, and we'll probably have to play almost a perfect game to have a chance to beat them."

No player averages more than 12 points for Tech, but six players average at least seven points, and the team ranks second in the OVC in scoring with a 75.3 average. Conversely, Southeast is ninth among OVC teams at 65.2.

"They've got so many weapons, you can't really key in on any one player," Garner said. "On any given night, they have six or seven players who can be their leading scorer."

That certainly hasn't been the case for the Redhawks. For them, it's basically been senior guard Roy Booker or bust.

Booker, the former Portageville High School star who is playing his only season at Southeast after transferring from Montana, has led the Redhawks in scoring in all but three games. He is averaging 21.9 points per game, which leads the OVC and ranks among the top 20 nationally.

The second-leading scorer is Willoughby, who has alternated hot shooting streaks and extremely cold stretches. Willoughby, averaging 10.3 points per game, still ranked among the team's leaders in minutes played after losing his starting role.

But Willoughby hasn't scored in double figures in the last two games. In fact, other than Booker, who had 33 points in a Jan. 14 loss to Austin Peay and 27 Thursday, the only other double-figure performance for the Redhawks was junior forward Andrais Thornton's 10 points Thursday.

"We really need to get some scorers besides Roy," Garner said. "You look at most years in the OVC, and the team with the leading scorer usually doesn't do that well. It's happened, but look at this year. The best teams [Tech and Murray State] don't have any big scorers, they've got balance."