Short-handed Indians drop season opener

Give Southeast Missouri State University's men's basketball team an 'A' for effort.

But give Birmingham Southern College the season-opening victory.

The Indians, with only five available scholarship players, went virtually the entire game using only six players. And they hung tough most of the way before the Panthers pulled away late for a 62-51 victory before an announced crowd of 4,118 at the Show Me Center Friday night.

"Boy, I'm really proud of my basketball team," said Southeast coach Gary Garner, whose squad shot miserably in the first half but was still in contention until the final minutes. "We could have folded our tent and not competed as well as we did. We still had a chance to win the game."

Garner said the Indians carried out his makeshift game plan to near-perfection. About the only thing the Indians did glaringly wrong was shoot so poorly in the first half.

Southeast was a woeful 5-for-29 from the field in the opening 20 minutes for 17 percent -- including 1-for-11 on 3-pointers for 9 percent -- as they fell behind 9-0 early and trailed 23-12 at the break.

"We had the tempo going our way in the first half," said Garner, who employed a rare zone defense. "It's the first time I've played a zone but I felt like we had to slow the game down with so few players.

"But we just couldn't buy a basket. If we just make three more baskets that's eight for 29, which is still horrible, but we're only down four or five."

BSC coach Duane Reboul credited Garner with employing the type of strategy that allowed the Indians to hang around and have a chance to pull off what would have been, under the circumstances, a stunning victory.

"I knew the adversity they were facing, but coach Garner has a reputation for being an excellent coach and that was proven tonight," Reboul said. "He did things strategically so we could never put them away.

"When he gets his team back, I think they have a promising future. They just didn't have the depth."

The Indians, who had only 11 turnovers in the game despite the Panthers' pressure defense, improved their shooting in the second half. Southeast hit 13 of 26 from the floor over the final 20 minutes, which helped make things fairly interesting.

After falling behind 25-12 in the opening moments of the second half, the Indians quickly pulled to within 28-23 on a basket by freshman center Adam Crader.

BSC surged back ahead 42-30, but with 9:07 remaining a 3-pointer by Demetrius King got the Indians back to within five at 44-39.

The Indians still trailed by five at 46-41 with under seven minutes left and were within 47-41 with under six minutes remaining before the Panthers finally pulled away for good with a 10-3 run that made it 57-44.

BSC received 46 points from its three perimeter players who represent the bulk of the Panthers' returning experience. Corey Watkins hit six of seven shots -- including all four of his 3-point attempts - and scored 21 points. T.R. Reed had 15 points and 10 rebounds while Rashard Willie added 10 points.

That trio combined to hit eight of 12 3-pointers as the Panthers overall went 9-for-18 from behind the arc.

King, a junior-college transfer, led the Indians with 15 points in his collegiate debut. He struggled in the first half, missing all five of his shots and going scoreless, but came alive in the second half.

"The shots weren't going in the first half but I stuck with it," said King, who also had four steals and five rebounds. "I finally got going in the second half."

Daniel Weaver, a returning junior center, scored 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Weaver went 5-for-10 from the floor.

"He is our most improved player from last year and he had a solid game," said Garner of Weaver.

Crader had a solid debut with seven points on 3-for-4 shooting.

The Indians also got a big lift from freshman walk-on guard Kevin Robert, who was 3-for-3 from the field and scored seven points in 34 minutes.

"I can't say enough about him," Garner said. "We have several short-term problems, but some good can come out of this. Kevin can help us and we might not have ever found that out."

Freshman guard Brett Hale, who along with King played all 40 minutes, struggled through a 1-for-13 shooting night as he missed all seven of his 3-point attempts.

"Brett just had one of those nights," said Garner. "He'll come back."