SO CLOSE... SE'S BIG DANCE BID VANISHES AT BUZZER

Southeast Missouri State's Mike Branson fouled Murray State's Duane Virgil as he tried for a dunk in Sunday's OVC Tournament championship game. Southeast's Kahn Cotton (5) looked on.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- This Aubrey Reese hero stuff must be getting old to Southeast Missouri State University's basketball team.

For the second time this season, Murray State's junior point guard hit a shot that was like a knife through the heart of the Indians.

But this stab was the cruelest of all because if kept the Indians from making their first-ever trip to the NCAA Division I Tournament.

Reese dashed through Southeast's defense and hit a running one-hander from about 16 feet away at the buzzer Sunday afternoon, giving the top-seeded Racers a 62-61 victory in a thrilling championship game of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.

Murray State (27-5), which won a third consecutive OVC tourney title, earns the OVC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament for the third straight season.

Second-seeded Southeast (20-9), which was appearing in the OVC championship game for the first time ever, is hopeful of an NIT bid, but those chances appear slim.

On Jan. 14, Reese hit a shot with one tenth of a second left to give the Racers a 71-70 victory over the Indians in Cape Girardeau.

"I'm sick of Aubrey," said Southeast coach Gary Garner, who added, "Don't take it the wrong way. He's a great player and he's hit two great shots to beat us."

The final seconds of Sunday's game were eerily similar to that January meeting between the teams.

In that contest, Southeast senior guard Kahn Cotton hit a shot with five seconds left to put the Indians ahead by a point, only to see Reese dash the length of the court to deposit the game-winner just before the buzzer.

Sunday, Cotton hit a long 3-pointer over Reese from about 27 feet away with 5.1 seconds remaining to put the Indians ahead 61-60 and send the nearly 2,000 Southeast fans at the Nashville Arena into a frenzy.

Following timeouts by each team, Reese took an inbound pass and raced the length of the court, beating at least two Indians in the process. He had to arc his shot high over the outstretched right hand of Southeast center Bud Eley, who nearly got the block. The ball left Reese's hand with less than a second remaining and the buzzer sounded as the ball cleanly swished through the net.

"I was thinking shot all the way. It was the exact situation as last time," said Reese, named the tournament MVP. "With five seconds, there's not much time to do anything else. I just wanted to get off a good shot and fortunately it went in."

The Indians appeared to have the play defended well, with several players chasing Reese and then the 6-foot-10 Eley all over him as he let the shot go.

"We thought they'd go to Reese again," said Garner. "We wanted to turn him back one more time into Kahn, but he made a heck of a move and then made a great shot to get it over Bud.

"As a coach, you think of 1,000 things you could have done differently after a game like this. But I don't know what we could have done differently (at the end). He just made another great shot."

Southeast junior forward Mike Branson, who joined Eley on the five-player all-tourney team, couldn't believe Reese did it to the Indians again.

"When I saw Bud get his hand up, I didn't think there was any way it would go in," Branson said. "But he's done it before and it was a great shot."

Eley, who finished off his brilliant Southeast career with a monster performance, said dejectedly that he didn't want to talk about those final seconds.

The OVC Player of the Year let his game do the talking for him. He scored 20 points, grabbed 17 rebounds, blocked four shots and even dished out seven assists as he constantly found open teammates for easy baskets when the Racers tried to surround him with defenders.

"Bud has had a great career and a great season and he finished it with another tremendous performance," Garner said.

Branson capped off a big tournament with 18 points, 14 coming in the first half as the Racers repeatedly left him open from 3-point range. Branson hit four of seven 3-pointers.

"I feel really bad for the seniors," said Branson. "I have another year, but they don't."

Cotton added 13 points while junior forward Roderick Johnson contributed 10.

Murray State got 16 points from both Reese and Duane Virgil. Isaac Spencer added 15 while Marlon Towns had 10. Virgil and Spencer joined Reese on the all-tourney squad.

Spencer grabbed 14 rebounds as the Racers controlled the boards by a 47-30 count, including 23-9 in the first half.

"That's all we talked about at halftime, rebounding," said Garner.

Southeast started slow, with four turnovers in its first five possessions, and fell behind 7-0.

But the Indians quickly settled down and the rest of the game was extremely well played. Southeast finished with only eight turnovers and each team had just two turnovers in the second half. The national television audience watching on ESPN certainly received a treat.

"It was an outstanding game," said Murray State coach Tevester Anderson, whose squad won three games from the Indians this season and now has captured 15 in a row against Southeast. "SEMO is a very good team. They're well coached and they play great defense.

"It's tough to beat a team that good three times."

The Indians recovered from the slow start to lead 31-29 at halftime. Southeast scored the first six points of the second half to go up 37-29.

Southeast held the game's biggest lead less than three minutes into the final half when Eley's dunk made it 40-31.

Murray State quickly came back, using a 16-6 run to go up 47-46 with 11:27 remaining.

The rest of the contest was virtually a classic, with neither squad leading by more than three points. There were six lead changes and two ties before Reese's game-winner.

"It was a great game. The kids did everything we asked them to do," Garner said. "This loss hurts, but I'm just really proud of what our team accomplished this year."