Southeast can't strike twice, falls to Murray State

MURRAY, Ky. -- The way Southeast Missouri State University coach Gary Garner sees it, you can question the Indians' talent, but not their heart.

Southeast, more undermanned than usual because of a key injury, put together one of its most inspired efforts of the season Saturday night in taking favored Murray State to the wire before dropping a 71-65 decision.

A crowd of 4,356 at the Regional Special Events Center saw the Racers improve to 14-9 overall and 7-5 in the Ohio Valley Conference as they avenged an upset loss to Southeast on Jan. 18 in Cape Girardeau.

The Indians lost their fifth straight game and fell to 9-16 overall, 4-9 in the OVC. Southeast remained eighth in the nine-team league.

Despite the loss, Garner wasn't disappointed with the Indians, whose already depleted roster became even thinner when senior forward Tim Scheer suffered a knee injury with just under six minutes left in the first half.

Scheer, the Indians' third-leading scorer at nearly 14 points per game, did not return, although the extent of the injury was not known. Without Scheer, who scored three points before leaving, six players were forced to receive virtually all of the minutes for Southeast.

"I'm disappointed we lost, but I was proud of the way we hung in there," Garner said. "We showed a lot of fight to come back every time they'd go up by eight or nine points.

"I thought we played well. We shot the ball well, and our defense was the best it's been in a while."

The Indians, despite trailing almost the entire game -- including by as many as 11 points in the second half -- trailed by just two points in the final seconds before the Racers were able to hold on.

"I thought we were going to win the game," Southeast junior forward Damarcus Hence said. "We showed a lot of heart tonight."

Southeast kept things close most of the way largely because it hit 14 of 23 shots from 3-point range.

"We had a lot of guys shooting well on the same night," Garner said.

The Indians got a big offensive lift from Hence, who shot the ball well off the bench for the second straight game after being mired in a slump due partly to some injuries.

Hence scored a team-high 17 points as he made seven of 14 field-goal attempts, including three of five 3-pointers.

"We had a team meeting, and they told me to keep shooting, that my shot would come back," Hence said. "I'm getting my confidence back."

Also in double figures for the Indians were sophomore guards Brett Hale and Derek Winans with 15 points each. Hale hit three of five 3-pointers and Winans made four of eight.

Senior guard Demetrius King, also mired in a recent shooting slump due partly to injuries, made both of his 3-point attempts.

Junior center Brandon Griffin pulled down 10 rebounds while sophomore point guard Kevin Roberts dished out 10 assists.

MSU received 19 points from junior guard Chris Shumate, 16 from junior forward Cuthbert Victor and 15 from junior guard Rick Jones.

Shumate hit eight of 11 shots, while Victor made seven of eight, many of them coming on put-backs as the Racers controlled the boards 35-23 and grabbed 14 offensive rebounds. MSU also owned a whopping 32-6 edge on points in the paint.

"I thought they hit some really tough shots, but the thing that hurt us the most were the offensive rebounds and points in the paint," Garner said. "We knew a big key would be keeping them off the boards."

Also hurting the Indians was a huge discrepancy in free-throw shooting. MSU went to the line 20 times, including 18 in the second half. Southeast did not attempt a second-half foul shot after going to the line four times in the opening period.

"I've never seen that, where one team has 18 free throws in the second half and the other doesn't have one," Garner said.

Southeast led just once all night, 3-0 after Winans hit a 3-pointer in the opening minute.

MSU opened up a 35-28 halftime advantage and went ahead 39-28 early in the second half.

But thanks to hot outside shooting, the Indians never went away, even though the Racers went back up 58-47 with under seven minutes remaining after seeing their lead trimmed to two points.

Hence's 3-pointer with 2:04 left pulled the Indians to within 63-59 and a Hale 3-pointer with 1:26 left made it 65-62.

MSU guard Antonio Henderson then hit perhaps the game's biggest basket as he drilled a 16-footer as the shot clock was about to expire, making it 67-62 with 46 seconds left.

Southeast still had some life left as Griffin's surprise 3-pointer -- on his first attempt of the season from beyond the arc -- made it 67-65 with 17 seconds remaining. But Jones hit four free throws to ice the victory.

"Half of their 3-pointers were contested that they hit," Victor said. "They're shooters. You just have to hope they miss."

mmishow@semissourian.com

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