SOUTHEAST FINDS OVC CO-CHAMPS HAS A RING TO IT; INDIANS DEFEAT EKU 65-48

RICHMOND, Ky. -- Southeast Missouri State University's men's basketball team took care of its business here Saturday afternoon.

Then the Indians boarded a bus for the long trip back to Cape Girardeau wondering if their 65-48 win over Eastern Kentucky in the regular-season finale was enough to give them the outright Ohio Valley Conference championship.

Southeast's victory temporarily moved it one-half game ahead of Murray State, which was playing Tennessee Tech in a night game. The Indians got on their bus hoping for a Tech win that would give Southeast outright claim to its first-ever OVC regular-season title.

At about 9 p.m. Saturday -- while still on the bus -- the Indians received the news that Murray State had beaten Tech, but that could do little to detract from Southeast's celebration.

For the first time ever, the Indians can call themselves OVC champions as they share the title with Murray State. Both squads wound up with 14-4 league records.

And Saturday's triumph allowed the Indians to surpass last season's team for the most wins since the school made the move up to the Division I level 10 years ago.

A year ago, Southeast went 20-9 in coach Gary Garner's second season at the school. Now the Indians are 21-6 heading into Tuesday night's first-round OVC Tournament game.

Southeast, which is officially the No. 2 seed based on tie-breakers, will host No. 7 seed Tennessee-Martin in a 7 p.m. tipoff at the Show Me Center.

"We've accomplished so many things this season. Winning a share of the OVC title is something everybody associated with the program can be proud of," said Garner. "Our players will get their championship rings and they'll be wearing it and talking about it when they're 70, 80 years old.

"But we don't want to stop here. We still have a lot we want to accomplish."

Namely winning the OVC tourney and claiming the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

"It's a great feeling," said senior forward Roderick Johnson. "Winning the OVC title, even if we're co-champions, is something we've worked for all season. Now we have to go out and win the tournament."

Said Mike Branson, another senior forward, "It feels really good, to put in the work we did and then to at least get a share of the OVC championship."

Said the Indians' other senior, center Brian Bunche, with a grin, "I guess we'll be getting fitted for our (championship) rings soon."

The Indians made sure they'll carry plenty of momentum into the conference tournament by sending Eastern Kentucky to its 16th straight loss Saturday, although the Colonels (6-21, 2-16 OVC) hung tough for most of the game.

Southeast held a few early leads, but EKU was ahead 18-15 midway through the opening half and the Colonels still led 22-21 with just under six minutes to play.

But the Indians then turned the game around with a 10-0 run close out the first half as they held the Colonels scoreless for the final 5:50 of the period.

Johnson's two free throws with 3:37 remaining gave the Indians a 23-22 lead that they would not relinquish. Johnson added six more points while Michael Stokes had a basket to complete the 10-0 burst and put Southeast ahead 31-22 at the intermission.

Stokes scored the first basket of the second half to put Southeast up 33-22 and complete an overall 12-0 run by the Indians.

Still, the Colonels would not go away. Trailing 40-29, they used an 8-0 run to pull within 40-37. They also trailed by just three points two other times but could never get closer.

Southeast was still clinging to a shaky 45-42 lead when Johnson scored on a follow shot and backup point guard Fred Abraham, who provided some solid play off the bench, got a conventional three-point play, giving the Indians a 50-42 advantage with just under eight minutes remaining.

EKU never got closer than seven points the rest of the way as Southeast steadily pulled away down the stretch.

Johnson had another big game as he led all scorers with 25 points and just missed a double-double as he grabbed nine rebounds. Johnson hit 10 of 17 shots from the field, including two misses from 3-point range in the final minute as he tried to hit his first trey of the season.

"Coach told me if we had a big lead at the end of our last game he'd let me shoot some 3-pointers," said Johnson.

Stokes added 17 points while Antonio Short contributed 11.

The Colonels were led by Chris Garnett with 14 points.

"It was really kind of an ugly game, but I'm proud of the way we won. We were blue collar today, which is kind of like we've been all year," Garner said. "We were ugly offensively, but we won it with our defense."

Garner praised EKU, saying, "You have to give them a lot of credit. They had nothing to play for basically, but they really played hard and gave us a real battle."