SOUTHEAST GRABS GRUESOME WIN

It's called winning ugly. And make no mistake about it, Southeast Missouri State University's basketball team was certainly ugly Monday night.

But, much to the relief of coach Gary Garner and his Indians not to mention the 4,014 fans at the Show Me Center Southeast was able to avoid a disastrous upset with a much-closer-than-expected 67-58 victory over Division II Rockhurst.

So the Indians are now 2-0 on the young season. And, even though Southeast was less than impressive, it's likely that not very many people will remember the score in a few weeks or even a few days."Now that was ugly," said Garner. "As long as you win, people won't remember it. But if you lose, they'll never forget it."Garner said the Indians played Monday night kind of like he expected them to play Friday night in their opener, when Southeast was extremely impressive in routing Western Carolina by 24 points."We're just not very consistent, which is to be expected with so many new players," Garner said. "I kind of expect us, early in the season, to maybe have a good game and then a game like this."Part of the Indians' problems Monday, according to Garner, might have been their mental approach to the contest."I didn't do a good job of preparing the players mentally," he said. "But I don't want to take anything away from Rockhurst. Give them credit. They did what they had to do to stay in the game."That the Indians were able to hold off the Hawks, who were playing their season opener, can in large part be attributed to the shooting of guard Amory Sanders.

Sanders, a transfer from Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff, is part of Southeast's touted five-man junior-college recruiting class, but he sometimes gets a bit overlooked by more heralded juco transfer guards Michael Stokes and Antonio Short.

While Sanders had the reputation of being an exceptional long-range shooter at Three Rivers, he struggled some with his shot during Southeast's two exhibition games and Friday's opener.

But Sanders found his stroke Monday and helped bail out the Indians. He came off the bench and scored Southeast's final seven points of the first half as the Indians rallied for a 21-21 tie at the intermission after trailing 19-12 late in the half.

Sanders scored 13 more points in the second half to finish with a game-high 20. He hit seven of 12 shots from the field, including four of eight 3-pointers."He's been shooting okay, but we knew he was a better shooter than that," said Garner of Sanders. "If he doesn't shoot it well tonight, who knows what happens."Said Sanders with a smile, "It was one of those nights. I shot pretty good. I feel like I've been struggling some, but I worked hard in practice and I just have to get my confidence going."Of the Indians' performance Monday, Sanders said, "I don't feel like we played real good, especially defensively. We started off kind of slow. The intensity wasn't there."Short added 11 points for the Indians while Mike Branson and Nyah Jones each contributed 10.

Davin Winkley paced the Hawks with 19 points, 15 coming in the second half.

Southeast was extremely sluggish in the first half, able to generate virtually no offense. The Indians had only 12 points until late in the first half, when Sanders' spurt helped them rally. The Tribe shot 27 percent (seven of 26) in the opening 20 minutes.

The Indians got their offense going better in the second half, shooting 58 percent (15 of 26), but never could shake the pesky Hawks, who returned most of their key players from last year's 15-12 squad.

Short scored an inside basket in the opening seconds of the final half to break the 21-all tie and the Indians never lost the lead, but things were far from comfortable.

Sanders' 3-pointer midway through the second half seemed to give Southeast a little bit of breathing room at 44-37, but Rockhurst continued to hang tough and pulled to within one point four times, the last coming at 51-50 with a little more than five minutes left.

Southeast then scored seven straight points, sandwiching baskets by Roderick Johnson and Jones around a 3-pointer by Mike Branson.

Rockhurst never got closer than five points the rest of the way. Jones, Branson and Sanders each hit two free throws in the final 40 seconds to seal the victory. The final nine-point margin was the largest of the game."We were pleased that we didn't really ever fold the tent," said Rockhurst coach Bill O'Conner. "I think Southeast Missouri is a very good basketball team that will only get better."When you get the opportunity to play a Division I team that is as well coached as them, it can only make you better."The Indians' next game will be Saturday night when Montana visits the Show Me Center.