SOUTHEAST HOPES TO FEAST ON NAIA BIRD

Coming off a 49-47 loss at Bradley Tuesday night, Southeast Missouri State University's basketball Indians will tonight have what figures to be their final non-conference walkover of the 1998-99 season.

Of course, Southeast coach Gary Garner doesn't see it that way. He's saying the same thing about Central Methodist that he said about Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, a Division II team the Indians destroyed 78-35 in their season opener Saturday.

Southeast and Central Methodist -- which competes on the NAIA level -- will square off at 7:30 p.m. at the Show Me Center.

"Like I've always said, any time you play a team from a lower division, it's a dangerous game," said Garner. "It's always one of their biggest games of the season and it's always a game that your players maybe don't take too seriously.

"The big thing is to get our players to take Central Methodist seriously. This is a game we should win, no doubt about it. But there have been a lot of cases of teams from lower divisions beating Division I teams, so it's a game we can't overlook."

The Indians are 1-1 while the Eagles from Fayette, Mo., are 4-2. The teams also played last year at the Show Me Center. Southeast trailed by four points at halftime before pulling away for a 94-78 victory.

"They really gave us all we wanted last year," said Garner. "They came in here and really played a good game."

Central Methodist coach Jeff Sherman recalls last year's game at the Show Me Center fondly -- but he also figures the Indians might be looking to get the Eagles back for making things so interesting.

"All the players we had last year, that's still one of the highlights of their season," he said. "We went 26-8 and went to the (NAIA) national tournament, but that's one game that really sticks in their minds.

"We went down there last year and we really competed. But I'm afraid that could work against us this time because those (Southeast) returning players and coaches aren't going to want us to have nearly the game we had last year."

Sherman said this is a totally different Central Methodist team than the one that came to Cape Girardeau last year and led at halftime.

The Eagles lost their top two scorers, including Meridian (Ill.) High product Wesley Goldsmith, who burned the Indians for 33 points last year. Central Methodist has just one senior on its roster.

"We're still trying to find ourselves, like about everybody else is at this time of the year," Sherman said. "We lost some good players, but I think we're eventually going to have a better team. We just don't have everybody playing right now.

"Come the second semester, if everything works out right, we could have about as good a team as we've ever had."

Sitting out tonight will be two players who Sherman considers to be among his top talents. Nino Smith is not eligible until the second semester while New Madrid product Shae Tipler, a two-sport performer, is still recovering from an injury suffered during the football season.

But the Eagles still have plenty of weapons. They return two starters, including 6-foot-3 guard Matt Clutter, who scored 14 points against Southeast last year and is averaging nearly 20 points per game.

The Eagles have also been getting plenty of help from 6-7, 270-pound junior-college transfer Anthony Burks, who began his career at Mississippi. Burks is averaging about 13 points and nine rebounds.

Central Methodist's two losses have been 90-78 to Robert Morris and 93-58 to Pittsburg State. The Eagles have won two straight, including a 112-91 victory over Harris-Stowe Wednesday night.

"We've shot very well last two games but we didn't the first four," said Sherman.

Sherman has no allusions about what's in store for the Eagles tonight. He said he just wants his team to enjoy the experience of playing a Division I program and to compete as well as possible.

"For us, it's a fun game," he said. "I like to play it because our guys get the opportunity to be challenged, and we'll be challenged big time. But we're going to get to play in an environment that's really college basketball. And I have a lot of respect for Gary and what he's done in his coaching career.

"We'll be loose. We don't have anything to lose. We'll give it everything we have. But it would take some type of act of God for us to have the type of night we had last year. That was something special."

Following tonight's game, the rest of the Indians' non-conference schedule will be extremely difficult.

Southeast hosts highly-regarded Louisiana Tech Monday night and has remaining contests at Big 12 power Oklahoma State, Southwest Missouri State and Arkansas State, in addition to a neutral site game against Southern Illinois in St. Louis.

INDIAN NOTES: Senior guard Kahn Cotton, who has barely practiced so far and not played in any games because of knee problems, will try to resume practice again after Thanksgiving.

Garner is hopeful that Cotton will be ready to go a short time after he begins working out again.

Central Methodist at SEMO

7:30 p.m., Show Me Center

Probable Starters

SEMO (1-1)

Player Pos. Yr. Ht. Avg.

Mike Branson F Jr. 6-6 11.5

Roderick Johnson F Jr. 6-6 10.5

Bud Eley C Sr. 6-10 10.0

Cory Johnson G Sr. 6-0 7.5

Jeramy Biles G So. 5-11 3.0

CM (4-2)

Player Pos. Yr. Ht. Avg.

Matt Kirkpatrick F Jr. 6-5 7.5

Chuck Glasper F Jr. 6-5 7.0

Anthony Burks C Jr. 6-8 13.0

Matt Cuttler G Jr. 6-3 19.5

Aaron Angel G Jr. 5-9 4.5

Series: SEMO leads 4-2

Last meeting: SEMO won 94-78 in 1997-98

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