Southeast men face EKU's lethal outside shooters

The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team plays four of its last five Ohio Valley Conference games at home, which would appear to work in the Redhawks' favor.

But the Redhawks' also are finishing up the regular season against some of the OVC's elite squads.

Southeast's rugged finishing kick begins tonight against Eastern Kentucky in the start of a two-game homestand. Morehead State visits Saturday, with both tipoffs set for 7:45 p.m.

EKU (17-8, 9-4) is third in the 10-team OVC, while defending conference tournament champion Morehead (17-7, 11-2) is second.

"We've got two monsters coming up," Southeast coach Dickey Nutt said.

Both squads handed eighth-place Southeast (7-17, 3-10) decisive losses last month, EKU winning 79-63 and Morehead romping 80-40.

Looking a bit further ahead, Southeast visits first-place Murray State on Tuesday before finishing up the following week at home against fourth-place Austin Peay and ninth-place Tennessee State.

So four of the Redhawks' next five contests feature matchups with the OVC's top four teams.

That's why Nutt was particularly disappointed with Tuesday's 73-70 loss at Tennessee-Martin, which rallied from a 17-point first-half deficit to claim its first OVC win.

It was the fifth straight OVC defeat for Southeast, which has dropped eight of its past 10 games overall.

"We needed that one, with the teams we've got coming up," Nutt said.

Nutt said the Redhawks simply have not been playing with enough passion or sense of urgency recently and that must change.

"Right now it's a pride thing. It's all about pride," Nutt said. "We're going to put our boxing gloves on. ... all we know to do is to get up early, go to work and play for some pride."

EKU, tonight's opponent, is among the nation's premier long-range shooting teams.

The Colonels lead the OVC and rank second nationally with an average of 10.2 made 3-pointers per game. They are hitting 40.6 percent of their treys to rank second in the league and ninth nationally.

"Everybody they put on the floor is capable of making 3-pointers," Nutt said.

The Colonels have three of the OVC's seven most accurate 3-point shooters and four of the top 13. All are hitting at last 37 percent.

Senior guard Papa Oppong is third in the league at 46.7 percent, with sophomore guard Joshua Jones fourth at 46.3 percent.

Junior forward Justin Stommes, No. 8 in OVC 3-point shooting at 44.1 percent, leads the Colonels in scoring with a 15-point average that ranks sixth in the conference.

After dealing with EKU's prolific outside game, two nights later the Redhawks will have to contend with one of the nation's most dominant inside players.

Morehead 6-foot-8 junior center Kenneth Faried is the OVC's No. 2 scorer and the nation's top rebounder with averages of 17.2 points and 13.7 boards per game.

Faried, whose 18 double-doubles are second nationally, entered the season as the nation's top returning rebounder.

"We've got two powerhouses coming in," junior guard Anthony Allison said. "We'll be the underdog. ... We have to fight."