Southeast men's basketball team hosts another pivotal OVC game

When the Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team takes the floor tonight against Jacksonville State, it likely will be without leading scorer Jarekious Bradley.

Southeast coach Dickey Nutt said Bradley, who injured his left knee against UT Martin on Feb. 12, "likely will not play" but added he and the team would know more after Wednesday's scheduled practice.

While this poses a challenge for the Redhawks, who sit in ninth in the Ohio Valley Conference standings and are one game out of the eighth and final spot in the OVC tournament, Nutt is optimistic about how his team has responded during the past week of practice.

"I'll tell you what, I could not be more pleased with our guys," Nutt said. "I told our guys that we may just wear our practice jerseys on Thursday night because we practice so well. I want to carry that over to the game and play at home like we're capable of playing. I have been so pleased with our team, just because their attitude and effort has been outstanding.

"And it's real easy this time of year to let go of that rope and let go and just say 'Poor me' or whatever and want a pity party. But not these guys. … These guys play hard and they're giving us everything that they have, and I'm excited. I'm excited about these next four games -- just one game at a time. Our theme right now is one game at a time, one possession, one half at a time, and at the end of the day let's just see what happens."

Southeast faces the Gamecocks (10-18, 4-9 OVC) at 7 p.m. today at the Show Me Center. JSU sits in 10th place in the OVC standings and will try to snap a five-game losing streak. JSU's coming off an 86-65 loss to Eastern Kentucky on Saturday.

The outcome of the game will likely come down to which team controls the tempo.

"They want to play in the 50s and 60s, and we want to play in the transition game, so we're going to really try to get out and transition them," Nutt said. "But we understand they do a really good job of controlling the tempo and they want to get down and they want to grind you out and they want to play it in the low 50s and 60s game.

"They're very capable. Brian Williams and [Darion] Rackley -- they're very good, they get into the lane and make decisions, and we've got to do a good job of keeping them out of the paint. We cannot allow them to have dribble penetration. We will live with jump shots, and we just want to make sure that when they do shoot, we're contesting.

Rackley leads the Gamecocks in scoring with 12.9 points per game and Williams averages 11.3. Williams played 18 minutes and was held scoreless during the Gamcocks' loss to EKU and did not play against Morehead State on Feb. 13 because of an injury.

For the Redhawks, the 19.4 points that Bradley averages will have to be made up somewhere else. Tyler Stone's averaging 19 points and 9.3 rebounds a game, but no other Redhawk averages in double figures. Southeast has five players averaging at least seven points.

Southeast has struggled from behind the 3-point arc recently. The Redhawks shot 22.7 percent (5-of-22) in their loss to UTM and were 0-for-9 during the first half.

"If a team decides to back off of us and pack it in on a 2-3 zone or a 3-2 zone, we've got to step up with that confidence and hit a shot and not be worried and just play," Nutt said. "Just play and relax and just play. At this time there's nothing else to hold back, and I think if we can relax I think we're going to be a much better basketball team."

Junior Nino Johnson will replace Bradley in the starting lineup. Johnson has not started since Southeast's loss to Eastern Illinois on Jan. 25. He averages 7.5 points and 5.5 rebounds a game.

"Nino has been up and down. He and I both talk about this on the daily basis, and he will admit to it," Nutt said. "However, his practices as of late have been very, very good, and the thing I want Nino to do is to bring it every possession and have that sense of urgency where every possession could be the last possession. If he'll do that he could absolutely dominate a game because he has that kind of body and physique. But he hasn't done that. Not only him, we've all been very inconsistent in our roles."

Josh Langford, Stone and Lucas Nutt will remain in the starting lineup. Darrian Gray, who has started the past two games for Southeast, has been sick with the flu, so Nutt does not know whether he will start or whether it will be Antonius Cleveland or Paul McRoberts.

Southeast has four games remaining, including today's matchup with JSU, to secure a spot in the OVC tournament.

Three teams have secured a berth: Murray State, Belmont and Morehead State. The Racers also clinched the OVC West Division.