Southeast men's basketball team, Morehead State set for showdown tonight

The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team began the season with a mindset to improve defensively after being one of the top offensive teams in the country last year.

The defense, which is still a work in progress, has been better than it was a year ago, but Southeast hasn't consistently been the same high-scoring team it was.

The offense showed promise in Southeast's first two Ohio Valley Conference games of the season, something that the Redhawks will try to build off when it plays its first OVC game at home tonight.

"Turn down a good shot to get a great shot, and really pressure the defense in terms of driving the ball, getting more attempts at the free-throw line," Southeast coach Dickey Nutt said. "All of those things are playing a role with better offense for us. It starts defensively. Pressing it full-court has proven to be a better weapon for us."

Southeast will try to utilize those weapons on both ends of the court when it hosts Morehead State (5-11) at 7:30 p.m. today at the Show Me Center and Eastern Kentucky on Saturday.

"I think we'll continue to get good shots, but I do think that we're forcing the tempo a lot better," Nutt said. "We're a different team than I think we were a month ago. I think we're really playing up-tempo and sometimes I've got to bite my lip with ill-advised shots, but for the most part we've been doing pretty good with shot selection."

Southeast opened conference play with a 78-77 loss to Belmont and bounced back with a 77-62 win against Tennessee State.

Morehead comes to the Show Me Center following a 66-57 loss at home to Murray State in its conference opener.

"Very scrappy. I don't think you can look at their record," Nutt said of the Eagles. "Their non-conference schedule was very, very difficult. They're probably one of the best 5-11 teams in the country. They're very solid."

The Eagles' last win was a 95-60 defeat of Central Arkansas on Dec. 29, which Southeast beat 74-68. Morehead had lost six straight prior to that, including to then-No. 12 Ohio State.

The Eagles are led in scoring by senior guard Angelo Warner with 13.1 ppg. Warner's connected on 25 of 64 3-point attempts.

Redshirt junior guard Brent Arrington averages 10.1 points and is one of the league's top free-throw shooters, making 43 of 52 attempts.

Southeast's Jarekious Bradley leads that category -- he's made 40 of 43 free-throw attempts for a league-best 93.0 percent.

"They've got a veteran guard, Angelo Warner, second team all-conference last year -- he's very, very good, but they have a couple other guards who can go along with him that are very strong and physical and can shoot the 3. They're shot-happy. They can shoot the ball and they can get to the basket, they're very strong and stocky."

Redshirt sophomore guard Corban Collins averages 9.8 ppg and has made 20 off 55 3s. Six-foot-10 senior center Billy Reader averages 7.3 ppg.

"They're a two-game high-low, but it turns into a dribble-drive offense," Nutt said of the Eagles. " *... They drive it as hard as they can and they turn around and find open shooters. They're pretty clever about dribble driving and [bumping] you off. *... We've got to be on our toes. We've got to have our best defensive effort."

The Redhawks host Eastern Kentucky (8-5) at 6 p.m. on Saturday following the women's basketball game.

The Colonels, who are the defending OVC tournament champion, open conference action tonight at UT-Martin.

Senior guard Corey Walden averages 17.8 ppg for the Colonels, second in the OVC, and the defending conference defensive player of the year leads the conference with 3.0 steals per game.

"If you look around the league and you look at one marquee win in our league in non-conference play it has to be Eastern Kentucky at Miami," Nutt said of EKU's 72-44 defeat of then-No. 18 Miami on Dec. 19. "Miami was Top 25 at one time, and not only did they beat them, they absolutely hammered them. That's an impressive win."