Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team rekindles rivalry with Salukis

It's been four years since the Southeast Missouri State and Southern Illinois men's basketball teams have met on the hardwood.

The regional rivals will face each other for the first time since 2010 at 7 p.m. today at the Show Me Center.

"It's great. It's great for our fans," Southeast coach Dickey Nutt said. "We've had more excitement around here this week with the fans. I mean, the phone and emails have been buzzing and ringing off the wall because of this game. Our fans can relate. We're close to Carbondale, we can relate, and we've watched their progress. We watch their success -- and we certainly envy their NCAA tournament success many years ago. Our people are hungry for that and just to have an opponent come in here on our floor like that -- this is what college basketball's all about."

Tonight's game marks the 114th meeting between the Redhawks and Salukis.

Southeast enters the contest with a 4-4 record while SIU is 5-3 and brings a four-game winning streak to Cape Girardeau.

Since the Salukis lost to Yale by seven points on Nov. 22 they've rattled off wins against Illinois-Chicago, Olivet Nazarene, SIU Edwardsville and Austin Peay. They defeated the latter two schools -- Ohio Valley Conference members -- by margins of 12 and 22 points, respectively. Their first win of the season also came against an OVC foe as they beat Tennessee State 84-67.

SIU's top player is 6-foot-2 junior guard Anthony Beane, whose dad and SIU assistant Anthony Beane Sr. was an assistant at Southeast from 1997 to 2000.

Beane averages 19.8 points on 52.7 percent shooting. He's 13 of 31 (41.9 percent) from behind the arc and 27 of 31 (87.1 percent) from the free-throw line.

"We've got to keep fresh people on him and we've got to make sure we limit his touches," Nutt said. "We can't just allow him to dribble around in a comfort zone because *... he likes to play the cat and mouse game. He's real good with the ball ... He can accelerate and explode up and he can separate himself from the defense. If you have a screen on the ball he can just kind of play around and the first mistake you make he can just jump up and shoot it over you. He's just really good. He's crafty."

Nutt said that he'll try to take advantage of the length of 6-6 sophomore guard Antonius Cleveland, who will get the job of guarding Beane to start the game.

"When it comes to ball screens and staggers and big-little screens, it could be anybody, and so everybody has to understand that he is their man and [Sean] O'Brien is a close second," Nutt said.

O'Brien is a 6-6 sophomore forward for the Salukis. He's averaging 12.6 points and 6.5 rebounds per game.

"Here's a big guy that can stretch the floor," Nutt said. "He hasn't shot many 3s -- he's 3 for 6 for they year -- but he stretches the floor in a lot of ways because he can shoot the shot. ... He's 50 percent, you've got to respect that. Now he's such a good ball handler that he tries to get you up and take you around and is such a good free-throw shooter. He's hard to guard. He's a tough matchup for us."

The Redhawks will try to remain undefeated at home after defeating Southeastern Louisiana 63-59 on Saturday to improve to 3-0 at the Show Me Center.

They will regain the services of senior guard Josh Langford, who missed that game with a knee injury he suffered late in the Dec. 2 game against Missouri. Senior forward Aaron Adeoye also is expected to play after injuring his left wrist in the final minute of Saturday's game.

Nutt said he believes his team is playing its best basketball right now, but hopes that the team's "best basketball" will be much better as the season continues.

"When I say that we're playing our best basketball, I hope that we're on the second step of a 20-step or 30-step staircase," Nutt said. "When I say best basketball, I think that we're more improved today than we were a month ago. We are playing pretty good right now."