Southeast seeking late-season momentum

~ Redhawks close regular season with two road games

The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team is looking to regain some momentum before next week's Ohio Valley Conference tournament.

If the Redhawks are going to accomplish that, they'll have to do it on the road.

Southeast (14-15, 6-8) ends the regular season with games against Austin Peay (7-22, 3-11) at 7 p.m. today and Murray State (20-7, 10-4) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

That concludes a stretch that has the Redhawks playing their final four OVC contests away from Cape Girardeau.

"Four games in a row to end the conference season is not the best thing in the world," Southeast coach Dickey Nutt said. "But we're dealing with it."

Southeast is second in the OVC West Division and sixth overall in the 12-team league among squads eligible for the eight-team conference tournament.

The Redhawks, based on potential tie-breakers, have already locked up their third straight OVC tournament berth regardless of what happens in their final two games -- although they would much rather finish strong.

"We want to win these last two games and get some momentum going into the tournament," senior guard Marland Smith said.

The Redhawks had a three-game winning streak before dropping their last two contests in heart-breaking fashion, 67-65 at Jacksonville State on a goaltending call with nine seconds left and 85-82 against Ball State on a 3-pointer with 0.3 seconds left.

"I think we've been playing well the last five or six games. I like the way we've been playing," Nutt said. "But we've got two hard games coming up."

Austin Peay is having one of its worst seasons under Dave Loos, the winningest coach in OVC history who is in his 23rd year with the Governors.

Loos has led the Govs to five OVC regular-season championships and three OVC tournament titles, most recently in 2007-08 when they captured both crowns. He is the only person to earn the league's coach of the year award five times.

But the Govs have hit hard times the past two years. They slumped to 12-20 last year -- ending a string of nine consecutive winning seasons -- and this year they are assured of missing the OVC tournament for the first time since 1984 while ending a run of 19 straight campaigns where they have been at least .500 in conference play.

Austin Peay is last in the OVC West Division and last in the league overall -- but the Redhawks have not won in Clarksville, Tenn., since the 1998-99 season, a span of 13 consecutive losses.

"It's a very difficult place to play," Nutt said "They may be the best 7-22 team I've seen in a long time. They're just as good as anybody. That's going to be a very difficult challenge."

Southeast needed a late 16-2 run to rally past Austin Peay 86-84 when the squads met on Jan. 3 at the Show Me Center. The Govs led most of the second half, including by six points with under six minutes left, before the Redhawks came back.

Two Austin Peay players hurt Southeast the most. Junior college transfer guard Travis Betran scored a career-high 30 points. Junior forward Will Triggs hit 14 of 17 shots and scored a career-high 29 points while grabbing 11 rebounds.

Betran is the OVC's No. 4 scorer at 17.2 points per game. He ranks fifth in 3-point shooting at 42.3 percent and his 82 3-pointers are the second-most in the league. Triggs averages 11.9 points and 5.3 rebounds.

"They've got some very good pieces," Nutt said.

Three-time defending OVC champion Murray State, which will celebrate senior night Saturday, has already clinched the West Division title and at least the No. 2 overall seed for the conference tournament.

Southeast gave MSU all it could handle when the squads squared off Jan. 5 at the Show Me Center, but the Racers rallied from a 12-point second-half deficit to prevail 74-66.

All-American senior guard Isaiah Canaan and senior forward Ed Daniel led the Racers' comeback.

Canaan, the OVC's top scorer at 21.2 points per game, scored 23 of his 28 points in the second half.

Daniel, a tenacious 6-foot-7, 228-pounder who leads the OVC in rebounding at 10.2 per contest, dominated inside with 15 points -- he averages 13.4 -- and 17 rebounds.