Southeast's Herring logs the most minutes among OVC players

On a Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team short of healthy bodies, most of the Redhawks have been forced to play a lot of minutes this season.

No Southeast player has been more of an iron man than Jaycen Herring.

Herring, a senior forward, leads the Ohio Valley Conference in minutes played with an average of 36.5 per game.

That figure shoots up to 38.8 in OVC games as Herring has played all 40 minutes in the past four contests.

Senior guard Kenard Moore has been the Redhawks' No. 2 iron man behind Herring.

Moore ranks third in the OVC in minutes played with an average of 35.3. In league action, that figure goes up to 36.8.

"We've asked people to do a lot of things this year," Southeast acting coach Zac Roman said following Saturday's 80-55 loss at Murray State, the Redhawks' 10th straight defeat. "We've had a lot of unusual circumstances."

Southeast was shorthanded to begin with, but injuries have forced the Redhawks to have no more than eight scholarship players available for any game.

Several contests have seen the Redhawks down to just seven scholarship players, including the last two as sophomore forward Jajuan Maxwell is out with a back injury. He remains questionable for this week's two games, both at home.

"It's hard going through what we're going through, our circumstances," Herring said following Saturday's contest. "We just have to stick together as a team."

Herring and Moore both said there has been -- and will continue to be -- no quit in the Redhawks.

"We're going to come out ready to play every game," Moore said.

Southeast (3-18, 0-10) will get its next shot at its first OVC win of the season Thursday night when another struggling team visits the Show Me Center.

Jacksonville State (8-10, 2-7) has lost six straight games, its most recent victory coming against Southeast 71-66 on Jan. 5 in Jacksonville, Ala.

The Gamecocks are ninth in the 10-team OVC, ahead of only the last-place Redhawks.

Only the top eight finishers make the OVC tournament. The Gamecocks still have a shot as they are two games on the loss side out of eighth place.

Southeast would need an incredible finish to qualify for the tournament as the Redhawks are five games in the loss column out of eighth place.

Yet the Redhawks will continue to soldier on.

"We're going to keep working," Moore said.

Big three rank high

Southeast's big three of Moore, Herring and junior center Calvin Williams all rank among the OVC's top eight scorers.

Moore is sixth with an average of 16.8 points per game, while Williams is seventh (16.4) and Herring eighth (15.0).

Williams is also the league's No. 2 rebounder at eight per game and he ranks third in blocked shots at 1.8 per contest.

Noteworthy

• Freshman walk-on guard Brandon Smith saw his first action of the season Saturday at Murray State. Smith played the final minute and had one rebound.
• Saturday's doubleheader against Tennessee Tech -- the women play at 5:30 p.m. followed by the men at 7:45 -- will feature a birthday party for Rowdy the Redhawk, Southeast's mascot who turns 4.

All children age 14 and under will be admitted free and 500 T-shirts will be given out at halftime of the men's game.