STOKES SHINES AT POINT

Southeast Missouri State University men's basketball coach Gary Garner has been a coach on various collegiate levels for more than 30 years. Naturally, he's had plenty of outstanding point guards during that time.

But Garner has no question that his current floor general ranks right up there with the very best point guards who have played for him.

Michael Stokes, the Indians' stellar 6-foot senior, is certainly having a season befitting a player that the Sporting News ranked as the nation's 16th best NCAA Division I point guard going into the season.

Stokes, who recently took over the team scoring lead at 13.4 points per game, is also averaging 4.6 rebounds and 4.3 assists while playing an average of 33.9 minutes a contest.

"Stokie is just having a tremendous season," said Garner. "It seems like he plays well just about every night out and sometimes you don't even pay that much attention to it because you just expect it out of him.

"No question about it, he's one of the top point guards I've had."

The ultra-quick Stokes, who always appears under control on the court and is unquestionably the Indians' floor leader, has committed just 38 turnovers compared to 77 assists, which is an excellent ratio and ranks third in the Ohio Valley Conference. He is fourth in the OVC in assists and ranks 10th in free-throw shooting at 79.2 percent.

"He's playing well in just about all areas," Garner said.

Of course, Stokes' performance this season should come as no surprise. The former junior-college star at Trinity Valley in Texas had an impressive rookie campaign for the Indians last year, averaging 12.9 points and being named to the OVC All-Tournament team after helping Southeast capture the title.

Stokes probably ranks as one of the best guards to ever play for the Indians, even though he'll only have a two-year career at Southeast and he's not a huge scorer.

But what impresses Garner as much as Stokes' talent is the way he carries himself off the court.

"He's not only a great player but also a tremendous person," said Garner.

* The Indians, who just returned to Cape Girardeau Tuesday from a four-day road trip that saw them play Eastern Illinois Saturday and Morris Brown (located in Atlanta) Monday, are getting ready for by far their longest OVC road swing of the season.

Southeast will bus Friday to Morehead, Ky., which is about 400 miles from Cape Girardeau. The Indians will play Morehead State Saturday night, then remain in that part of the state for Monday nights' game against Eastern Kentucky.

The Indians will bus home immediately after the Eastern Kentucky game and probably won't arrive back in Cape Girardeau until about 3 or 4 Tuesday morning.

"It's always a long trip, which makes it tough," said Garner.

But the Indians have done well on this road swing recently, sweeping the trip two years in a row.

* Defending OVC regular-season champion Southeast, 11-7 overall, is just 2-4 in conference play, which has them tied for seventh in the nine-team league.

But the Indians, who have 10 conference games remaining, are just one game out of fourth place in the loss column. Finishing in the top four in the league standings is important because that results in a first-round home game for the OVC Tournament.

Following Murray State's 76-74 win over Austin Peay Tuesday, the Racers and Tennessee Tech are tied for first at 5-1. Eastern Illinois is a game back at 4-2.

Austin Peay, the heavy preseason favorite to capture the league title, has lost three straight to fall into fourth place at 4-3.

Morehead State is fifth at 3-3, Tennessee State is 2-3, Southeast and Tennessee-Martin are both 2-4 and Eastern Kentucky is 0-6.

Garner, while not totally eliminating the Indians from title contention, knows their more realistic goal is to finish in the top four.

"Winning the title will be really tough, but I think the winner of the league will have four losses and maybe five," he said. "We have four now, meaning we'd probably have to win out, but things like that have happened.

"The top four is realistically what we're shooting for, but I don't feel like we're totally out of the (title) race. I don't think there's any game we can't win, but can we win 10 in a row or nine out of 10? That's so tough to do."

A battle for first place in the OVC will take place tonight when Murray State visits Tennessee Tech.