Tech prevails with game on the line

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee Tech and Southeast Missouri State University played on even terms for nearly the entire 40 minutes Thursday night.

But a free throw with just 2.8 seconds remaining -- on a non-shooting foul -- sent the Indians to their second consecutive heartbreaking Ohio Valley Conference loss at the hands of the Eagles.

Southeast's furious comeback from an 18-point first-half deficit went down the drain when Tech guard Will Moore hit the front end of a one-and-one after Indians guard Mike Nelke was whistled for bumping Moore as he penetrated into the lane.

The free throw lifted Tech to a 74-73 victory. The Eagles (8-8, 2-3) beat the Indians (9-7, 2-3) by two points at the Show Me Center on Jan. 10 as they hit a basket just before the buzzer.

"I can't comment on the officiating, but a whistle definitely decided it tonight," said Southeast coach Gary Garner, about as diplomatically as possible. "It's really frustrating."

Been there, done thatEven Tech coach Mike Sutton -- whose squad lost recently at Eastern Kentucky on a controversial foul called while players were scrambling for a loose ball in the final seconds -- seemed to feel somewhat bad for the Indians.

"You hate to see it decided like that, but we've been on the other end of it," Sutton said. "It was a great game. It was one of those games where neither team deserved to lose."

The Indians were left shaking their heads following the game, but they also appeared to take things fairly in stride.

"He (Moore) penetrated, drove his shoulder into my chest and he went back," Nelke said. "They made the call. I was stunned, but that's the way things go sometimes. We have to put it behind us and move on."

Nelke did appear to make contact with Moore just inside the free-throw line, but that kind of foul had rarely been called previously in the contest. And that type of foul -- particularly when the player is not attempting a shot -- is almost never called in the closing seconds of a tie game.

"I can't believe they made that call," center Brandon Griffin said. "I thought we were going to overtime. But we can't blame everything on the refs."

Griffin led the Indians with 22 points and nine rebounds. He hit 10 of 15 shots during a dominating inside performance.

Guard Derek Winans added 12 points for Southeast and forward Dainmon Gonner had 10. Forward Reggie Golson contributed nine points off the bench. Nelke had eight points and three steals.

Junior forward Willie Jenkins, a Massachusetts transfer who is the OVC's leading scorer, pumped in 25 points, including 16 in the first half. He also had 10 rebounds.

Jenkins, averaging 20.3 points, has scored 20 or more points in nine straight games. He had a different take on the decisive foul call.

"The dude grabbed his whole arm," Jenkins said.

Tech began on fire from long range, hitting seven of its first 10 3-pointers in building a 31-13 lead 11 minutes into the first half.

"We really started off bad," Garner said. "They were making those threes, but they were too open."

Southeast, which led only briefly all night -- at 2-0 and 4-3 -- pulled to within 40-33 at halftime.

The Eagles went back up by 11 points early in the second half, but the Indians kept coming. They finally pulled into a 54-54 tie on Golson's follow shot with 10 minutes remaining.

Southeast could never take the lead, but the game was tied four more times, the last at 73-73 as Golson made two free throws with 25 seconds left.

"We kept coming back so many times, I felt if we could just get ahead, we'd be in good shape," Garner said. "But we never could get ahead."

After Moore was fouled by Nelke, he made the front end of the one-and-one but appeared to intentionally miss the back end. The rebound was tipped around and finally saved from going out of bounds by the Indians as they called a timeout.

But by then just 0.5 seconds remained on the clock and Gonner's length-of-the-court pass was deflected by Tech as the buzzer sounded.

The game featured 50-percent shooting by both teams, along with just nine turnovers by Southeast and 13 turnovers by Tech. But the Eagles wound up hitting 12 of 21 3-pointers compared to five of 17 for the Indians.

"SEMO is a good team and we knew they'd make a run," Jenkins said. "They have nothing to hang their heads about."

Said Griffin, "They got the big jump on us and we kept fighting back. But we can't let this game bother us. We have to bounce back."

The Indians will try to bounce back Saturday at first-place Austin Peay, the defending OVC champion which is undefeated in league play.