Tennessee Tech adds to OVC advantage

Gary Garner said he was impressed with Tennessee Tech before the squads squared off Thursday at the Show Me Center.

But after the Ohio Valley Conference-leading Golden Eagles dismantled the Indians in the second half on their way to a 75-62 triumph, the Southeast Missouri State University men's basketball coach had even more respect for Tech.

"That is an outstanding basketball team, even better than I thought," said Garner. "They're the most talented team we've played this year and I think they might be one of the most talented teams in the five years I've been in the OVC."

The Eagles (13-4, 6-0 OVC) rallied from a 29-23 halftime deficit with a blistering second half as the Indians (3-15, 1-6) simply could not keep pace offensively.

"I thought we did a pretty good job the whole game, but they hit some shots early in the second half and we turned it over a few times," said Garner, whose squad had just 11 turnovers. "They just have a really good inside-outside combination and you have to give up something."

With 6-foot-8 junior forward Damien Kinloch dominating most OVC squads inside so far this season, Garner figured the Indians had no choice but to double-team the powerful and quick transfer from South Carolina.

That strategy worked in the opening half as Tech, struggling with its outside shooting, fell behind by 13 points in the first seven minutes before pulling to within six at the intermission.

But the shots found their mark in the second half, particularly early. The Eagles hit their first five 3-point attempts of the final 20 minutes, three by Cameron Crisp and two by Brent Jolly.

The Eagles scored 23 points over the first six minutes of the second half -- Jolly had 12 and Crisp nine -- to match their entire output of the first half. That 23-7 spurt built a 46-36 lead and Southeast never got closer than eight the rest of the way as Tech led by as many as 18 in the late going.

"They were doubling on Damien and that opened it up for us," said Jolly, who hit four of seven 3-pointers and scored a team-high 21 points, 17 in the final half.

Kinloch wound up doing enough damage to score 15 points, 10 in the second half. Jason Harrell had 12 points and Crisp added 10 as he hit three of five 3-pointers.

"We got great looks the second half and made a lot of shots, which weren't falling in the first half," said Tech coach Jeff Lebo. "We're fortunate to have a nice inside-outside game. Even when Kinloch is not scoring, you have to respect him and that gives open looks for a lot of other people."

Tim Scheer paced the Indians with 22 points, Damarcus Hence had his third straight strong game with 16 points and Derek Winans added 11 points to go with eight rebounds and seven assists.

Tech shot 60.7 percent in the second half (17-for-28), including 60 percent (9-for-15) from 3-point range. That came after a 37-percent performance (10-for-27, including 1-for-6 on threes) in the first half.

Southeast finished the game at 42.6 percent (23-for-54), including 33.3 percent on 3-pointers (7-for-21).

mmishow@semissourian.com

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