THE LATEST LINE: ELEY'S INJURY A MAJOR BLOW FOR INDIANS

It remains to be seen just how it will affect SEMO's season.

Even though they suffered a somewhat surprisingly lopsided 81-62 loss at Southern Illinois Thursday night, the season was still rolling along pretty well for Southeast Missouri State University's basketball Indians.

In their first season under head coach Gary Garner, the Indians have seemed like a revitalized team, posting big victories over Bradley and Austin Peay and generally playing extremely well in most of their games, Thursday's defeat being one of the few exceptions.

But the smooth ride that marked the early stages of the Garner era with SEMO hoops encountered a major bump in the road late Friday afternoon. That's when it was learned that star 6-foot-10 center Bud Eley had suffered a broken bone in his foot during the SIU game.

Eley, the Indians' leading scorer and rebounder, will miss a minimum of four weeks and at least five games, although there is a chance he will be out longer than that.

Ouch~!

It's bad enough that SEMO will now be forced to search for those 18.1 points and 6.6 rebounds that Eley was averaging per game, along with his team-leading 13 blocked shots -- which is 10 more than anybody else on the squad has.

What also hurts is that the Indians were extremely short on depth up front to begin with, with only three players taller than 6-4. Now that depth will be hampered even more.

But Garner, to his credit, has refused to publicly dwell on the negatives caused by Eley's injury. Although admitting it's a major blow, Garner said other players will have to pick up the slack and that the Indians can still be a good team in Eley's absence.

Eley's loss won't be felt as much in the next couple of weeks as it will a bit down the road, when the Indians resume Ohio Valley Conference play in early January.

Sure, playing without their dominating center will sorely hamper the Indians' upset bids against the major programs as they wrap up the non-league portion of their schedule.

But what the season is all really about anyway is the OVC race and the Indians showed during their first two OVC games -- against highly-regarded Tennessee State (an overtime loss) and Austin Peay -- that they have a chance to be a major factor in the league picture.

Eley is sure to miss SEMO's first two OVC games of the new year, Jan. 3 at Morehead State and Jan. 5 at Eastern Kentucky. And there is a possibility he could miss a few more league contests after that.

The hope of all SEMO supporters is that the Indians will be able to hang in there and remain solid until their top player returns.

And if Saturday night's thrilling 65-64 loss at Missouri is any indication, then the Indians will certainly be able to pick up the slack and remain a highly competitive and entertaining team until Eley returns.

It's certainly going to be an interesting next several weeks of SEMO basketball.

* Still on the subject of SEMO hoops, I have to commend the crowds at the most recent home games for picking up their intensity.

They have certainly made their presence known. The big OVC win over Austin Peay featured a particularly impressive display by the fans.

Keep it up.

~Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.