THE LATEST LINE: ROAD WOES MEAN ROAD CONTEST FOR TOURNAMENT

It all looked so promising for Southeast Missouri State University's basketball team.

After beating Tennessee Tech last Saturday and Middle Tennessee State on Monday -- both games at the Show Me Center -- the Indians were poised to earn a home game for the first round of the Ohio Valley Conference post-season tournament.

In order to play their first-ever OVC post-season tourney game at the Show Me Center, however, the Indians would need to win one of their final two contests, both on the road.

Well, the Indians proved they are no road warriors.

So they won't be playing at the Show Me Center again this season.

SEMO hardly looked like a team hungry for another home game in blowout losses at Tennessee-Martin Thursday night and Eastern Illinois Saturday afternoon.

The Indians went down by a combined 53 points, falling by 30 at Martin and 23 at Eastern Illinois.

Ouch!

It had coach Ron Shumate shaking his head as he got on the bus following Saturday's 92-69 debacle in Charleston, Ill.

It's one thing to lose hard-fought road games, which happens often in college basketball.

But Shumate had to be wondering how his team could go down so meekly twice in a row with so much on the line.

And he's also got to be wondering how he's going to get the Indians up off the floor in time for Tuesday night's tourney opener at Middle Tennessee.

Based on what I saw these past two games, it's not going to be easy.

* It's hard to believe that the season has gone by so fast -- but it has -- and area high school basketball teams are now gearing up for post-season play.

Class 3A and 4A districts will be held this week, with 1A and 2A districts set for the following week.

Local 4A squads -- including Cape Central and Jackson -- will compete in Farmington while area 3A teams will participate in Charleston and Park Hills.

The following week, most of the local 2A teams will be in Bloomfield while the area 1A squads will be divided between Oran and Meadow Heights.

* Last week in this space I wrote of the exploits of Jackson boys basketball coach Steve Burk for winning his 300th game with the Indians.

Now it's time for Ron Cook -- the Jackson girls coach -- to take some bows for recently winning his 300th game with the Lady Indians.

Cook -- another of the real nice guys on the area coaching scene -- has built the Lady Indians into the premier girls basketball team in the area and one of the best in the state.

Jackson has made the Class 4A Final Four the past two seasons, finishing second last year, and the Lady Indians are title contenders once again this season.

* Here's a special note of appreciation to Barb Kinsey for all the great work she's done in the SEMO sports information office over the years.

Barb, SEMO sports information director Ron Hines' longtime secretary, recently moved to another position on campus and will not be involved with SID work any more.

She has been a fixture in the office and at SEMO sporting events and will be sorely missed.

~Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian