TOUGH LOSS STILL STINGS FOR INDIANS

But for now, Indians' coach Gary Garner and his team -- despite taking the 10th ranked team in the nation down to the wire and nearly pulling off a huge upset only to lose 64-61 Thursday -- are still somewhat gloomy after a night's rest.

"The team is very disappointed, naturally," said Garner Friday. "They'll get over it but it may take a while.

"It'll hang around with me for a long time. We had a good chance to win a big game for the university and we didn't get it done. You come out here to win."

No. 13 seed Southeast played LSU -- the fourth seed in the West Regional -- much tougher than many had figured.

The Indians were 14-point underdogs going into the game. They held three leads of four points in the second half and led by three with 1:19 to go, but LSU hit some huge shots down the stretch, including the game-winning 3-pointer by Brian Beshara with 18 seconds left.

Southeast's Roderick Johnson, after running down a loose ball, put up a three with two seconds left but the shot rimmed out.

Southeast, which had to battle back from a 10-point first-half deficit, executed its game plan to the tee, and was not the least intimidated by a much bigger and more athletic squad.

Even LSU coach John Brady admitted that Southeast outplayed and outhustled his squad and that the Indians deserved to win.

Despite all that, Garner couldn't help but to second guess himself.

"Any time you lose a close game, you always second guess yourself," Garner said. "There were some things we could have done late in the game or there were some things late in the game that I don't know that I would have done the same again.

"But you always second guess yourself. But at the same time, if those 3-pointers of LSU don't fall we're not talking about any of this."

Though disappointed, Garner couldn't have been more satisfied with his team's attitude and persistence.

"We're very, very proud of the team and the effort of the players," he said.

The NCAA Tournament game was the first for the Indians at the Division I level. Southeast got to the tournament by beating Murray State for the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament championship.

Now that LSU has knocked off the Indians, Garner has become a temporary Tiger fan.

"I'd kind of like to see them go all the way and win it all," he said.