Treat for those who stuck by us - A hot streak

ggarner

It was great to get a big win over Eastern Illinois Tuesday night in our final Show Me Center game of the season. That victory gave us three wins in the last four games and two wins in our last three home contests.

I would like to give a special thanks to our loyal group of core fans who really stuck with us during the hard times. I appreciate that our fans continued to come to our games even when we were losing and not playing good basketball earlier this year. Our fans did not become negative and you'll never know how much I appreciate that and I know that our players appreciate your loyal support.

Our overall attendance is down this year, but it is noteworthy that in a down year, when we currently have only six wins, we are still averaging nearly 1,000 more fans per game than any other school in the OVC. Southeast fans are the greatest! Thank you very much.

I'm proud of our players who have hung together as a family and continued to practice hard and to get better. There are a lot of basketball teams who have won more games than us this season that have had players quit and have had general discontent. Losing is tough, but our players have persevered and they have gotten better.

Shooting has improved

In winning three of our last four games, we have really shot the ball well. You'll remember that before this season started, I said I thought this would be a good-shooting team.

Early in the year we didn't shoot well because we were young and inexperienced and not playing as a unit. Now our players are playing to their strengths and playing very unselfishly. Our freshmen have also really developed and matured into good Division I basketball players.

The result is that in the last four games we are shooting over 53 percent from the field, 50 percent from three and 72 percent from the line. We have also cut down on our turnovers and we are rebounding better.

It is important that we win Saturday at Austin Peay to give us even more momentum and confidence entering the OVC Tournament. If we win Saturday, it doesn't matter what Eastern Kentucky does in its final two games, which are on the road against Murray State and Tennessee-Martin. If Murray beats EKU tonight, we are in the tournament and would play Tuesday at regular-season champion Tennessee Tech.

Congrats to Derek

Congratulations to Derek Winans for being selected the OVC Rookie of the Week for the fifth time this season. Derek is having a great season and his final game this year at the Show Me Center was outstanding with a career-high 32 points, five rebounds, two assists and three steals.

I would also like to congratulate our only senior, Monte Gordon, who played his last Show Me Center game Tuesday night. Monte has persevered through a number of injuries, a semester of ineligibility and lingering heart problems to put together a very solid senior season.

Again, thanks to our great fans. We are playing our best basketball of the season and hopefully we can keep playing past this weekend.

Gary Garner is the basketball coach at Southeast Missouri State University