TRIBE STRANGLES TECH WITH 'D'; SE HOLDS ON FOR 61-50 WIN

With just under seven minutes to play and trailing by two points, Southeast Missouri State University's basketball Indians knew it was time to turn to their defense.

And that defense, which has been a staple of Southeast under coach Gary Garner, bailed the Indians out Tuesday night.

Southeast held Tennessee Tech scoreless for more than six minutes late in the game and used a 14-0 run during that stretch to pull out a hard-fought 61-50 victory.

A crowd of 4,912 at the Show Me Center saw the Indians improve their first-place Ohio Valley Conference record to 6-1 and raise their overall mark to 13-3. Tech fell to 3-3 in the league and 8-7 overall.

"That may have been our best defensive performance since I've been here," said Garner, in his third season at Southeast. "Our defense was really good. The kids played their hearts out on the defensive end and that was really the key to the game."

Never was the Indians' defense better than down the stretch. After leading by as many as 10 points in the first half and by eight at halftime, Southeast found itself behind 45-43 less than seven minutes left.

But Tech did not score again until less than 30 seconds remained. And rarely during that stretch did the Eagles even get off a good shot as Southeast's defense stepped things up a notch or two.

"We had to step up defensively because our offense wasn't really clicking," said Southeast forward Roderick Johnson.

The Indians, who have the OVC's top-ranked defense as they allow just 61 points per game, held Tech the league's No. 1 offense at nearly 87 points a contest to almost 37 points below its average.

And Tech, which shot just 33 percent from the field, hit only three of 19 3-point attempts. The Eagles entered the game leading the nation in 3-pointers made with 11 per game.

"Defense wins championships and offense wins ballgames," said Southeast point guard Michael Stokes. "They had the best offensive team in the conference and we have the best defense. We knew we had to shut them down."

Johnson, despite being in foul trouble much of the night, wound up with 13 points as he hit all six of his field-goal attempts.

Stokes matched Johnson for team-high scoring honors with 13 points and he also tacked on team bests of six rebounds, five assists and two steals in another stellar all-around performance.

Forward Mike Branson and guard Antonio Short both added eight points, Short doing all his scoring in the first half.

The Indians also once again got contributions from a host of other players, including center Brian Bunche, who dove all over the court and even flew over a few media tables -- in search of loose balls, as he usually does.

Amory Sanders, Fred Abraham, Emmanual McCuthison, Nyah Jones and even little-used Drew DeMond all came off the bench to contribute crucial points and other important plays.

Tech was led by Larrie Smith with 14 points and Josh Heard with 12. Smith, second in the OVC in rebounding with nine per game, was limited to three boards.

The Eagles scored the game's first basket but that was their only lead of the opening half. From a 10-10 tie, Southeast used a 9-0 run to go ahead 19-10 and later built a pair of 10-point leads at 22-12 and 29-19. It was 29-21 at halftime.

Tech started the second half strong and grabbed its first lead since the opening moments of the game when Smith's 10-footer made it 36-35 with under 12 minutes remaining.

Branson hit consecutive 3-pointers that put Southeast ahead 41-36, but three straight Indian turnovers led to a 7-0 Tech run that put the Eagles back on top 43-41.

Then, after two Joey Westmoreland free throws with 6:58 left broke a tie and put the Eagles ahead 45-43, the Indians' defense took over.

Johnson, back in the game with four fouls, scored inside for a 45-45 deadlock. Short then blocked Heard's attempt just as the shot clock expired, turning the ball over to Southeast.

Johnson scored inside, was fouled and converted the three-point play with 4:50 left to give the Indians the lead for good at 48-45.

After a Tech miss, McCuthison was fouled on the rebound and hit both ends of the one-and-one for a 50-45 lead. Then Southeast forced an air ball as the shot clock was about to expire.

Stokes then came up with a play that might just have sealed the verdict. With the Indians running the shot clock all the way down, Stokes hit a tough running bank shot, was fouled and made the free throw for a 53-45 lead at the 3:09 mark.

Southeast kept on coming, getting two Stokes free throws with 53 seconds left and a Bunche layup with 35 seconds remaining to complete the 14-point run and go up 57-45. It was lights out for the Eagles.

"It seemed like we were a half-step behind offensively, especially against their half-court trap. We didn't attack it," said Garner. "But boy, we played hard and together. After the big win at Murray. (Saturday night), we could have had a letdown. But our defense really came through for us."

The Indians will play the second of four straight home games Saturday night when Eastern Illinois comes to town.