Feb. 2, 2004

RIVALS WEEK

Tennessee-Martin @ Southeast Missouri

Thursday, Feb. 5, 7:30 p.m.

Show Me Center, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Murray State @ Southeast Missouri

Saturday, Feb. 7, 2:00 p.m.

Show Me Center, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Fox Sports Net South TV

Probable Starters

Southeast Missouri State (9-10, 2-6 OVC)

Ppg Rpg

F 21 Norman Prather, 6-3, Jr. 4.6 3.5

F 01 Dainmon Gonner, 6-6, Jr. 11.5 5.6

C 22 Brandon Griffin, 6-8, Sr. 12.2 7.3

G 33 Derek Winans, 6-3, Jr. 13.9 2.5

G 05 Mike Nelke, 6-0, Jr. 5.8 1.0

RIVALS WEEK: Cape Girardeau Mayor Jay Knudtson has proclaimed this week as "Rivals Week" as Southeast hosts Tennessee-Martin on Thursday night and Murray State on Saturday afternoon. UTM and Murray State are Southeast's two biggest rivals.

TELEVISION: Saturday's game with Murray State will be televised live by Fox Sports Net South with Charlie McAlexander doing the play-by-play and Tom Apke providing color. Fox Sports Net South goes into 10.5 million homes in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. The game will also be available nationwide on Fox Sports Net Digital. The game will be tape delayed on Fox Sports Net Midwest at 2 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 8.

THE TEAMS: Southeast Missouri is 9-10 overall and 2-6 in the OVC after losing four straight OVC road games.

Southeast has OVC wins over Eastern Illinois and Tennessee State with losses to Austin Peay twice, Tennessee Tech twice, Jacksonville State and Samford.

The Indians completed non-conference play with a 77-75 road win at IPFW. The Indians have home wins over Wisconsin-Green Bay, Kentucky Christian, UMKC, Oakland City and North Texas. Southeast had a neutral court win over California Santa Barbara and the road win at IPFW.

Tennessee-Martin has won three straight to stand 8-12 overall and 3-5 in the OVC)

Murray State is 17-4 overall and 7-1 and in second place in the OVC. The Racers play at Eastern Illinois on Thursday night.

THE COACHES: Gary Garner claimed his 100th victory at Southeast with the road win at IPFW and now stands 102-92 in his 7th season at Southeast and is 349-257 in his 21st year as a collegiate head coach. The 102 wins makes him the third winningest coach in Southeast history.

Bret Campbell is 58-76 in his fifth season at UTM.

Mark Cronin is 17-4 in his first season at Murray State.

THE SERIES: Southeast leads the Tennessee-Martin series 30-16. The Indians trail Murray State 34-15.

LAST SEASON: Southeast dropped two games to Tennessee-Martin losing 88-80 at the Show Me Center and 77-61 at Martin.

Southeast and Murray State split two games with the Indians winning 78-68 at the Show Me Center and the Racers winning 71-65 in Murray.

*** SOUTHEAST NOTES***

WINANS TOPS 1,000: Junior guard Derek Winans has started 76 straight games at Southeast and has 1,126 career points. He hit a 3-pointer with 12:48 remaining in the Austin Peay game on Jan. 8 to go over 1,000 points. He is the 18th player in Southeast history to score 1,000 points. He is currently 14th on the all-time scoring list at Southeast and needs just 16 more points to move up to number 11.

Winans is averaging 13.9 points per game, shooting 48% from the field, 43% from three and 77% from the line.

GRIFFIN IS HOT: Senior Brandon Griffin is shooting 68% from the field over the last six games. He is 38-56 from the field and has averaged 14.8 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game.

Earlier this season, Griffin recorded a triple double against Oakland City with 12 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.

He had a double-double at Arkansas with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

Griffin leads the team in rebounding with 7.3 per game, in assists with 3.4 per game and in field goal percentage at .568.

GONNER STRUGGLES: Junior Dainmon Gonner is just 10-36 (27%) in his last five games.

For the season he is second on the team in both rebounding and third in scoring. He averages 11.5 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. He has twice been named the OVC Newcomer of the week.

NELKE TOPS ASSIST/TO RATIO: Mike Nelke leads the OVC in assist/turnover ration in OVC games only at 4.0. He has 32 assists and just eight turnovers in OVC games.

HALE DELIVERS IN CLUTCH: Junior guard Brett Hale hit the game winning shot at IPFW with just 0.8 seconds remaining in the game. It was his first game winning shot. For the game, Hale had 15 points on 5-6 from the field, 3-4 from three and 2-2 from the line.

Hale averages 7.6 points per game while shooting 40% from the field and 38% from three. He is shooting just 71% from the line after leading the OVC with over 90% from the line last season.

COPI-RITE PLAYER OF THE GAME: Copi-Rite, Inc. of Cape Girardeau will sponsor a Player of the Game after each Southeast home game. The game-by-game winners follow.

11-21 - Dainmon Gonner

11-24 - Brett Hale

12-6 - Derek Winans

12-13 - Brandon Griffin

12-22 - Dainmon Gonner

1-8 - Derek Winans

1-10 - Derek Winans

1-15 - Derek Winans

OVC HONORS: The following players have been honored by the OVC.

12-9 - Dainmon Gonner, Newcomer of Week

12-16 - Brandon Griffin, Player of Week

1-5 - Dainmon Gonner, Newcomer of Week

1-19 - Derek Winans, Co-Player of Week

1-19 - Mike Nelke, Newcomer of Week

SOUTHEAST PICKED 4th IN THE OVC : In a preseason poll of league coaches and sports information directors Southeast was picked to finish fourth in the OVC behind Austin Peay, Morehead State and Murray State.

AT THE SHOW ME CENTER: Southeast is 6-2 at the Show Me Center this season and 183-67 (.732) since the 7,000 seat facility opened in 1987.

SID STREAK: Ron Hines, sports information director at Southeast Missouri State, has worked 683 consecutive basketball games. He has not missed a game since 1980. The streak is the longest in Division I basketball.

SOUTHEAST ON RADIO: All Southeast games are broadcast live on the Southeast Radio Network that reaches into five states. Network stations include K-103 FM in Cape Girardeau, KSIM in Sikeston and KWOC in Poplar Bluff. Erik Sean is in his third season as the play-by-play voice of Indian basketball. Todd Bonacki offers commentary on home games with Ron Hines as color analyst on road games.

All games are available on the internet at gosoutheast.com.

Gary Garner RADIO SHOW: The Gary Garner Radio Show will be heard each Wednesday from 6:00 until 7:00 p.m. live from Buffalo Wild Wings on 1220 AM. Erik Sean will host the show.

Gary Garner TV SHOW: Southeast Missouri Basketball with Gary Garner will be seen each Thursday at 6:30 p.m. on UPN-The Beat. Steve Sotak hosts the 30-minute show.

NEXT GAME: Following the Rivals Week games, Southeast will host Eastern Illinois on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 7:30 p.m. at the Show Me Center.