Feb. 24, 2004

Basketball Game Information

Southeast Missouri @ Murray State

Thursday, Feb. 26, 7:15 p.m.

Regional Special Events Center, Murray, Ky

Southeast Missouri @ Tennessee-Martin

Saturday, Feb. 28, 6:00 p.m.

Skyhawk Arena, Martin, Tenn.

Probable Starters

Southeast Missouri State (11-14, 4-10 OVC)

Ppg Rpg

F 24 Damarcus Hence, 6-6, Sr. 7.3 2.6

F 01 Dainmon Gonner, 6-6, Jr. 12.9 5.9

C 04 Reggie Golson, 6-7, Jr. 6.1 3.7

G 33 Derek Winans, 6-3, Jr. 14.6 2.4

G 05 Mike Nelke, 6-0, Jr. 6.6 1.0

THE TEAMS: Southeast Missouri is 11-14 overall and 4-10 in the OVC. The Indians are tied for ninth in the OVC with only the top eight teams advancing to the post-season tournament.

Southeast has OVC wins over Eastern Illinois, Tennessee State, Tennessee-Martin and

Morehead State with losses to Austin Peay twice, Tennessee Tech twice, Jacksonville State, Samford, Murray State, Eastern Illinois, Tennessee State and Eastern Kentucky.

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.

Murray State is 23-5 overall and 12-2 in the OVC.

Prior to a Thursday game with Eastern Illinois, Tennessee-Martin is 8-18 overall and 3-11 in the OVC. The Skyhawks have lost six straight games.

THE COACHES: Gary Garner claimed his 100th victory at Southeast with the road win at IPFW and now stands 104-96 in his 7th season at Southeast and is 351-261 in his 21st year as a collegiate head coach. The 103 wins make him the third winningest coach in Southeast history.

Mick Cronin is 23-5 in his first season at Murray State.

Bret Campbell is 57-86 in his fifth year at Tennessee-Martin.

THE SERIES: Southeast trails the Murray State series 35-15 and leads the UTM series 31-16.

EARLIER GAMES: Murray State came from behind to beat Southeast 80-74 at the Show Me Center on Feb. 7. Adam Chiles led Murray with 16 points while Kelvin Brown had 14 and Antione Whelchel 13. The Indians were led by Brandon Griffin with 14 points and 11 rebounds.

Southeast beat Tennessee-Martin 89-78 on Feb. 5 at the Show Me Center. Derek Winans led Southeast with 28 points while Brandon Griffin had 21 and Damarcus Hence 18.

*** SOUTHEAST NOTES***

TOURAMENT POSSIBILITES: Southeast needs wins in the final two games to have a possibility to claim the eighth and final spot in the OVC tournament.

WINANS NAMED ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT: Junior guard Derek Winans, who has a perfect 4.0 cumulative grade point average in business management, has been named to the 2004 Academic All-District VII Men's Basketball Team which makes him eligible for the Academic All-America team selected by CoSIDA. Joining Winans on the All-District team are Brody Deren and Michael Lindeman of Creighton, Brett Starkey of Denver and Jake Sullivan of Iowa State.

Winans has started 82 straight games at Southeast and has 1,226 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 ninth on the all-time scoring list at Southeast and needs just 12 more points to move ahead of Ray Pugh to number eight. He needs just 16 points to move into seventh place ahead of Riley Ellis.

Winans is averaging 14.6 points per game, shooting 49% from the field, 43% from three and 81% from the line. He had 28 points against EKU on Thursday night.

GRIFFIN SIDELINED: Senior center Brandon Griffin's availability for Thursday's game won't be known until game time. He hopes to practice on Wednesday.

Griffin suffered a sprained ankle in the Tennessee State game last Saturday night and played only four minutes against the Tigers.

Prior to the TSU game, Griffin had been on a hot streak. He had his second double-double of the season with 13 points and 14 rebounds vs. Murray State. He is shooting 66% from the field over the last nine games. He is 59-89 from the field and has averaged 15.7 points, 8.4 rebounds and 3.4 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.

For the season, Griffin leads the team in rebounding with 7.4 per game, field goal percentage at .576 and assists with 3.3 per game and is second in scoring with 13 points per game.

HENCE CLOSING STRONG: Senior Damarcus Hence, who had a 3-pointer with 33-seconds remaining to put the Indians ahead of Morehead State for good on Saturday night, is closing his senior season on a positive note. He had 14 points against Morehead going 6-9 from the field and 2-3 from three.

Hence had 14 points and six rebounds in just 12-minutes of play at Tennessee State despite a sore knee that kept him out of most of the second half at TSU.

He was 6-11 from the floor including three offensive rebound dunk backs.

Hence came off the bench to score 12 points at Samford on Jan. 31 and came off the bench to score 18 points on Thursday night vs. Tennessee-Martin. The senior from Memphis was 5-7 (.714) from the field, 4-5 (800) from three and 4-4 (100%) from the line vs. UTM. For the season, Hence averages 7.3 points and 2.6 rebounds per game.

GONNER FINDS TOUCH: Dainmon Gonner recorded a double-double at Tennessee State with 22 points and a career-high 12 rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Against Murray State, Gonner had 22 points, six rebounds four assists, one block and one steal and he had 23 points, seven rebounds and two assists vs. Eastern Illinois.

In the last six games, Gonner is averaging 17.2 points and 6.7 rebounds per game.

For the season he is second on the team in rebounding, third in scoring and is tied for first in steals. He averages 12.9 points and 5.9 rebounds per game with 36 steals. He has twice been named the OVC Newcomer of the week.

Gonner had 13 points, four rebounds and a career-high five steals vs. EKU.

NELKE 2ND IN OVC ASSIST/TO RATIO: Mike Nelke ranks second in the OVC in assist/turnover ration in OVC games only at 3.2. He has 48 assists and just 15 turnovers in OVC games.

Nelke had a career-high five 3-pointers in the game at TSU. He was 5-9.

GOLSON CONTRIBUTES: Junior Reggie Golson, in the starting lineup because of Griffin's injury, has made significant contributions. He had a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds vs. Eastern Kentucky and came back with 25 points, five rebounds, four assists and two blocks against Morehead State.

For the season, Golson averages 6.1 points and 3.7 rebounds per game.

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

2-5 - Brandon Griffin

2-7 - Dainmon Gonner

2-10 - Dainmon Gonner

2-19 - Derek Winans

2-21 - Reggie Golson

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

AT THE SHOW ME CENTER: Southeast was 8-5 at the Show Me Center this season and is 185-70 (.725) since the 7,000 seat facility opened in 1987.

SID STREAK: Ron Hines, sports information director at Southeast Missouri State, has worked 688 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 or k103fm.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: If Southeast beats both Murray State and Tennessee-Martin they could land a spot in the OVC tournament with the opening game on the road on Tuesday, March 2. A loss in either game would mean the season would end on Saturday night.