March 2, 2005

O'Reilly Ohio Valley Conference Tournament

Southeast Missouri vs. Eastern Kentucky

Friday, March 4, 2005, 8 p.m.

Gaylord Entertainment Center, Nashville, Tenn..

National Television on ESPNU

The Teams: Southeast Missouri State advanced to the OVC semi-finals by beating Murray State 61-58 on Tuesday night. The Redhawks are 15-13 overall. Eight of the 13 losses were by four points or less.

Eastern Kentucky advanced to the semi-finals with a home court 74-68 win over Tennessee State. The Colonels are 19-8 on the season.

The Coaches: Gary Garner is 366-276 in his 22nd year as a collegiate head coach. He is 119-111 in his eighth year at Southeast. Garner is 6-5 in OVC tournament games.

Travis Ford is 58-80 in his fifth season at Eastern Kentucky.

The Series: The series is tied 12-12.

Regular Season Game: The teams played just once during the regular season with the Colonels winning 83-72 on Feb. 17. The loss ended a Southeast seven game win streak. Michael Haney led the Colonels with 24 points while Reggie Golson led Southeast with 28 and Dainmon Gonner added 23.

SOUTHEAST NOTES

OVC SEMI-FINALS: Southeast has advanced to the OVC semi-finals for the first time since 2000 when they beat Middle Tennessee 78-60 on the way to the tournament title and a berth in the NCAA Tournament. In 1999, Southeast also advanced to the semi-finals where they beat Middle Tennessee 82-74 before being beaten by Murray State on a last second shot in the finals.

Southeast will go against Eastern Kentucky in the second semi-final game on Friday. Austin Peay goes against regular season champ Tennessee Tech in the first semi-final. The winners will meet on Saturday, 3 p.m., in the tournament finals.

The Southeast vs. Eastern Kentucky game is scheduled for 8 p.m. and will be nationally televised by ESPNU. The new ESPNU will be available on Direct TV and on Adelphia Cable Systems.

WINANS NAMED ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICAN: Derek Winans has been named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America first team. He was second-team CoSIDA Academic All-American last season.

Winans has a 3.977 GPA in business.

Winans has moved up to fifth on the all-time career scoring list at Southeast. He has 1,498 points to rank as the second leading active career scoring leader in the OVC. Winans is eighth on the all-time assist list at Southeast with 280.

Winans did not start practice until Monday, Nov. 29, because of a stress fracture in his leg. He got his first start of the season on Jan. 8 at Tennessee Tech.

In addition to being second in active career scoring in the OVC, Winans leads the active career leaders in 3-pointers made with 218, ranks third in steals with 153, fourth in assists with 280 and 11th in rebounding with 271.

. He has been Southeast's top scorer for each of the last three seasons and is the school's first ever basketball Academic All-American.

NEW RECORDS: Derek Winans, the fifth leading scorer in Southeast history with 1,498 points, established a new record for career 3-pointers with his final three of the regular season last Saturday night. He now has 218 for his career to break the old record of 215 by Curtis Shelton (1990-1994). He had previously broken Shelton's record for 3-pointers attempted. He has 555 attempts.

Dainmon Gonner needs three more steals to break the single season steal record. He currently has 69. The record is 71 by Dwayne Rutherford (1988-1989).

OVC STAT LEADERS: Southeast players led eight OVC statistical categories at the end of the regular season. Gonner leads the league in scoring (20.4), steals (2.7) and minutes played (37.0); Reggie Golson leads in rebounds (8.5), blocks (2.3) and offensive rebounds (3.4); Paul Paradoski leads in assist/turnover ratio (2.61). and Terrick Willoughby led in 3-point field goal percentage (.438) but has dropped to second after the first tourney game and

DYNAMIC DUO: Dainmon Gonner leads the OVC in scoring (20.4), steals (2.7) and minutes played (37.0) while Reggie Golson leads the league in rebounding (8.5) and blocks (2.3). Gonner and Golson were teammates at Hutchinson CC.

GONNER LEADS OVC SCORING: Senior Dainmon Gonner, selected as the OVC Player of the Week on Jan. 21 after averaging 30 points and 8.5 rebounds per game in two OVC games, continues to lead the OVC in scoring with 20.4 points per game which ranks him 19th nationally.

Gonner had a career high 37 points and a career high 12 rebounds in the double-overtime loss at Tennessee State. The 37 points topped an earlier 36 point effort at Bradley.

Gonner also leads Southeast and the OVC in steals with 2.7 per game which ranks him 14th nationally.

The senior iron man leads the team and league in minutes played with 37.0 per game.

GOLSON LEADS REBOUNDERS: Senior Reggie Golson leads the team and OVC in rebounding with 8.5 per game and blocks with 2.3 per game. Golson leads the team in field goal percentage with .553, third best in the OVC.

Golson has been OVC Player of the Week on twice. The first was on Dec. 13 after averaging 15 points and 10.5 rebounds per game. He was again named Player of the Week on Feb. 14 after he averaged 14.5 points and 10 rebounds per game in two OVC wins.

Golson is 32nd nationally in blocked shots, 45th nationally in rebounding .

PARADOSKI LEADS OVC IN ASSIST/TO RATIO: Freshman Paul Paradoski currently leads the OVC in assist/turnover ratio at 2.61. He was the Ohio Valley Conference Freshman of the Week on Nov. 30 after recording a double-double in his first collegiate start against Rockhurst. Paradoski had 10 points and 11 rebounds.

WILLOUGHBY GETS HOT: Terrick Willoughby is second in the OVC in 3-point field goal percentage with 46-105 for .438. He scored a career-high 25 points in the win over Jacksonville State and came back with 14 points against Samford, 17 points at UT-Martin, a team-high 19 points at Murray State, 17 at Eastern Illinois and 16 vs. TSU.

NELKE HITS BIG SHOTS: Senior Mike Nelke who played in two NCAA tournaments with Valparaiso has nailed some big 3-pointers this season for Southeast. His three at the buzzer gave the Redhawks a 59-58 win over South Dakota State and his two treys in the final minutes were key to Southeast's first round win over Murray State. He was 2-2 from three vs. Murray State and is shooting .431 from beyond the line this season.

BELCHER ADDS SPARK: Ryan "Fuzzy" Belcher has been a spark plug off the bench this season. He has played in 27 games and is shooting .531 from the field, .355 from three and .741 from theline while averaging 4.3 points per game. He also has 19 steals.

HALE RETURNS: Senior Brett Hale, the top 3-point shooter in the OVC at the time of his injury, has returned to practice after having the cast removed from his fractured wrist. He suffered the broken wrist during practice at Tennessee Tech on Jan. 7. He returned to game action in the regular season finale when he scored two points.

At the time of his injury, he led the OVC in 3-point field goal percentage with 22-40 for .550. He shot .506 from the field and .875 from the free throw line.

Hale needs 48 more points to become the 19th player in Southeast history to score 1,000 career points. He has 952 career points.

INJURIES: James White is out for the season with a knee injury. Ketshner Guerrier, who has missed 15 games with a knee injury suffered in shoot around prior to the South Dakota State game, is now available for action.

SID STREAK: Ron Hines, Southeast Sports Information Director has worked 723 consecutive basketball games. He has not missed a game since 1980.

WIN STREAK: Eastern Kentucky ended the Redhawks seven-game win streak which was the longest since the 1999-2000 season when Southeast won six straight before being beaten by LSU in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The seven game streak was the longest ever at the Division I level.

AT THE SHOW ME CENTER: The Redhawks were 10-4 at the Show Me Center this season and are 195-74 (.726) since the facility opened in 1987.

THE REDHAWKS ARE BORN: All athletic teams at Southeast became Redhawks Saturday, Jan. 22, when the new Redhawks mascot was introduced prior to the Austin Peay game. Southeast won seven straight after making the name change.

EARLY SIGNING: Southeast has signed 6-7 Tyrell Curry of State Fair Community College to a national letter of intent. Curry played at Cincinnati State Community College last season where he averaged 11 points and nine rebounds per game. He is originally from Tacoma, Wash.

NEXT: A win over Eastern Kentucky would send the Redhawks to the OVC finals on Saturday, 3 p.m. They would play the winner of the Tennessee Tech vs. Austin Peay game. The finals will be televised nationally on ESPN 2.

SOUTHEAST ON RADIO: All Southeast games can be heard on the Southeast Radio Network anchored by K-103 FM in Cape Girardeau. Erik Sean will be in his fourth season as the play-by-play voice of Southeast basketball. Todd Bonacki will add commentary for home games while Ron Hines will do color on the road games. The games can also be heard on the internet at www.k103fm.com.

Gary Garner ON RADIO: Gary Garner has a one-hour radio show each Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. The show is broadcast live from Buffalo Wild Wings in Cape Girardeau on ESPN Radio, 1220 AM. Erik Sean is host for the show.

GARNER ON TELEVISION: Southeast Missouri Basketball with Gary Garner will be televised weekly on UPN-The Beat. Todd Richards hosts the show that airs at 6:30 p.m. each Thursday.