Dec. 18, 2003

Basketball Game Information

North Texas @ Southeast Missouri

Monday, Dec. 22, 2003, 7:30 p.m.

Show Me Center, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Probable Starters

Southeast Missouri State (5-3) Ppg Rpg

F 21 Norman Prather, 6-3, Jr. 6.4 4.3

F 01 Dainmon Gonner, 6-6, Jr. 13.8 5.8

C 22 Brandon Griffin, 6-8, Sr.10.1 6.9

G 33 Derek Winans, 6-3, Jr. 11.9 2.6

G 12 Terrick Willoughby, 6-4, Fr.4.5 2.1

North Texas (4-3)

F 01 Will Smith, 6-7, Sr. 7.2 6.2

F 42 Michael DeGrate, 6-8, Sr. 9.2 4.7

G 05 Marquis Mitchell, 6-0, Jr. 6.2 2.5

G 12 Scott Roniger, 6-2, So. 2.7 2.3

G 22 Leonard Hopkins, 6-3, Jr. 9.7 3.0

THE TEAMS: Southeast Missouri is 5-3 after a season opening 63-62 win over Wisconsin-Green Bay, an 83-51 win over Kentucky Christian, a 61-50 loss to Montana, a 77-75 win over UC Santa Barbara, a 71-58 loss to SIU, an 80-63 win over UMKC ,a 78-68 road loss to Arkansas and a 79-67 home win over Oakland City.

North Texas is 4-3 prior to a Saturday game at St. Bonaventure. The Mean Green have wins over Northwestern Oklahoma State, Hardin-Simmons, Baylor and Texas Pan-American and road losses at Lamar, Southern and Texas Christian.

THE COACHES: Gary Garner is 98-85 in his 7th season at Southeast and is 345-249 in his 21st year as a collegiate head coach. He needs one more win to become the third winningest coach in Southeast history and two more wins to reach 100 at Southeast. Johnny Jones is 25-38 in his third season at North Texas.

THE SERIES: First Meeting

*** SOUTHEAST NOTES***

WINANS CLOSES ON MILESTONES: Junior guard Derek Winans has started 65 straight games at Southeast and has 956 career points. He needs just 44 points to become the 18th player in Southeast history to score 1,000 points.

This season, Winans is averaging 11.9 points per game, shooting 45% from the field 48% from three and 82% from the line.

Against Oakland City, Winans was 7-7 from the field and 4-4 from three.

GRIFFIN HAS TRIPLE DOUBLE: Senior Brandon Griffin recorded a triple double against Oakland City with 12 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. He was honored as the OVC Player of the Week.

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

He leads the team in rebounding with 6.9 per game, in assists with 3.6 per game and in field goal percentage at .581.

GONNER MAKES ALL-TOURNAMENT: Junior Dainmon Gonner was selected to the All-Tournament team at the Montana Holiday Classic. He had 21 points, seven rebounds, four assists, two blocks and one steal vs. Santa Barbara and 10 points, seven rebounds, two assists, one block and three steals vs. Montana.

Gonner leads the team in scoring (13.8 ppg), blocks (4) and steals (12.

INJURIES: Reggie Golson (dislocated finger) and Adam Crader (back) both missed the Oakland City game. They are probable for the North Texas game.

Dainmon Gonner played only six-minutes vs. OCU because of a sore groin. He is probable for North Texas.

SOUTHEAST THIRD AT MONTANA TOURNEY: Southeast Missouri State claimed third place in the Montana Holiday Classic by beating UC Santa Barbara 77-75. The Indians lost to Montana 61-50 in the semi-finals.

GOLSON EMERGES: Junior Reggie Golson has started slowly after an ankle injury kept him out of all preseason drills until two days before the season opener. Against UMKC on Dec. 6, Golson had nine points and 12 rebounds in a season-high 22-minutes of play. He was 3-6 from the field and 3-4 from the line.

Golson dislocated the little finger on his left hand in practice on Dec. 12, but is expected to be back at practice today.

NELKE FINDS THE RANGE: Mike Nelke broke out of an early season shooting slump by hitting 5-7 from three vs. Oakland City. He is now shooting 39% from the field and 35% from three.

ROBERTS WILL TRANSFER: Junior point guard Kevin Roberts has left the Southeast team and plans to transfer to Fontbonne College in St. Louis.

Roberts had played in six games this season, averaging 1.2 points and 0.7 rebounds per game. Last season he led the team and OVC in assists and assist/turnover ratio.

BALANCED SCORING: Southeast has only three players averaging in double figures, but six players average 6.4 or more points per game. Dainmon Gonner leads scorers with 13.8 points per game while Damarucs Hence averages 12, Derek Winans 11.9, Brandon Griffin 10.1, Brett Hale 7.5, and Norman Prather 6.4.

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

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

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

AT THE SHOW ME CENTER: Southeast is 4-0 at the Show Me Center this season and 181-65 (.735) since the 7,000 seat facility opened in 1987.

SID STREAK: Ron Hines, sports information director at Southeast Missouri State, has worked 672 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 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. The show can be heard on the internet at kgir.com.

Gary Garner TV SHOW: Southeast Missouri Basketball with Gary Garner will be seen each Thursday at 6:30 p.m. on UPN-The Beat beginning on Dec. 25. Steve Sotak will be host for the 30-minute show.

NEXT GAME: Following the North Texas game, Southeast will go on the road for games at DePaul on Dec. 31 and at IPFW on Jan. 3. The OVC season begins on Jan. 8 when the Indians host defending champion Austin Peay.