Jan. 3, 2007

BASKETBALL GAME INFORMATION

Thursday, Jan. 4, 7:30 p.m.

Eastern Illinois @ Southeast Missouri

Show Me Center, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

THE TEAMS: Southeast Missouri State is 4-11 overall and 2-4 in the Ohio Valley Conference after a big 88-74 road win at Eastern Kentucky.

Eastern Illinois is 5-10 overall and 1-5 in the OVC after losing a home game to Murray State on Tuesday night.

THE COACHES: Southeast Missouri is under the direction of new head coach Scott Edgar, an assistant at Tennessee last season, who has served as head coach at Duquesne and Murray State. He has also been an assistant at Tulsa, Arkansas and Alabama-Birmingham. His collegiate head coaching record is 112-106 in his eighth season.

Mike Miller is 11-31 in his second season at EIU and is 98-110 in his eighth year as a collegiate head coach.

THE SERIES: The Redhawks lead the Eastern Illinois series 17-14.

LAST SEASON: Southeast split two games with Eastern Illinois. The Redhawks beat EIU in Charleston 72-60 but lost at the Show Me Center 60-49.

**REDHAWKS NOTES**

DOUBLE-DOUBLE FOR PEARSON: Freshman point guard Roderick Pearson recorded his first collegiate double-double at Eastern Kentucky with 22 points and 11 rebounds.

FRESHMEN CONTRIBUTE: Freshmen continue to gain more and more playing time. Freshmen average nearly 70 minutes per game out of a possible 200. Roderick Pearson leads the way, averaging 21.4 minutes per game.

RHODES STEPS UP: Freshman Marcus Rhodes is the Redhawks fourth leading scorer in OVC games only with an average of 10.0 points per game. In the OVC win at Eastern Kentucky, Rhodes was 3-4 from the field, 3-3 from three for nine points. He also had five rebounds.

TALENTED TRANSFERS: Two highly touted transfers lead Southeast in scoring and rebounding. Brandon Foust, a transfer from Oklahoma, averages 11.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. Michael Rembert, a transfer from Bradley, averages 9.5 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. Rembert had a career high 20 points vs. Jacksonville State.

JOHNSON MOVES UP: Junior guard David Johnson is the Redhawks leading scorer in OVC games with an average of 14 points per game. He has fully recovered from hernia surgery that forced him to miss all but three games last season. Johnson, who had 20 points against UT Martin, averages 10.5 points and 3.5 rebounds per game on the season.

RAYTOWN DUO: Roderick Pearson and JaJuan Maxwell are both from Raytown, Mo. (a suburb of Kansas City), but played at rival high schools. Pearson, a jet quick guard who started the Jacksonville State game, played at Raytown South while Maxwell, a versatile 6-6 player, played for Raytown High School.

Pearson averages 7.2 points per game with a high of 22 points at Eastern Kentucky, while Maxwell, who had a career high 15 points at Purdue, averages 6.5 points and 3.2 rebounds per game.

FREE THROWS ARE A KEY: The Redhawks are shooting just .589 from the free throw line, but sank 17-21 in a key OVC road win at Eastern Kentucky. In the previous game at Purdue, the Redhawks made just 12-28 free throws in a loss to the Big 10 Boilermakers.

REDHAWKS AWARD: The Southeast coaching staff bestows a Redhawks Award any time a player has points, rebounds and assists that equal 25 or more. Brandon Foust received a Redhawks Award when he had 14 points, eight rebounds and six assists vs. Alaska. David Johnson received the award after 20 points, four rebounds and four assists vs. UT Martin. Michael Rembert was honored after the Jacksonville State game when he had 20 points, five rebounds and one assist. Roderick Pearson had 22 points, 11 assists and five steals at Eastern Kentucky.

REDHAWKS AWARD WINNERS

Vs. Alaska - Brandon Foust

Vs. UT-Martin - David Johnson

Vs. Jacksonville State - Michael Rembert

Vs. Eastern Kentucky - Roderick Pearson

CONNECT-RITE PLAYER OF THE GAME: Members of the media select a Southeast Connect-Rite Player of the Game after each Southast home game. The winners are listed below.

UC-Riverside - Michael Rembert

IPFW - David Johnson

UT Martin - David Johnson

Jacksonville State - Michael Rembert

Samford - Roderick Pearson

FOUST HONORED: Brandon Foust was named to the Top of the World Classic All-Tournament team. He currently leads the team in scoring with 11.6 points per game and is tied for the lead in rebounding with 5.4 rebounds per game.

AT THE SHOW ME CENTER: The Redhawks are 2-3 at the Show Me Center this season and are 202-85 (.704) since the facility opened in 1987.

REDHAWKS ADD ST. LOUIS RADIO STATION: The Southeast Basketball Network has added 1380 ESPN Radio in St. Louis. The network operated by Mississippi River Radio, will be anchored by 100,000 watt K-103 FM in Cape Girardeau. Other network stations include KSIM, Sikeston;, KWOC, Poplar Bluff and KMAL, Malden.

Erik Sean will be the play-by-play voice of Redhawks basketball with Todd Bonacki adding commentary at home games and Ron Hines adding color during the road games.

Scott Edgar RADIO SHOW: Scott Edgar will have a weekly radio show on KGIR, 1220 AM in Cape Girardeau. He will be on from 7-8 p.m. each Monday with host Erik Sean. They will talk Redhawks basketball and take calls from listeners.

REDHAWKS BASKETBALL WITH Scott Edgar: Edgar will have a weekly television show on WQWQ-TV, the Heartland's CW. The show will be seen at 11 p.m. each Monday night and will be hosted by Heartland Sports Director Todd Richards. The show will also be shown on Charter Cable, Channel 11, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at both 8 and 9 p.m.

LIVE VIDEO STREAMING: Southeast fans will be able to watch Redhawks OVC basketball games on the internet through the Ohio Valley Conference's new premium web site, OVCSports.TV.

OVCSports.TV can be accessed by logging on to the OVC Web site, www.ovcsports.com, and is made possible through a partnership with XOS Technologies,, a leading provider of sports technology. Subscriptions are available on an annual, seasonal and per-event basis.

SID STREAK: Southeast SID Ron Hines has worked 771 consecutive basketball games. He has not missed a game since 1980.

NEXT FOR THE REDHAWKS: Southeast will go on the road to play at Murray State on Monday, Jan. 8 and at Austin Peay on Saturday, Jan. 13.