Jan. 6, 2006

BASKETBALL GAME INFORMATION

Southeast Missouri State at Murray State

Saturday, Jan. 7, 2006, 7:15 p.m.

Regional Special Events Center, Murray, Ky.

The Teams: With two straight wins, Southeast Missouri is 6-7 overall and 3-4 in the Ohio Valley Conference. The Redhawks have wins over Truman State, South Dakota State, Tennessee State, Central Methodist, Eastern Kentucky and Eastern Illinois and losses to IPFW, Nebraska, Tennessee-Martin, Tennessee Tech, Samford, Jacksonville State and nationally ranked Illinois.

Murray State is 7-4 overall and tied for first in the OVC with a 4-1 league mark. The Racers have OVC wins over Tennessee State, Jacksonville State, Morehead State and Eastern Kentucky with a loss to Samford.

The Coaches: Gary Garner has an overall record of 372-284 in his 23rd year as a collegiate head coach with a record of 125-119 in his ninth season at Southeast.

Mick Cronin is 44-21 in his third season at Murray State. He is 3-2 vs. Southeast.

The Series: Murray State leads the series 38-19.

Last Season: Southeast won two of three games played. The Redhawks won both games played at Murray State including a 61-58 win during the regular season and a 61-58 win in the opening round of the OVC post-season tournament.

REDHAWKS NOTES

Booker Leads OVC Scorers: Senior Roy Booker leads the Redhawks in scoring with 20.8 points per game, tops in the OVC. He was honored as last week's OVC Newcomer of the Week after averaging 24.5 points per game over the prior three games.

Booker ranks third in the OVC in 3-point field goals per game with 2.69, ranks sixth in 3-point field goal percentage at .365 and ranks seventh in free throw percentage at .813.

The Montana transfer had a career high 27 points in the win over Tennessee State. He was 6-12 from three.

Booker was named the OVC Player of the Week after scoring 60 points in three games the week of 11-21. He had is first career double-double at Nebraska with 23 points and 11 rebounds. He had 26 points at Illinois and 26 points at Eastern Illinois.

In the first game of career at Southeast Missouri State, Booker came up with the game winner when he hit a 3-pointer with two seconds remaining to give the Redhawks a 59-56 win over Truman State.

Booker Graduates: Roy Booker became a Southeast graduate on Dec. 17 when he graduated with a bachelor's degree in University Studies. He will continue to play while taking graduate courses.

Willoughby Warms Up: Junior Terrick Willoughby, who has been battling a shooting slump, was 4-9 from the field and 3-6 from three in the OVC win over Eastern Kentucky and was 6-9 from the field and 3-4 from three in the win at Eastern Illinois.

In the past two games, Willoughby is 10-18 (.556) from the field and 6-10 (.600) from three.

Willoughby ranks fifth in the OVC in 3-point FG percentage with .387. He also ranks fifth in 3-pointers per game with 2.23. Willoughby averages 10.9 points per game.

Thornton Leads Rebounders: Junior college transfer Andrais Thornton leads the Redhawks in rebounding with 7.5 rebounds per game, fifth best in the OVC. He is third the OVC in offensive rebounding with 2.92 per game.

Paradoski Assists: Sophomore point guard Paul Paradoski leads the team in assists with 4.23 which ranks him fifth in the OVC. He is third in the league in assist/turnover ratio with 1.96. He led the OVC in assist/turnover ratio last season.

Paradoski is averaging 6.2 points per game and leads the team in 3-point field goal percentage with .415 from beyond the arc.

Hitting The Boards: Southeast Missouri ranks second in the OVC in rebounding margin with a plus 2.4. Murray State leads the league with a plus 5.4. Andrais Thornton leads the way for the Redhawks with 7.5 caroms per game while Ketshner Guerrier averages 5.0 per game and Waylon Francis 4.1.

Ritter Walks On: Jared Ritter, grandson of the all-time leading scorer at Southeast, Carl Ritter, has joined the Southeast team as a walk-on. Ritter, a 5-11 junior, played one year of college basketball at Hannibal La Grange and spent last season at Three Rivers Community College where he did not play basketball.

Carl Ritter, a member of the Southeast Athletic Hall of Fame, was an All-American in 1961 and 1963. He had 1,916 career points.

Chappell Leaves Team: Junior John Chappell has left the Southeast team and plans to transfer to another school. He played in no games.

At The Show Me Center: Southeast is 4-2 at the Show Me Center this season and is 199-76 (.724) since the facility opened in 1987.

Two Transfers Will Sit Out: Two transfers will sit out the 2005-2006 season under NCAA transfer rules. The transfers are 6-9 Michael Rembert from Bradley and 6-6 Brandon Foust from Oklahoma.

Two Early Signings: Southeast signed two players during the early signing period. JaJuan Maxwell, 6-6, 205, is from Raytown High School in Raytown, Mo. He averaged 18 points and 12 rebounds per game as a junior and was all-conference and all-metro in the Kansas City area.

Roderick Pearson, 6-2, 175, is from Raytown South High School in Raytown. He averaged 12 points, six assists and three steals per game as a junior.

Southeast On Radio: All Southeast games will be broadcast on the Southeast Sports Network anchored by K-103 Radio in Cape Girardeau. Erik Sean will be in his fifth season as play-by-play announcer with Todd Bonacki adding commentary for home games while Sports Information Director Ron Hines will do color on the road broadcasts.

All the games can be heard worldwide on the internet at www.k103fm.com.

SID Streak: Southeast sports information director has worked 740 consecutive games, the longest streak in NCAA Division I. Hines hasn't missed a game since 1980.

Next For The Redhawks: The Redhawks return to the Show Me Center on Saturday, Jan.14, to face Austin Peay.