Jan. 7, 2007

BASKETBALL GAME INFORMATION

Monday, Jan. 8, 7:30 p.m.

Southeast Missouri @ Murray State

Regional Special Events Center, Murray, Ky

THE TEAMS: Southeast Missouri State is 5-11 overall and 3-4 in the Ohio Valley Conference. The Redhawks have won two straight after a big 88-74 road win at Eastern Kentucky and a home win over Eastern Illinois.

Murray State is 7-8 overall and 5-2 in the OVC. The Racers have also won two straight with road wins at Eastern Illinois and at Tennessee State.

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 113-106 in his eighth season. Edgar was 79-40 when he coached at Murray State from 1991-1995 and was 56-17 in OVC games.

Billy Kennedy is in his first season at Murray State. Kennedy formerly served as head coach at Southeastern Louisiana and Centenary. He has a collegiate coaching record of 109-134 in his ninth season.

THE SERIES: Murray State leads the series 49-15, 27-6 in OVC play.

LAST SEASON: The Racers won both games, winning 81-68 in Murray and 76-69 at the Show Me Center.

**REDHAWKS NOTES**

TWO STRAIGHT OVC WINS: The Redhawks are 2-0 in the OVC in 2007 with wins at Eastern Kentucky and vs. Eastern Illinois.

80 POINTS IS A KEY: The Redhawks are 3-0 when scoring 80 or more points.

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 21.5 minutes per game.

TALENTED TRANSFERS: Two highly touted transfers lead Southeast in scoring and rebounding. Brandon Foust, a transfer from Oklahoma, averages 11.3 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. Michael Rembert, a transfer from Bradley, averages 9.6 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.

JOHNSON MOVES UP: Junior guard David Johnson is the Redhawks leading scorer in OVC games with an average of 12.9 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 10.6 points and 3.2 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 7.4 points per game with a high of 22 points at Eastern Kentucky, while Maxwell, who had a career high 15 points at Purdue, averages 6.8 points and 3.3 rebounds per game.

FREE THROWS ARE A KEY: The Redhawks are shooting just .595 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. He received his second Redhawks award after pulling down a career high 12 rebounds vs. Eastern Illinois. 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

Vs. Eastern Illinois - Michael Rembert

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

Eastern Illinois - Michael Rembert

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 3-3 at the Show Me Center this season and are 203-85 (.705) 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 772 consecutive basketball games. He has not missed a game since 1980.

NEXT FOR THE REDHAWKS: Southeast play at Austin Peay on Saturday, Jan. 13, 7:30 p.m.