Jan. 16, 2007

BASKETBALL GAME INFORMATION

Thursday, Jan. 18, 7:30 p.m.

Tennessee State @ Southeast Missouri

Show Me Center, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Saturday, Jan. 20, 7:30 p.m.

Tennessee Tech @ Southeast Missouri

Show Me Center, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

THE TEAMS: Southeast Missouri State is 6-11 overall and 4-4 in the Ohio Valley Conference. The Redhawks have won three straight including road wins at Eastern Kentucky and Murray State and a home win over Eastern Illinois.

Tennessee State has won two straight OVC games to stand 4-3 in league play, 8-9 overall. The Tigers have won three straight, but are 0-8 in away games.

Prior to a game at Eastern Illinois on Thursday, Tennessee Tech was 8-9, 4-4 in the OVC. Tech has won two straight and three of its last four.

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 114-107 in his eighth season. Edgar is 4-7 vs. Tennessee State and is 7-2 vs. Tennessee Tech.

Cy Alexander is 42-62 in his fourth season at TSU. He is 319-264 in his 20th year as a collegiate head coach.

Mike Sutton is 78-59 in his fifth season at Tennessee Tech. Sutton is 8-1 vs. Southeast.

THE SERIES: Tennessee State leads the series 16-15. Tennessee Tech leads the series 21-11 and has won the last eight games. The last Southeast win in the series was 75-71 during the 2002-2003 season.

EARLIER GAMES: Tennessee State beat Southeast 78-75 on Dec. 7 in Nashville. Larry Turner, 6-10, led the Tigers with 22 points and eight r ebounds. Freshman Marcus Rhodes led the Redhawks with 17 points.

Belton Rivers led Tennessee Tech to 91-76 win at Cookeville on Dec. 9. Rivers had a season-high 33 points. David Johnson led Southeast with 15.

**REDHAWKS NOTES**

WILLOUGHBY SIDELINED: Senior guard Terrick Willoughby is out with illness. He has mononucleosis like symptoms and is expected to miss from 10 days to two weeks with the illness. He did not play against Murray State or AustinPeay.

80 POINTS IS A KEY: The Redhawks are 4-0 when scoring 80 or more points. The Redhawks scored 81 points in a win over Tennessee-Martin, 88 at Eastern Kentucky, 80 vs. Eastern Illinois and 96 at Murray State. Southeast leads the OVC in scoring in conference games only with 78 points per game.

FOUST VOTED OVC NEWCOMER OF THE WEEK: Junior Brandon Foust is this week's OVC Newcomer of the Week after averaging a double-double in two games last week.

Foust averaged 19 points and 10.5 rebounds per game in contests against Murray State and Austin Peay. Fosut had 23 points and nine rebounds in a win at Murray State and 15 points and 12 rebounds in a one-point loss at APSU.

A transfer from Oklahoma, Foust leads the Redhawks in scoring and rebounding with 12.1 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.

REMBERT RETURNS: Junior Michael Rembert, a transfer from Bradley, will be back in the starting lineup after missing the Austin Peay because of a one-game suspension. Rembert averages 9.2 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.

PEARSON VOTED OVC FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK: Freshman point guard Roderick Pearson was voted the OVC Freshman of the Week on Jan. 8 after he recorded his first collegiate double-double at Eastern Kentucky with 22 points and 11 assists and came back with 10 points, five rebounds and three assists vs. Eastern Illinois.

For the two games, Pearson averaged 13 points and seven assists per game while shooting 63% from the floor, 60% from three and 90% from the line. Monday night at Murray State, Pearson had 17 points and five assists. He leads the OVC in assist/TO ratio for conference games only.

FRESHMEN CONTRIBUTE: Freshmen continue to gain more and more playing time. Freshmen average over 70 minutes per game out of a possible 200.

Roderick Pearson leads the way, averaging 21.5 minutes per game.

RHODES GETS FIRST START: Freshman Marcus Rhodes started against Murray State in place of Terrick Willoughby who was ill. Rhodes is the Redhawks fourth leading scorer in OVC games only with an average of 9.8 points per game. Against Murray State he had seven points on 2-4 shooting including 2-2 from three. He also had one assist, one block and one steal. 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. In OVC games only, Rhodes is shooting 51% from the field, 56% from three and 69% from the line.

HILL FINDS THE RANGE: Freshman guard Johnny Hill entered the Murray State game shooting just .195 from three, but against the Racers he connected on his first three treys and ended the night with a career high 16 points including 5-8 from the field and 3-5 from three.

JOHNSON MOVES UP: Junior guard David Johnson is the Redhawks leading scorer in OVC games with an average of 13.6 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 11.2 points and 3.3 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 7.9 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 3.1 rebounds per game.

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. The Murray State game produced two winners with Brandon Foust scoring 23 points while pulling down nine rebounds while David Johnson had 18 points, five rebounds, five assists and four blocks.

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

Vs. Murray State - Brandon Foust

Vs. Murray State - David Johnson

Vs. Austin Peay - Brandon Foust

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

OVC HONORS: Roderick Pearson was named the OVC Freshman of the Week on Jan. 8 while Michael Rembert was voted Newcomer of the Week on Dec. 18. Brandon Foust was voted Newcomer of the Week on Jan. 15.

MASCOT WEEK: There will be a number of promotions for the games this week. On Thursday, it will be "Take a Kid To The Game Night" with all children 13 and under admitted free of charge. There will also be Mascot Basketball at the half with a game featuring Rowdy the Redhawk and other are commercial mascots including Andy Armadillo from texas Road House, Neigh Bear from State Farm, King from Burger King, Little Caesar from Little Caesar's Pizza and Can You Hear Me Now from JCS Tel Link.

Saturday night will be Rowdy's second Bird Day with mascot friends, Fredbird of the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals and Rocky from the Memphis Redbirds, on hand for the big party.

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 6-7 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 774 consecutive basketball games. He has not missed a game since 1980.

NEXT FOR THE REDHAWKS: Following the home games with Tennessee State and Tennessee Tech, the Redhawks go on the road to play at Morehead State on Wednesday, Jan. 24.