Feb. 14, 2006

The Redhawks look to snap their current 10-game losing streak as they return back to the friendly confines of the Show Me Center to host Ohio Valley Conference rival Eastern Illinois on Wednesday, February 15. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. The Redhawks last win was against this same Panthers team in Charleston, Illinois.

The Teams: Southeast Missouri is 6-17 overall and 3-14 in the OVC. The Redhawks, who have lost ten straight games, last won in a road game at Eastern Illinois on Jan. 5.

Eastern Illinois is 5-18 overall and 4-13 in the OVC.

California-Riverside is 3-18 overall and 3-7 in the Big West Conference. The Highlanders play at UC Irvine on Wednesday night.

The Coaches: Gary Garner has an overall record of 372-293 in his 23rd year as a collegiate head coach with a record of 125-129 in his ninth season at Southeast.

Mike Miller is 5-18 in his first season at Eastern Illinois.

David Spencer is 3-18 in his first season at UCR.

The Series: Southeast leads the Eastern Illinois series 17-13. The Redhawks lead the UCR series 1-0..

Earlier Game: Southeast beat Eastern Illinois 72-60 on Jan. 5 in Charleston, Ill.

REDHAWKS NOTES

Academic All-American: Derek Winans, named first-team Academic All-America last season by ESPN The Magazine, will receive his award at Wednesday night's game.

Booker Leads OVC Scorers: Senior Roy Booker leads the Redhawks in scoring with 22.5 points per game, tops in the OVC and 13th nationally in NCAA Division I. He had a career high 33 points against Austin Peay and had 30 points at Tennessee Tech.

Booker is third in the OVC in 3-point field goals made with 2.91 per game. He ranks fifth in the OVC in free throw percentage at .824 and is ninth in 3-point field goal percentage with .333.

The Montana transfer had a career high 27 points in the win over Tennessee State. He had 26 points against sixth ranked Illinois.

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.

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.

Short Bench: With the suspension of Andrais Thornton and season ending injuries to Eric Burtin and David Johnson, the Redhawks have only seven scholarship players and eight players in all available for action.

Based on averages per game this season, Southeast is missing 23 points and 12 rebounds per game from Thornton, Burtin and Johnson.

Paradoski Assists: Sophomore point guard Paul Paradoski leads the team in assists with 4.04 per game, sixth best in the OVC. He ranks seventh in the OVC in assist/turnover ratio with 1.62.

Thornton Suspension: Junior forward Andrais Thornton has been suspended from competition after having felony charges filed against him for an alleged rape in Colby, Kansas in 2003. Thornton is able to practice with the team but will not return to competition until the charges have been satisfactorily resolved.

Thornton had started the first 20 games and led the team in rebounding with 6.6 per game while averaging 7.9 points per game. Injuries: Junior guard Eric Burtin suffered a broken leg in the Jan. 21 loss at Tennessee State. He is lost for the remainder of the season. Burtin played in 16 games this season, starting six. He averaged 5.8 points and 2.8 rebounds per game.

Junior David Johnson played in only three games for the Redhawks. He underwent hernia surgery in December and is lost for the season. He averaged 9.7 points and 2.7 rebounds per game.

Junior Terrick Willoughby suffered a shoulder injury in Thursday night's game at Morehead State and is questionable for the EIU game.

Ritter Walks On: Jared Ritter, grandson of the all-time leading scorer at Southeast, Carl Ritter, is a walk-on on this year's team. Ritter, 5-11 junior, played one year of college basketball at Hannibal LaGrange 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.

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. He had 30 points in win over Raytown last Saturday.

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 750 consecutive games, the longest streak in NCAA Division I. Hines hasn't missed a game since 1980.

California, Here We Come: Southeast will play at California-Riverside on Saturday, Feb. 18, 6:05 p.m. (CST). The game resulted from Southeast being a part of the pool of teams available for the e-Bay Bracket Buster. UC Riverside will play at Southeast next season.

Next For The Redhawks: Following the games with Eastern Illinois and at California-Riverside, Southeast will close the season with home games against Samford on Feb. 23 and Jacksonville State on Feb. 25.