Feb. 16, 2004

Basketball Game Information

Eastern Kentucky @ Southeast Missouri

Thursday, Feb. 19, 7:30 p.m.

Show Me Center, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Morehead State @ Southeast Missouri

Saturday, Feb. 21, 7:30 p.m.

Show Me Center, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Probable Starters

Southeast Missouri State (10-13, 3-9 OVC)

Ppg Rpg

F 24 Damarcus Hence, 6-6, Sr. 7.1 2.8

OR 21 Norman Prather, 6-3, Jr. 3.8 2.6

F 01 Dainmon Gonner, 6-6, Jr. 13.0 6.0

C 04 Reggie Golson, 6-7, Jr. 4.7 3.3

G 33 Derek Winans, 6-3, Jr. 14.0 2.4

G 05 Mike Nelke, 6-0, Jr. 6.7 1.1

THE TEAMS: Southeast Missouri is 10-13 overall and 3-9 in the OVC. The Indians are tied for ninth in the OVC with only the top eight teams advancing to the post-season tournament.

Southeast has OVC wins over Eastern Illinois, Tennessee State and Tennessee-Martin with losses to Austin Peay twice, Tennessee Tech twice, Jacksonville State, Samford, Murray State, Eastern Illinois and Tennessee State.

The Indians completed non-conference play with a 77-75 road win at IPFW. The Indians have home wins over Wisconsin-Green Bay, Kentucky Christian, UMKC, Oakland City and North Texas. Southeast had a neutral court win over California Santa Barbara and the road win at IPFW.

Eastern Kentucky has won three straight OVC games to stand 11-12 overall and 6-6 in the OVC.

Prior to a Thursday night game at Eastern Illinois, Morehead State has won four straight for a record of 13-10 overall and 8-4 in the OVC.

THE COACHES: Gary Garner claimed his 100th victory at Southeast with the road win at IPFW and now stands 103-95 in his 7th season at Southeast and is 350-260 in his 21st year as a collegiate head coach. The 103 wins make him the third winningest coach in Southeast history.

Travis Ford is 36-68 in his fourth season at EKU. He is 103-99 in his seventh year as a collegiate head coach.

Kyle Macy is 88-102 in his seventh season at Morehead State.

THE SERIES: Southeast leads the Eastern Kentucky series 12-10 and the Morehead State series 13-12.

LAST SEASON: Southeast and Eastern Kentucky split two games last season with the Indians winning 93-77 in Richmond but the Colonels came back to win 79-75 at the Show Me Center.

Southeast lost three games to Morehead State with the third game being in the opening round of the OVC tournament.

*** SOUTHEAST NOTES***

GRIFFIN DOUBTFUL: Senior center Brandon Griffin is doubtful for the two home games this week. He will not play on Thursday and is very doubtful for Saturday.

Griffin suffered a sprained ankle in the Tennessee State game Saturday night and played only four minutes against the Tigers.

Prior to the TSU game, Griffin had been on a hot streak. He had his second double-double of the season with 13 points and 14 rebounds vs. Murray State. He is shooting 66% from the field over the last nine games. He is 59-89 from the field and has averaged 15.7 points, 8.4 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game.

Against Eastern Illinois last Tuesday night, Griffin had 18 points, nine rebounds and four assists.

Earlier this season, Griffin recorded a triple double against Oakland City with 12 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.

He had a double-double at Arkansas with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

For the season, Griffin leads the team in rebounding with 7.4 per game, field goal percentage at .576 and assists with 3.3 per game and is second in scoring with 13 points per game.

HENCE PROBABLE: Senior Damarcus Hence, who had 14 points and six rebounds in just 12-minutes of play at Tennessee State is probable despite a sore knee that kept him out of most of the second half at TSU.

He was 6-11 from the floor including three offensive rebound dunk backs.

Hence came off the bench to score 12 points at Samford on Jan. 31 and came off the bench to score 18 points on Thursday night vs. Tennessee-Martin. The senior from Memphis was 5-7 (.714) from the field, 4-5 (800) from three and 4-4 (100%) from the line vs. UTM.

Hence started against Murray State and contributed 11 points, two rebounds and two assists.

WINANS TOPS 1,000: Junior guard Derek Winans has started 80 straight games at Southeast and has 1,184 career points. He hit a 3-pointer with 12:48 remaining in the Austin Peay game on Jan. 8 to go over 1,000 points. He is the 18th player in Southeast history to score 1,000 points. He is currently 11th on the all-time scoring list at Southeast and needs just eight more points to move up to number 10.

Winans is averaging 14 points per game, shooting 47% from the field, 39% from three and 77% from the line.

GONNER FINDS TOUCH: Dainmon Gonner recorded a double-double at Tennessee State with 22 points and a career-high 12 rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Against Murray State, Gonner had 22 points, six rebounds four assists, one block and one steal and he had 23 points, seven rebounds and two assists vs. Eastern Illinois.

In the last four games, Gonner is averaging 20.3 points and 7.8 rebounds per game.

For the season he is second on the team in rebounding, third in scoring and is tied for first in steals. He averages 13 points and six rebounds per game with 31 steals. He has twice been named the OVC Newcomer of the week.

NELKE 2ND IN OVC ASSIST/TO RATIO: Mike Nelke ranks second in the OVC in assist/turnover ration in OVC games only at 3.5. He has 39 assists and just 12 turnovers in OVC games.

Nelke had a career-high five 3-pointers in Saturday's game at TSU. He was 5-9.

HALE DELIVERS IN CLUTCH: Junior guard Brett Hale hit the game winning shot at IPFW with just 0.8 seconds remaining in the game. It was his first game winning shot. For the game, Hale had 15 points on 5-6 from the field, 3-4 from three and 2-2 from the line.

Hale averages 6.8 points per game while shooting 37% from the field and 33% from three.

He is shooting just 71% from the line after leading the OVC with over 90% from the line last season.

COPI-RITE PLAYER OF THE GAME: Copi-Rite, Inc. of Cape Girardeau will sponsor a Player of the Game after each Southeast home game. The game-by-game winners follow.

11-21 - Dainmon Gonner

11-24 - Brett Hale

12-6 - Derek Winans

12-13 - Brandon Griffin

12-22 - Dainmon Gonner

1-8 - Derek Winans

1-10 - Derek Winans

1-15 - Derek Winans

2-5 - Brandon Griffin

2-7 - Dainmon Gonner

2-10 - Dainmon Gonner

OVC HONORS: The following players have been honored by the OVC.

12-9 - Dainmon Gonner, Newcomer of Week

12-16 - Brandon Griffin, Player of Week

1-5 - Dainmon Gonner, Newcomer of Week

1-19 - Derek Winans, Co-Player of Week

1-19 - Mike Nelke, Newcomer of Week

SOUTHEAST PICKED 4th IN THE OVC : In a preseason poll of league coaches and sports information directors Southeast was picked to finish fourth in the OVC behind Austin Peay, Morehead State and Murray State.

AT THE SHOW ME CENTER: Southeast is 7-4 at the Show Me Center this season and 184-69 (.727) since the 7,000 seat facility opened in 1987.

SID STREAK: Ron Hines, sports information director at Southeast Missouri State, has worked 686 consecutive basketball games. He has not missed a game since 1980. The streak is the longest in Division I basketball.

SOUTHEAST ON RADIO: All Southeast games are broadcast live on the Southeast Radio Network that reaches into five states. Network stations include K-103 FM in Cape Girardeau, KSIM in Sikeston and KWOC in Poplar Bluff. Erik Sean is in his third season as the play-by-play voice of Indian basketball. Todd Bonacki offers commentary on home games with Ron Hines as color analyst on road games.

All games are available on the internet at gosoutheast.com or k103fm.com.

Gary Garner RADIO SHOW: The Gary Garner Radio Show will be heard each Wednesday from 6:00 until 7:00 p.m. live from Buffalo Wild Wings on 1220 AM. Erik Sean will host the show.

Gary Garner TV SHOW: Southeast Missouri Basketball with Gary Garner will be seen each Thursday at 6:30 p.m. on UPN-The Beat. Steve Sotak hosts the 30-minute show.

NEXT GAME: Following the Show Me Center games with Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State, Southeast will close the regular season with games at Murray State and Tennessee-Martin.