Bluegrass State Teams Invade Show Me Center This Week :: Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State will finish out regular season schedule for Indians this week.

Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State will finish out regular season schedule for Indians this week.

Eastern Kentucky at Southeast Missouri
Show Me Center, Cape Girardeau, Mo.
7:30 p.m., Thursday, February 22, 2001

Morehead State at Southeast Missouri
Show Me Center, Cape Girardeau, Mo.
7:30 p.m. Saturday, February 24, 2001

Southeast Missouri (16-11, 6-8 OVC)

Probable Starters Ppg. Rpg. F 23 Drew DeMond, 6-7, So. 5.2 4.2 F 15 Emmanuel McCuthison, 6-4, Sr. 12.6 5.2 C 44 Daniel Weaver, 6-8, So. 4.3 2.4 G 12 Michael Stokes, 6-0, Sr. 14.7 4.2 G 05 Antonio Short, 6-2, Sr. 10.6 3.6

Off the Bench 03 Amory Sanders, 6-1, Sr. 8.4 2.0 10 Joel Shelton, 5-9, Fr. 2.1 0.6 20 Tim Scheer, 6-7, So. 6.8 3.1 24 Damarcus Hence, 6-6, Fr. 3.0 1.1 30 Monte Gordon, 6-5, Jr. 3.1 2.7 50 Terry Rogers, 6-10, Jr. 5.1 3.6 54 Nyah Jones, 6-11, Sr. 3.7 2.4

Eastern Kentucky (7-17, 1-13 OVC)

F  24  Lavoris Jerry, 6-3, Sr.	    16.7     4.1
F  22  Chris Carswell, 6-7, Jr.	     4.4     5.5
C  33  Phillip Taylor, 6-7, Jr.	     5.5     6.7
G  05 Clinton Sims, 6-3, Jr.	    10.6     5.5
G  30  John White, 6-2, Sr.	    12.9     3.2

Morehead State (12-13, 6-8 OVC)

F  24  Ricky Minard, 6-4, Fr.	    17.6     6.9
F  55  Kyle Umberger,  6-6, Jr.	    13.5     5.2
C  35  Iker Lopez, 6-8, So.	     8.3     4.6
G  04  Greg Hendricks, 6-1, Sr.	    11.6     3.4
G  11  Marquis Sykes, 5-11, So.	     7.6     2.6

THE TEAMS: Southeast Missouri State is 16-11 overall and 6-8 in the Ohio Valley Conference. The Indians are tied for fifth place in the OVC. Southeast has OVC wins over Tennessee State, Tennessee-Martin (2), Morehead State, Eastern Kentucky and Eastern Illinois with losses to Tennessee Tech (2), Austin Peay (2), Murray State (2), Eastern Illinois and Tennessee State.

In non-conference action Southeast has wins over Truman State, Missouri-Rolla, Robert Morris, Cleveland State, Southern Illinois, Southwest Missouri, Campbell, Jackson State and Morris Brown (2) with losses to Toledo, Mississippi Valley State, and Houston.

Eastern Kentucky is 7-17 overall and 1-13 in the OVC. The Colonels will not qualify for the OVC Tournament.

Morehead State is 12-13 overall and 6-8 in the OVC. The Eagles are tied for fifth place in the OVC.

COACHES: Gary Garner is 74-41 in his fourth season at Southeast and is 321-204 in his 18th year as a collegiate head coach. He won a Division II national championship in 1995-96 when he guided Fort Hays State to a 34-0 record. Known for having teams ready at tournament time, Garner has taken teams to the finals of conference tournaments in six of the last seven years and has won five of those title contests Garner is 6-1 vs. Eastern Kentucky and 7-0 vs. Morehead State.

Travis Ford is 7-17 in his first season at EKU and is 74-48 in his fourth season as a collegiate head coach. Ford is 0-1 vs. Southeast.

Kyle Macy is 37-69 in his fourth season at Morehead State. Macy is 0-7 vs. Southeast.

THE SERIES: Southeast leads the EKU series 10-9 and leads the Morehead State series 11-7.

EARLIER MEETINGS: Southeast beat Eastern Kentucky 65-59 on Jan. 29 in Richmond. Michael Stokes led the Indians with 17 points while Tim Scheer added a career high nine rebounds.

The Indians beat Morehead State 74-71 in overtime on Jan. 27 in Morehead. The Indians trailed by 17 points with 12:50 remaining in the second half but came back for the overtime victory. Stokes had 26 points while Antonio Short had nine rebounds.

THREE-GAME WIN STREAK: For the second time this season, the Indians have a three-game win streak after consecutive wins over Tennessee-Martin, Morris Brown and Eastern Illinois.

SOUTHEAST DEFENSE TOPS OVC: Southeast leads the OVC in field goal percentage defense, 3-point field goal percentage defense and scoring defense. The Indians allow opponents to shoot just .415 from the field and .322 from three while allowing just 68.2 points per game.

SANDERS LEADS NATION IN 3-POINT FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE: Senior guard Amory Sanders leads the OVC and NCAA Division I in 3-point field goal percentage. He is 52-94 for .553. Sanders, who did not play Wednesday night vs. Morris Brown, was 3-3 vs. Tennessee-Martin, 5-5 vs. Tennessee State, 5-7 vs. Morris Brown and 7-10 from three against Robert Morris.

FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE IS A KEY: Southeast is 14-2 this season when shooting 44% or better from the field.

STOKES LEADS IN SIX CATEGORIES: Senior guard Michael Stokes leads the team in scoring, assists, assist/turnover ratio, steals, free throw percentage and minutes played. He is second in rebounding.

Stokes. who had a career high 27 points against Tennessee State, averages 14.7 points, 4.2 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game. He is shooting .440 from the field, .342 from three and .820 from the line while playing 35.2 minutes per game.

Stokes has two double-doubles this season with 21 points and 10 rebounds vs. Jackson State and 15 points and 10 assists at Tennessee Tech. He was named to the 40th Annual SunClassic all-tournament team after scoring 21 points, pulling down 10 rebounds and handing out four assists in the Indians consolation round win over Jackson State.

Stokes was the OVC Player of the Week on Dec. 18.

McCUTHISON LEADS TEAM ON BOARDS: Senior Emmanuel McCuthison, who had the game winning tip-in with just one-second remaining in Saturday night's win over Eastern Illinois, is the Southeast leader in rebounds and is second in scoring. He is averaging 12.6 points and 5.2 rebounds per game.

McCuthison had a career high 29 points against Southern Illinois. Against SIU, McCuthison sizzled in the first half when he scored 20 points with 6-10 from the field, 4-5 from three and 4-6 from the line. For the game, McCuthison, nicknamed e-mail, was 9-18 from the field, 6-9 from three and 5-8 from the line.

Earlier this season, he was named to the all-tournament team in the Energia Systems Thanksgiving Tournament in Kansas City

DEMOND ESTABLISHES NEW SUN CLASSIC RECORD: Drew DeMond established a new SunClassic tournament record for blocked shots with eight against Jackson State. DeMond's eight blocks also tied the Don Haskins Center record for blocked shots. He is third in the OVC with 44 blocks.

DeMond had a career high in scoring against Tennessee State when he scored 13 points and had a career high 10 rebounds at Murray State.

DEMOND SHOOTING IMPROVES: After a slow start at the free throw line, DeMond connected on 24 straight free throws before missing his final free throw at Murray State.

After hitting 37 of his last 40 free tosses (.915) DeMond is 52-70 for .743.

In the last seven games, DeMond is 20-28 from the field for .714.

SCHEER COMING ON: Sophomore Tim Scheer is averaging 8.2 points and 4.2 rebounds per game in OVC games. In the league, he is shooting .513 from the field, .345 from three and .625 from the line while playing an average of 18.8 minutes per game Scheer came off the bench to score a career high 17 points in the home win over Tennessee-Martin. He had a career high nine rebounds at Eastern Kentucky.

SHORT IS STEADY: Senior guard Antonio Short continues to be a steadying force both offensively and defensively. He averages 10.6 points and 3.6 rebounds per game while playing an average of 30 minutes per game. He is shooting .431 from the field, .381 from three and .691 from the line.

POST BY COMMITTEE: Southeast has started four different players at the post position this season. Terry Rogers has eight starts and Nyah Jones 11 starts, Daniel Weaver eight starts and Tim Scheer one.

HENCE CONTRIBUTES: Redshirt freshman Damarcus Hence has made solid contributions in the last five games when he has averaged 6.6 points per game while shooting 13-24 (.541) from the field. In the last three games, Hence is 4-6 (.666) from three.

INJURIES: Amory Sanders continues to be bothered by a deep stone bruise on his foot and he re-injured the foot at Murray State but came back to hit 3-3 from three at Tennessee-Martin. He did not play against Morris Brown but did play against EIU. Southeast will seek a medical redshirt for senior guard Matt Morris who has not played this season because of mononucleosis.

AT THE SHOW ME CENTER: Southeast is 8-4 at the Show Me Center this season and is 163-49 (.768) since the Show Me Center opened in 1987. Last season, Southeast again led the OVC in attendance with 5,066 fans per game. After 11 home games this season, Southeast averages a league high 5,067 fans per game.

NEXT: Following the regular season ending games with Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State the Indians will go on the road for the opening round of the OVC Tournament vs. an undetermined opponent on Tuesday, Feb. 27. The Indians are the defending OVC Tournament champions.

SCHUBERTH DROPS TO SECOND ON BEST DRESSED LIST: Southeast assistant coach Tom Schuberth is currently ranked second nationally on the latest Fashion Power Index for Assistant Coaches compiled by collegeinsider.com.

Schuberth, who was ranked first, fell behind Marist assistant Steve Sauers in the latest ranking.

The Schuberth wardrobe includes 73 suits (36 Giorgio Armani suits), 70 pair of shoes, 40 dress slacks, 18 sport coats, and over 100 dress shirts.

SID STREAK: Southeast sports information director Ron Hines has worked a nation leading 599 consecutive basketball games. Hines has not missed an Indian basketball game since 1980.