Feb. 20, 2007

BASKETBALL GAME INFORMATION

Thursday, Feb. 22, 7:00 p.m.

Southeast Missouri @ Samford

Siebert Hall, Birmingham, Ala.

Saturday, Feb. 24, 7:30 p.m.

Southeast Missouri @ Jacksonville State

Mathews Coliseum, Jacksonville, Ala.

THE TEAMS: Southeast Missouri State is 10-18 overall and 8-10 in the Ohio Valley Conference. Going into the final week of the regular season, the Redhawks are in sixth place in the OVC with the top eight teams qualifying for the OVC post-season tournament. The Redhawks magic number is one with one win or one Morehead State loss assuring Southeast of a tournament berth.

Samford, the preseason choice to win the OVC, has lost four straight and is currently 14-14 overall and 11-7 and tied for fourth in the OVC. Only the top four teams will host first round tournament games.

Jacksonville State, which hosts Eastern Illinois on Thursday, is 8-20 overall and 6-12 in the OVC. The Gamecocks must win out to have a chance for a tournament berth.

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 118-113 in his eighth season.

Jimmy Tillette is 163-127 in his 10th season as a collegiate head coach.

Mike LaPlante is 87-114 in his seventh season at JSU.

THE SERIES: Samford leads the series 5-2 while Jacksonville State leads the series 5-1.

EARLIER GAMES: On Dec. 19, Samford beat Southeast 65-64 on a driving layup by Jerry Smith with two-seconds remaining. Roderick Pearson led Southeast with 18 points.

Jacksonville State beat the Redhawks 70-67 on Dec. 17 when Will Ginn hit a 40-foot shot at the buzzer. Michael Rembert led Southeast with 20 points while Brandon Foust had six rebounds.

**REDHAWKS NOTES**

LIVE TELEVISION FOR JACKSONVILLE STATE GAME: The Jacksonville State game on Saturday night will be televised live in Southeast Missouri by the Heartland's CW, WQWQ-TV. They will also televise the Redhawks women's game vs. Jacksonville State.

REMBERT COULD RETURN THIS WEEK: Southeast junior center Michael Rembert could return to action on Saturday night at Jacksonville State, but is more likely to return to action in the opening round of the OVC Tournament. He is doubtbul for the Samford game.. He has not played since injuring a knee late in the Feb, 8 win over Morehead State and has missed the last three games. Rembert, the Redhawks leading rebounder with 6.0 per game, averages 10.3 points per game.

NEW SEASON RECORD FOR THREES: The Redhawks surpassed the school seasonal record for 3-pointers during the Eastern Illinois game. The old record was 215 made by the 1988-89 team. This season, the Redhawks have connected on 226-687 3-pointers. The old record for threes attempted in a season was 575 during the 1997-98 season.

WILLOUGHBY IS BACK: Senior guard Terrick Willoughby returned to action at Morehead State on Jan. 24 after missing four games with mononucleosis. Willoughby has been in the program for four years and has appeared in 107 games. He has scored 817 points during his career including 164 3-pointers which places him third on the all-time 3-pointers made list at Southeast.

80 POINTS IS A KEY: The Redhawks are 6-1 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, 96 at Murray State, 92 vs. Tennessee State and 81 vs. Morehead State. Southeast leads the OVC in scoring in conference games only with 74.9 points per game.

10 TREYS HELP: Southeast is 7-0 when making 10 or more 3-pointers. The Redhawks had 13 3-pointers in a win over Morehead State and had 13 in an earlier win over Eastern Kentucky. The Redhawks lead the OVC in 3-pointers per game with 8.07 per game.

ROAD WARRIORS: Southeast is 4-4 in OVC road games this season with wins over Eastern Kentucky, Murray State, Morehead State and Tennessee-Martin.

AT THE SHOW ME CENTER: The Redhawks were 5-8 at the Show Me Center this season and are 205-90 (.695) since the facility opened in 1987. Southeast leads the OVC in attendance with 3,559 fans per game.

REMBERT TWO-TIME OVC NEWCOMER OF THE WEEK: Michael Rembert was the OVC Newcomer of the Week on Feb. 5. He averaged 13 points and 7.5 rebounds per game last week while shooting 50% from the field in two games. Against Morehead State, he had the game-winning tip in with 1.4 seconds remaining to lift the Redhawks to a 61-59 victory. He finished the game with 18 points and seven rebounds. He had eight points and six rebounds in a loss to Murray State. This marks the second time this season (Dec. 18) that he has won the award and the third consecutive week a Southeast players has earned the honor with Brandon Foust winning the prior two weeks. Rembert, a transfer from Bradley, averages 10.3 points and 6.0 rebounds per game.

TWO DOUBLE-DOUBLES FOR REMBERT: Rembert had a double-double against Tennessee State with 13 points and 10 rebounds. He had 19 points and 12 rebounds vs. Eastern Illinois.

FOUST TWICE VOTED OVC NEWCOMER OF THE WEEK: Brandon Foust was named the OVC Newcomer of the Week for the second straight week on Jan. 22. He averaged 17.5 points per game while shooting .667 from the field, .833 from three and .667 from the line in games against Tennessee State and Tennessee Tech. Foust also added 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals and 3 blocks. He scored 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting (including 4-of-4 from 3-point range) in the win over TSU.

Foust was the OVC Newcomer of the Week on Jan. 15 after averaging a double-double in games against Murray State and Austin Peay.

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 12.0 points and 5.6 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. Pearson averages 8.3 points, 2.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game.

JOHNSON MOVES UP: Junior guard David Johnson is the Redhawks second leading with an average of 10.8 points per game. He has fully recovered from hernia surgery that forced him to miss all but three games last season. Johnson, who had a career high 23 points and 10 rebounds in a loss to Tennessee Tech, averages 10.8 points and 3.7 rebounds per game on the season.

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 22.2 minutes per game.

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 and Feb. 5. Brandon Foust was voted Newcomer of the Week on Jan. 15 and Jan. 22.

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.

REDHAWKS BASKETBALL WITH Scott Edgar: Edgar has a weekly television show on WQWQ-TV, the Heartland's CW. The show is 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.

SID STREAK: Southeast SID Ron Hines has worked 783 consecutive basketball games. The streak is the longest in college basketball. He has not missed a game since 1980.

NEXT FOR THE REDHAWKS: If the Redhawks qualify for the OVC tournament they will open play on Tuesday, Feb. 27, at a site to be determined.