Feb. 28, 2005

O'Reilly Ohio Valley Conference Tournament

Southeast Missouri @ Murray State

Tuesday, March 1, 2005

Regional Special Events Center, Murray, Ky., 7 p.m.

The Teams: Southeast Missouri State ended the regular season 14-13 overall and 9-7 in the OVC. Eight of the 14 losses were by four points or less.

Murray State is 17-10 and 11-5 in the OVC.

The Coaches: Gary Garner is 365-276 in his 22nd year as a collegiate head coach. He is 118-111 in his eighth year at Southeast. Garner is 5-5 in OVC tournament games.

Mick Cronin is 45-16 in his second season at Murray State. He is 3-0 in OVC tournament games.

The Series: Murray State leads the series 37-16. The teams are 1-1 in the OVC tournament play.

Regular Season Games: The teams split two games with Southeast winning 61-58 at Murray and the Racers winning 61-57 at the Show Me Center.

SOUTHEAST NOTES

THE OVC TOURNAMENT: Southeast has qualified for the OVC tournament for the first time since 2003. The Redhawks are 5-6 in OVC tournament games with their last win in 2000 when they claimed the tournament title with a win over Murray State.

The winner of the opening round game at Murray State will play the winner of the Eastern Kentucky vs. Tennessee State game in the tournament semi-finals on Friday at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville. The game is scheduled for 8 p.m. and will be nationally televised by ESPNU. The game time could change to 5:30 p.m. if top seeded Tennessee Tech is upset in the opening round.

NEW RECORDS: Derek Winans, the fifth leading scorer in Southeast history with 1,488 points, established a new record for career 3-pointers with his final three of the regular season on Saturday night. He now has 216 for his career to break the old record of 215 by Curtis Shelton (1990-1994). He had previously broken Shelton's record for 3-pointers attempted. He has 555 attempts.

Dainmon Gonner needs four more steals to break the single season steal record. He currently has 68. The record is 71 by Dwayne Rutherford (1988-1989).

OVC STAT LEADERS: Southeast players led eight OVC statistical categories at the end of the regular season. Gonner leads the league in scoring (20.4), steals (2.7) and minutes played (36.8); Reggie Golson leads in rebounds (8.4), blocks (2.3) and defensive rebounds (5.3); Terrick Willoughby in leads in 3-point field goal percentage (.451) and Paul Paradoski leads in assist/turnover ratio (2.52).

DYNAMIC DUO: Dainmon Gonner leads the OVC in scoring (20.4), steals (2.7) and minutes played (36.8) while Reggie Golson leads the league in rebounding (8.4) and blocks (2.3). Gonner and Golson were teammates at Hutchinson CC.

GONNER LEADS OVC SCORING: Senior Dainmon Gonner, selected as the OVC Player of the Week on Jan. 21 after averaging 30 points and 8.5 rebounds per game in two OVC games, continues to lead the OVC in scoring with 20.4 points per game which ranks him 14th nationally.

Gonner had a career high 37 points and a career high 12 rebounds in the double-overtime loss at Tennessee State. The 37 points topped an earlier 36 point effort at Bradley.

Gonner also leads Southeast and the OVC in steals with 2.7 per game which ranks him 13th nationally.

The senior iron man leads the team and league in minutes played with 36.8 per game.

GOLSON LEADS REBOUNDERS: Senior Reggie Golson leads the team and OVC in rebounding with 8.4 per game and blocks with 2.3 per game. Golson leads the team in field goal percentage with .549, third best in the OVC.

Golson has been OVC Player of the Week on twice. The first was on Dec. 13 after averaging 15 points and 10.5 rebounds per game. He was again named Player of the Week on Feb. 14 after he averaged 14.5 points and 10 rebounds per game in two OVC wins.

Golson is 32nd nationally in blocked shots, 44th nationally in rebounding .

PARADOSKI LEADS OVC IN ASSIST/TO RATIO: Freshman Paul Paradoski currently leads the OVC in assist/turnover ratio at 2.52. He was the Ohio Valley Conference Freshman of the Week on Nov. 30 after recording a double-double in his first collegiate start against Rockhurst. Paradoski had 10 points and 11 rebounds.

WINANS NAMED ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT: For the second straight year, Derek Winans has been named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District team. Being named all-district makes Winans eligible for the Academic All-America team. He was second-team CoSIDA Academic All-American last season.

Winans has moved up to fifth on the all-time career scoring list at Southeast. He has 1,488 points to rank as the second leading active career scoring leader in the OVC. Winans is eighth on the all-time assist list at Southeast with 279.

Winans did not start practice until Monday, Nov. 29, because of a stress fracture in his leg. He gradually worked his way back into playing shape. He got his first start of the season on Jan. 8 at Tennessee Tech.

In addition to being second in active career scoring in the OVC, Winans leads the active career leaders in 3-pointers made with 216, ranks third in steals with 153, fourth in assists with 279 and 11th in rebounding with 271.

Winans streak of having started 84 consecutive games ended at Bradley. He has been Southeast's top scorer for each of the last three seasons and is the school's first ever basketball Academic All-American.

WILLOUGHBY GETS HOT: Terrick Willoughby leads the OVC in 3-point field goal percentage with 46-102 for .451. He scored a career-high 25 points in the win over Jacksonville State and came back with 14 points against Samford, 17 points at UT-Martin, a team-high 19 points at Murray State, 17 at Eastern Illinois and 16 vs. TSU.

In OVC games only, Willoughby averages 12.4 points and 2.9 rebounds per game.

WIN STREAK: Eastern Kentucky ended the Redhawks seven-game win streak which was the longest since the 1999-2000 season when Southeast won six straight before being beaten by LSU in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The seven game streak was the longest ever at the Division I level.

AT THE SHOW ME CENTER: The Redhawks are 10-4 at the Show Me Center this season and are 195-74 (.726) since the facility opened in 1987.

HALE RETURNS: Senior Brett Hale, the top 3-point shooter in the OVC, has returned to practice after having the cast removed from his fractured wrist. He suffered the broken wrist during practice at Tennessee Tech on Jan. 7. He returned to game action in the regular season finale when he scored two points.

At the time of his injury, he led the OVC in 3-point field goal percentage with 22-40 for .550. He shot .506 from the field and .875 from the free throw line.

Hale needs 48 more points to become the 19th player in Southeast history to score 1,000 career points. He has 952 career points.

INJURIES: James White is out for the season with a knee injury. Ketshner Guerrier, who has missed 15 games with a knee injury suffered in shoot around prior to the South Dakota State game, is now available for action.

SID STREAK: Ron Hines, Southeast Sports Information Director has worked 722 consecutive basketball games. He has not missed a game since 1980.

THE REDHAWKS ARE BORN: All athletic teams at Southeast became Redhawks Saturday, Jan. 22, when the new Redhawks mascot was introduced prior to the Austin Peay game. Southeast is 7-2 as Redhawks.

EARLY SIGNING: Southeast has signed 6-7 Tyrell Curry of State Fair Community College to a national letter of intent. Curry played at Cincinnati State Community College last season where he averaged 11 points and nine rebounds per game. He is originally from Tacoma, Wash.

NEXT: A win at Murray State will send the Redhawks to Nashville and the OVC semi-finals on Friday at the Gaylord Entertainment Center.

SOUTHEAST ON RADIO: All Southeast games can be heard on the Southeast Radio Network anchored by K-103 FM in Cape Girardeau. Erik Sean will be in his fourth season as the play-by-play voice of Southeast basketball. Todd Bonacki will add commentary for home games while Ron Hines will do color on the road games. The games can also be heard on the internet at www.k103fm.com.

Gary Garner ON RADIO: Gary Garner has a one-hour radio show each Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. The show is broadcast live from Buffalo Wild Wings in Cape Girardeau on ESPN Radio, 1220 AM. Erik Sean is host for the show.

GARNER ON TELEVISION: Southeast Missouri Basketball with Gary Garner will be televised weekly on UPN-The Beat. Todd Richards hosts the show that airs at 6:30 p.m. each Thursday.