Dec. 29, 2003

Basketball Game Information

Southeast Missouri @ DePaul

Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2003, 3:00 p.m.

Allstate Arena, Chicago, Ill.

Probable Starters

Southeast Missouri State (6-3) Ppg Rpg

F 21 Norman Prather, 6-3, Jr. 6.0 4.0

F 01 Dainmon Gonner, 6-6, Jr. 13.9 6.0

C 22 Brandon Griffin, 6-8, Sr.10.9 6.9

G 33 Derek Winans, 6-3, Jr. 12.1 2.3

G 12 Terrick Willoughby, 6-4, Fr.4.0 2.0

OR 05 Mike Nelke, 6-0, Jr. 4.7 0.8

THE TEAMS: Southeast Missouri is 6-3 after a season opening 63-62 win over Wisconsin-Green Bay, an 83-51 win over Kentucky Christian, a 61-50 loss to Montana, a 77-75 win over UC Santa Barbara, a 71-58 loss to SIU, an 80-63 win over UMKC ,a 78-68 road loss to Arkansas, a 79-67 home win over Oakland City and a 75-68 win over North Texas.

DePaul is 5-4 after losing at Seton Hall, 76-62 on Saturday. The Blue Demons have wins over Loyola, Northwestern, Indiana State and Bradley with losses to Michigan State, Notre Dame, Toledo and Seton Hall.

THE COACHES: Gary Garner is 99-85 in his 7th season at Southeast and is 346-249 in his 21st year as a collegiate head coach. The 99 wins makes him the third winningest coach in Southeast history and one more win will give him 100 victories at Southeast.

Dave Leitao is 21-17 in his second season at DePaul and is 43-52 as a collegiate head coach.

THE SERIES: First meeting.

*** SOUTHEAST NOTES***

WINANS CLOSES ON MILESTONES: Junior guard Derek Winans has started 66 straight games at Southeast and has 970 career points. He needs just 30 points to become the 18th player in Southeast history to score 1,000 points.

This season, Winans is averaging 12.1 points per game, shooting 47% from the field 49% from three and 82% from the line.

Against Oakland City, Winans was 7-7 from the field and 4-4 from three.

GRIFFIN HAS TRIPLE DOUBLE: Senior Brandon Griffin recorded a triple double against Oakland City with 12 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. Griffin had a double-double at Arkansas with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

He leads the team in rebounding with 6.9 per game, in assists with 3.6 per game and in field goal percentage at .600.

GONNER MAKES ALL-TOURNAMENT: Junior Dainmon Gonner was selected to the All-Tournament team at the Montana Holiday Classic. He had 21 points, seven rebounds, four assists, two blocks and one steal vs. Santa Barbara and 10 points, seven rebounds, two assists, one block and three steals vs. Montana.

Gonner leads the team in scoring (13.9 ppg), blocks (4) and steals (14).

INJURIES: Adam Crader continues to be bothered by a lower back injury. He is probable for the DePaul game.

GOLSON EMERGES: Junior Reggie Golson has started slowly after an ankle injury kept him out of all preseason drills until two days before the season opener. Against UMKC on Dec. 6, Golson had nine points and 12 rebounds in a season-high 22-minutes of play. He was 3-6 from the field and 3-4 from the line.

NELKE FINDS THE RANGE: Mike Nelke broke out of an early season shooting slump by hitting 5-7 from three vs. Oakland City. He is now shooting 38% from the field and 37% from three.

BALANCED SCORING: Southeast has only three players averaging in double figures, but six players average 6.0 or more points per game. Dainmon Gonner leads scorers with 13.9 points per game while Damarucs Hence averages 12, Derek Winans 12.1, Brandon Griffin 10.9, Brett Hale 8.2, and Norman Prather 6.0.

ROBERTS WILL TRANSFER: Junior point guard Kevin Roberts has left the Southeast team and plans to transfer to Fontbonne College in St. Louis. Roberts had played in six games this season, averaging 1.2 points and 0.7 rebounds per game. Last season he led the team and OVC in assists and assist/turnover ratio.

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

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

HOME FOR CHRISTMAS: The Southeast players were released after the North Texas game on Dec. 22 and returned to campus on Dec. 26 to begin preparations for the DePaul game.

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

AT THE SHOW ME CENTER: Southeast is 5-0 at the Show Me Center this season and 182-65 (.737) since the 7,000 seat facility opened in 1987.

SID STREAK: Ron Hines, sports information director at Southeast Missouri State, has worked 673 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 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. The show can be heard on the internet at kgir.com.

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 will be host for the 30-minute show.

NEXT GAME: Following the DePaul game, Southeast will continue on the road for a game at IPFW in Ft. Wayne, Ind. on Jan. 3, 12-noon (CST). The OVC season begins on Jan. 8 when the Indians host defending champion Austin Peay.