We lost to a very talented Louisiana Tech team 84-72 Monday night. I was very impressed with their talent and the way they played, particularly in the second half.

It will be interesting to follow Louisiana Tech during the year and see how they do. I really feel that they are one of the best teams to play at the Show Me Center.

Their guard tandem of Lonnie Cooper and Gerrod Henderson is the best I've ever had a team play against.

I knew going into the game that we needed to keep the game in the 60s in order to have a chance to win. Once the game got up into the 70s and 80s, we were in trouble.

We let the game get to an up-and-down game where they were playing one-on-one very effectively. The game was probably lost in the first half. Had we gone inside more in the first half, we could have gone up by 10 points or so and then we could have weathered their great shooting in the second half.

I thought we played better offensively in the second half because we got the ball inside to Bud Eley and Roderick Johnson. We shot 53 percent in the second half, but they shot 63 percent.

Bud continues to play very well. He was 10-for-17 from the field along with a game-high nine rebounds. Bud has been playing great basketball. He is scoring, playing great defense, running the floor and providing strong leadership.

Roderick is also starting to shake off the rust from his year away from game competition and is playing better. He had 16 points and eight rebounds against Louisiana Tech. The thing I really like about his game is that he is getting to the free-throw line.

We just have to work on our half-court offense and we have to get more consistent guard play. I am really hopeful that Kahn Cotton, who will begin practice Saturday, will be healed up and ready to play. He will give us experience and stability at the guard position.

Last season, the best way for us to win was to put up a lot of 3-pointers. This season, our best chance for success is to go inside. We have to get the ball inside to Bud, Roderick and Mike Branson. If they get the job done inside, it will open up the outside for Cory Johnson and the other guards. Right now, the defenses are really keying on Cory.

One of the pleasant developments of the early season has been the play of freshman guard Fred Abraham. He is shooting 64 percent from the field and has shown continued improvement at running the offense. If Fred continues to work hard and improve, he will battle for more playing time.

We have 10 days off before we play at Austin Peay Dec. 3 and so the players will get to go home for Thanksgiving. We will practice this morning and then they will be free to go home. They will return for a practice Saturday afternoon as we begin preparations for the start of our conference season.

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving. I'll be on the road watching players over the holiday. There are a lot of high school and junior college tournaments and I'll have a chance to see a lot of players Thursday and Friday.

Gary Garner is the head basketball coach at Southeast Missouri State University