Redhawks prep for OVC at three-day tourney

~ The Southeast men begin play tonight in the Basketball Travelers Classic in Normal, Ill.

The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team will tune up for Ohio Valley Conference play with three games in three days.

Southeast (1-3) is in Normal, Ill., for the Basketball Travelers Classic hosted by Illinois State.

The Redhawks play St. Bonaventure (2-1) at 8 p.m. today, Illinois State (3-0) at 6:05 p.m. Saturday and Norfolk State (1-2) at 1 p.m. Sunday.

After that the Redhawks begin their OVC schedule Thursday at Austin Peay. They visit Tennessee State two days later, then have three straight nonconference games before resuming league play Jan. 2.

"It's a chance for us to keep getting better, to keep improving," Southeast coach Dickey Nutt said. "It'll be a different challenge for us with three games in three days against quality opponents."

The Redhawks will face squads from a variety of leagues over the next three days.

St. Bonaventure, 15-15 overall last year, finished 11th in the 14-team Atlantic 10 Conference at 6-10. The Bonnies returned four starters.

The Bonnies have been impressive so far, with their only loss a one-point decision against St. John's of the Big East Conference. They own decisive wins over Cleveland State and Binghamton.

Andrew Nicholson, last year's Atlantic 10 rookie of the year, is leading St. Bonaventure with averages of 17.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. The 6-foot-9, 225-pound sophomore forward is shooting 64.7 percent.

Illinois State is coming off the best season of the trio. The Redbirds went 24-7, including a third-place 11-7 in the 10-team Missouri Valley Conference.

The Redbirds returned three starters from a group that lost in overtime in the MVC tournament championship game and earned an NIT berth.

Illinois State owns decisive wins over Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and North Florida, in addition to a four-point victory over Illinois-Chicago.

Osiris Eldridge, a 6-3 senior guard, leads the Redbirds offensively with a 20.7 average while shooting 55.8 percent and making half of his 3-point attempts (8 of 16). The all-MVC first-teamer is the league's preseason player of the year.

Norfolk State went 13-18 a year ago while tying for third in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference at 9-7. The Spartans returned three regulars from a club that lost in the MEAC tournament final.

So far this year the Spartans have beaten Maine while losing to Baylor and Iona. They are led by 6-foot senior guard Michael Deloach, a first-team all-MEAC selection who is averaging 15.7 points.

"This is a good tournament, good basketball," Nutt said. "St. Bonaventure is very respected in their conference, everybody knows how good Illinois State is and Norfolk State will be solid.

"We're playing a very challenging schedule, but we knew that going in. We wanted that, to help prepare us for the conference."

Southeast has shown marked improvement in its last two contests, Sunday's overtime win at Northern Illinois that broke the program's 21-game losing streak and Tuesday's competitive home loss to Eastern Michigan.

"We're getting better every game," junior guard Sam Pearson said. "We just have to keep working."