Skyhawks' rally sends Southeast to OT loss

Losses don't come much tougher than the one Southeast Missouri State University suffered Thursday night.

The Indians, playing close to as well as they can according to coach Gary Garner, seemed to do just about everything right against Tennessee-Martin.

But the Skyhawks, who struggled with their outside shooting through most of the game, hit several 3-pointers late in regulation to force overtime. The Skyhawks then hit all six of their field-goal attempts in the five-minute extra period to post an 88-80 victory.

An announced crowd of 3,907 fans who braved inclement weather and made it to the Show Me Center saw a thrilling and well-played game.

That was little consolation to Garner and the Indians, who fell to 6-9 overall and 1-3 in the Ohio Valley Conference. UTM, one of the league's early-season surprises, improved to 10-4 and 3-0.

"I'm really proud of our effort. Our players played about as well as they could play and as hard as they could play," Garner said. "We fight our butts off, and they hit some huge shots, some tough threes at the end, then they go six for six in overtime.

"It hurts, but you have to give them credit. They made some really big shots."

Two were particularly huge down the stretch.

With one minute remaining, Jeremy Kelly -- who had been 8-for-28 on 3-pointers entering the game and 0-for-3 during the contest -- buried a 3-pointer under pressure to pull the Skyhawks to within 67-66.

Southeast answered when Damarcus Hence hit a 15-footer with 32 seconds left to put the Indians up 69-66.

The Skyhawks then seemed to be struggling on offense as several players passed up 3-point attempts. Finally, Okechi Egbe -- who had not attempted a 3-pointer all night -- put one up almost as an afterthought from about five feet beyond the arc. It caught plenty of the rim but fell through with eight seconds remaining to forge a 69-69 tie.

"I basically saw that nobody else wanted to shoot it, so I stepped up and hit it," Egbe said.

Garner said the Indians might have considered fouling somebody before UTM attempted a late 3-pointer. But 32 seconds, which was when the Skyhawks first inbounded the ball, was too early for that strategy. And there was never a stoppage in play, which would have allowed Southeast to discuss things.

"You don't want to foul with 32 seconds left," Garner said. "If there had been a timeout late, we could have talked about it. But the last thing you want is for somebody to foul a player on his own and maybe give up a four-point play."

As it was, the Indians still had time to attempt a winning shot. And Derek Winans got a good look from about 17 feet, but it was just off. A Southeast tip at the buzzer also narrowly missed.

So it was on to overtime, which had to rejuvenate the Skyhawks, who never led in regulation and saw few ties while the Indians held four 10-point leads, the last at 59-49 with just over nine minutes to go.

"We felt good going to overtime," Kelly said.

Southeast grabbed a pair of early two-point leads in overtime, but UTM was flawless from the field and finally went ahead for the first time on Kelly's driving shot with 2:38 remaining, making it 75-73.

After a Southeast miss, Kelly followed with a 3-pointer to make it 78-73 and the Skyhawks, who later went up 82-75 after an Egbe 3-pointer and a Kelly free throw, never led by less than three points again.

Kelly and Egbe combined for 12 of UTM's 19 overtime points -- seven by Kelly -- even though they are not among UTM's three leading scorers this season and don't average in double figures.

"Jeremy is what you call a gamer," UTM coach Bret Campbell said. "He and Okechi came up big.

"I'm not sure how we did it. I thought SEMO played a very good basketball game. They did everything they needed to do to win. We hit some big shots, and we were very fortunate. I give my guys credit. We could have folded, but we hung in there."

Joey Walker led the Skyhawks with 22 points on 9-for-11 shooting. J.C. Howe had 18 points and Kelly followed with 17 despite not scoring in the first half. Also in double figures were Earl Bullock (12) and Egbe (10).

Southeast got a huge game from Hence, who was expected to see limited action after having oral surgery earlier in the week. Hence hit 10 of 15 shots and scored 22 points. He also grabbed six rebounds and had three assists.

"I felt all right. I would have felt better if we would've won," Hence said. "Wednesday I felt bad, but I felt pretty good today. I was kind of dizzy in the first half, but I felt better in the second half. I still have stitches in my mouth."

Brandon Griffin had 17 points and 11 rebounds for the Indians. Also scoring in double figures were Tim Scheer (15), Brett Hale (14) and Winans (10), although Winans hit just four of 14 shots while the Indians shot 50 percent overall (32 of 64).

Kevin Roberts recorded nine of Southeast's 28 assists. Hale had six and Griffin five. The Indians committed 16 turnovers while the Skyhawks had 14.

"I thought we played pretty good," Hence said. "They just hit some big shots, and you have to give them credit."

mmishow@semissourian.com

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