Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team visits one of OVC's best in EKU

~ The Colonels sit in second place in the East Division

Southeast Missouri State and Eastern Kentucky's men's basketball teams both were picked as favorites to win their respective Ohio Valley Conference divisions in the league's preseason poll.

So far one has done a better job of living up to that expectation.

While the Redhawks, who were co-favorites in the West Division with Murray State, have compiled a 3-5 OVC record, EKU is 6-3.

The Redhawks have their work cut out for them when they head on the road to take on the Colonels (15-7, 6-3 OVC) on Saturday. EKU is 8-1 at home.

"I don't think there's any secret that they're one of the best teams in the league, and they're certainly living up to their predictions and billing," Southeast coach Dickey Nutt said. "We'll have to go and play very, very well to be successful."

Southeast (12-10, 3-5 OVC) sits at fifth-place in the OVC West standings, and tied for ninth overall. The Redhawks have eight more regular-season conference games to move up in hopes of making the eight-team OVC tournament.

"We just want to improve day in and day out, and we are improving," Nutt said. "We just want to make sure the season doesn't run out on us before we can really get good, because I do think that we're real close to being a good basketball team. We just haven't been as consistent as I would like."

EKU sits in second place in the OVC East. The Colonels shot a season-high 64 percent from the field in their 89-66 rout of UT Martin on Thursday night and have won five of their last six games.

They have one of the top shooting teams in the conference, averaging a league-best 9.3 made 3-pointers per game.

A topic of discussion all season has been Southeast's defense, but Nutt believes it's continuing to improve.

Southeast's defense has allowed its opponents to average seven made 3s per game. The University of Missouri-Kansas City hit 11 3-pointers against the Redhawks on Wednesday, SIU Edwardsville made 11 on Jan. 23 and Belmont, who Nutt said EKU is "very similar to," made 17 3s against Southeast on Jan. 9.

"We've got to do a better job of locating our shooters," Nutt said. "Even against UMKC, I thought that they got way too many open looks and they shot the 3 ball on us pretty good. We've got to do a better job of that and locating their shooters, and then once we do we've got to really contest them."

EKU has the conference's third-leading scorer in senior guard Glenn Cosey, who averages 19 ppg. He also is the conference's best free-throw shooter at 87.1 percent.

Three other players, all guards, average double figures for the Colonels: Corey Walden (12.8 ppg), Marcus Lewis (11) and Orlando Williams (10).

Southeast's leading scorer Jarekious Bradley (20.2 ppg), who did not start and played two minutes against UMKC because of his sprained knee, likely will be out of the starting lineup Saturday but will play, Nutt said.

"The way he practiced [Thursday] he was good, he was back to normal," Nutt said. "Obviously he's a little bit sore and we're just going to try and ease him back in there, but we certainly need him."

Nutt said Paul McRoberts injured his foot during Southeast's game Wednesday and that he did not practice Thursday. He was scheduled to have an X-ray this morning but Nutt said he's probable for Saturday's game.

McRoberts scored 16 points on 6-of-6 shooting off the bench in Southeast's win against UMKC on Wednesday.

Nutt expects to have the same starting lineup that started against UMKC: Lucas Nutt, Tyler Stone, Darrian Gray, Antonius Cleveland and Josh Langford.

Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday at the Paul S. McBrayer Arena in Richmond, Ky. Southeast and EKU's women's teams play before the men's game at 3 p.m.