SE TRIES TO SWEEP TENNESSEE ST.

When Southeast Missouri State University's men's basketball team played Tennessee State on Jan. 4 in Nashville, the Indians had perhaps their best all-around performances of the season as they demolished the Tigers 88-57.

But Southeast coach Gary Garner expects a much tougher time in tonight's rematch as the Ohio Valley Conference squads square off tonight at the Show Me Center.

"We really had a good game when we played them at their place, but Tennessee State has been playing well," said Garner. "They're capable of beating any team in the league and we're going to have to play well."

The Indians did just that to begin their two-game homestand, but that didn't prevent them from dropping a 77-72 decision to Austin Peay Thursday night. Southeast, now 13-8 overall and tied for fifth place in the OVC at 4-5, lost despite committing just five turnovers.

"We played well, but Austin Peay just played a little bit better," said Garner, whose squad had a three-game winning streak snapped by the Govs. "But that game is over with. We talk a lot as a team about how are we going to react to things that happen to us. Now, how are we going to react to that loss?"

TSU, just 6-15 overall, is a seventh-place 3-6 in the nine-team OVC. But in recent weeks the Tigers have been competitive with just about everybody in the conference.

The Tigers own a victory over Tennessee Tech, which is tied for first place with Eastern Illinois, a team that has beaten TSU by one point and two points, including 74-72 Thursday night in Charleston, Ill. And the Tigers held a late lead at Austin Peay last Saturday before falling by four points.

"They've really been playing teams tough," Garner said. "They were the first league team to beat Tennessee Tech this year, they almost beat Austin Peay and they almost beat Eastern Illinois twice. I know they've really improved since the last time we played them and we can't let that score from the first game fool us."

Jamie Roberts, a 6-foot-3 senior guard, leads the Tigers offensively with nearly 17 points per game. Kyle Rolston, a 6-4 junior forward, averages just over 11 points per game.

Garrett Richardson, a 6-3 freshman guard who is the nephew of first-year TSU coach Nolan Richardson III, contributes nearly 11 points a contest while rugged 6-8, 250-pound senior center John Gilmore averages 10 points and a team-high seven rebounds per game.

"They're very athletic, more athletic than we are, and they've got several guys who can shoot the three," said Garner. "They're capable of putting a lot of points on the board."

Michael Stokes, Southeast's senior point guard, led the Indians in the earlier meeting with TSU by scoring 18 points.

Stokes, who has scored 60 points in the last three games and is Southeast's leading scorer on the season at a little more than 14 points per contest, said the Indians must simply put Thursday's loss to Austin Peay behind them and move on.

"It was a tough game to lose. We played good but they made some big plays at the end," Stokes said. "Coach always says it's not what happens to you but how you react to it. We've just got to come back and play a good game (tonight)."

Even before the Indians played Austin Peay, Garner knew it would be difficult for his team to have a realistic shot at defending its OVC regular-season championship (shared with Murray State).

Now, that appears to be virtually impossible. But, with seven conference games remaining -- and with the way teams seem to be taking turns beating each other in recent weeks -- Garner knows the Indians can still contend for an all-important upper-division finish. But they certainly can't afford very many more losses.

"I think four losses will still tie for the conference championship," said Garner. "Now, with five losses, realistically, we're probably out of it. But even before (Thursday), I don't know how realistic it was for us to go 8-0 (in league play) the rest of the way.

"The most important thing, you have to be honest to your players. They know the situation we're in. But we still have a lot to play for. We just have to go get this next one."

Sometimes it's hard for Garner not to think about what might have been during this OVC season. The Indians have lost three conference home games by a total of nine points, including two-point setbacks to Tennessee Tech and Murray State.

"You have to be able to protect your home court and we haven't been able to do that," Garner said. "If we just win two of those games we lost at home, we're 6-3 and a game out of first place.

"We're so close, but we're just not good enough right now. But we keep getting better and I still think we're going to have a good basketball team before it's all over."