CROWD HELPED SOUTHEAST PULL OFF BIG WIN OVER BEARS

Saturday night's 73-71 victory over Southwest Missouri State was a big win for our basketball program and I want to thank all of you who braved the cold and snowy weather to cheer our team on.

In a tight game the crowd is important and our crowd was really into the game. Our players fed off that energy and got the victory.

I thought our team played its most complete game of the year and the intensity and execution were very good for this portion of the season. Again, just like the Southern Illinois game, the Southwest Missouri game is the kind of rivalry that we want to continue.

As I indicated, the win was big for our program. Last year we made great strides in bringing credibility to our young Division I program. We beat Murray State for the first time since 1992, we won a co-championship in the Ohio Valley Conference for the first time ever and won the OVC Tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever.

This season we beat Southern Illinois for the first time since 1982 and we beat Southwest Missouri for the first time since 1982. The wins over SIU and SMS give us a 2-0 record against Missouri Valley Conference teams this season, and over the past two seasons we have won three of our four games against MVC opponents.

We've accomplished all of this in just our 10th season at the Division I level.

I would like to congratulate Michael Stokes for being named the OVC Player of the Week. I thought "Stokie" had the best game of what has already been a great career here. He controlled the basketball game, scoring 20 points, dishing out four assists and pulling down two rebounds while holding SMS's fine point guard Robert Yanders to no points. It was an outstanding effort.

Tonight we face another challenge at the Show Me Center. Campbell University out of North Carolina will bring in a very good basketball team. The Camels led Middle Tennessee by as many as 16 points in the second half before losing 78-73 at Murfreesboro Monday night.

Campbell has an outstanding guard in 6-2 Adam Fellers, who averages nearly 20 points per game and has had three games where he scored more than 30 points. Fellers has unbelievable range.

After a big win like the Southwest Missouri victory, you always have to guard against a letdown. If we don't play as well as we can, Campbell will be poised to pull the upset.

Following tonight's game, the players will be released to go home for a few days. The players will return to campus on Christmas eve for a 6 p.m. practice. Christmas day we will have a practice and then bus to St. Louis, where we will spend the night before taking an early morning flight to El Paso, Texas, the day after Christmas.

We will be playing in the Sierra Providence Sun Classic Tournament that will be in its 40th year as one of the finest holiday tournaments in the nation. We open tournament play against the Houston Cougars on Wednesday, Dec. 27, at 10 p.m. CST. If we win, we will probably play the host Texas-El Paso team that is undefeated with a 6-0 record.

Legendary coach Don Haskins, who retired a year ago, brought great national attention to Texas-El Paso and this year's team is off to a tremendous start. The other team in the tournament is Jackson State.

I hope you all enjoy a happy holiday season and I hope I'll see you at the Show Me Center tonight.

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