INDIANS ARRANGE OVC SHOWDOWN

Now, finally, Southeast Missouri State University's men's basketball team can start talking about Murray State.

The Racers were a forbidden word all week as the Indians embarked on a three-game homestand. Southeast coach Gary Garner wanted his squad's sole focus placed on its first two opponents.

Well, those two opponents have now been taken care of, thanks to Thursday night's 80-68 rout of Tennessee-Martin in front of 5,214 fans at the Show Me Center. That victory came after Tuesday's 20-point triumph over Middle Tennessee.

Saturday, in a 1 p.m. tipoff on ESPN2, Southeast hosts Murray State in an Ohio Valley Conference showdown. The first-place Indians lead the second-place Racers by one-half game.

"Now we can talk about Murray State," said Garner with a smile.

Said Southeast forward Roderick Johnson, "I don't know if I can wait for Saturday to get here."

Southeast improved its overall record to 18-5 and its OVC mark to 11-3. UTM, which suffered its fifth consecutive loss, fell to 8-14 overall and 5-7 in league play.

The Skyhawks upset Southeast 75-66 on Jan. 13 in Martin, Tenn. But any hopes UTM had of a repeat performance were dashed early Thursday.

Southeast bolted to a 10-2 lead in the first four minutes and kept pouring it on, leading by 23 points twice in the opening half before settling for a 43-23 advantage at the break.

"The first half, we really played well on both ends of the floor," said Garner, whose squad shot 57 percent from the field and held UTM to 17 percent over the opening 20 minutes.

To the Skyhawks' credit, they battled gamely in the second half. An 11-0 run to start the final period pulled UTM to within 43-34, but Southeast answered with 10 straight points.

Southeast's biggest second-half lead was 67-44. UTM pulled to within nine points twice in the closing moments, but the Skyhawks could get no closer.

"The second half should not have happened," Garner said. "But when we had the 20-point halftime lead, I knew what they (his players) were thinking."

Michael Stokes hit five of six 3-point shots and led the Indians offensively with 21 points.

Johnson scored 17 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and blocked four shots.

"We weren't going to let what happened last time (the upset loss at Martin) happen again," Johnson said. "We came out focused."

Nyah Jones matched Johnson by scoring a career-high 17 points off the bench. Jones, who had 13 first-half points, shot 8-for-10 from the floor.

"`Nyah may have played his best game of the year," said Garner.

Said Jones, "I haven't been playing well the last couple of games and I'm trying to pick it up before the big game."

Andrae Betts paced UTM with 20 points. He was followed by Hayden Prescott with 17 and Byron Benton with 10.

In addition to winning, the Indians set a team record in the process. Southeast's seven blocked shots established a single-season record for rejections. The Indians have 121 blocks, breaking the mark of 114 set last season, when Bud Eley accounted for 75 of them.

This season, Johnson leads the way with 31 rejections. But four other players Brian Bunche, Drew DeMond, Mike Branson and Jones have at least 17 blocks.

"I never would have thought we would break that record this year after losing Bud," Garner said. "But we play great team defense, and that leads to a lot of blocked shots."