HOOP SCOOP: SEMO GLAD TO BE BACK HOME AND IN FIRST PLACE

First let me say that it is good to be back home after our trip to Tennessee and to be in a first-place tie in the Ohio Valley Conference.

We rolled into Cape at 4 a.m. Tuesday morning with our players facing classes and the coaches looking at office work and preparation for Murray State.

I was thinking on my way home that it would be good to have a day off, but at this time of year there is no such animal for the coaches. We did give the players Tuesday off so they could get started back to school and hopefully they will be refreshed.

I have a difficult time deciding if this past week was a good road trip or not. Before we left for the two-game road swing, I was thinking we needed to get a split. After beating Middle Tennessee in a great game on Saturday, I really thought we could go 2-0. It didn't happen at Tech on Monday night, but we had our opportunities to win.

Middle Tennessee beat Eastern Illinois on Monday, leaving Southeast, Middle and Eastern Illinois all tied for first in the OVC with 5-2 records. I wish we were all alone on top of the league, but we are in first and it sounds good to hear people talking about Southeast Missouri and first place in the OVC.

At Middle Tennessee we moved into first place with a thrilling last-second victory. Our players played extremely well for most of the game, but Middle made a late run to take the lead.

We could have folded, but our players fought back and with the game tied, Calvert White knocked the ball away from a Middle player and Devron Kirksey picked up the loose ball and fired it ahead to Allen Hatchett, who took it straight to the basket. His contested layup rolled off, but Richard Lyte followed the shot and dunked it home with just six-tenths of a second remaining and we had a 78-76 victory.

Lyte had his best game of the season at Middle with a career-high 19 points. He is really coming on strong.

Calvert White had another good game with 25 points. White was the deserved winner of the OVC Newcomer of the Week honors.

At Tennessee Tech we faced a team with its back to the wall. The Golden Eagles, who had posted early-season wins over Tennessee and Northwestern, were 3-3 in the OVC and needed a win.

We didn't play well at Tech, but still had an opportunity to win the game. We hit only six of 17 free throws in the first half, but trailed by only five points at the half. We fell behind by as many as 13 points in the second half, but came back to take the lead with 7:30 remaining in the game.

Tech, however, came back and won 86-82. It was a missed opportunity for us to take sole possession of first place in the OVC, but we can't look back.

We are at a critical stretch in our schedule. We play at Murray State on Thursday night and then have four straight home games beginning with Eastern Illinois on Saturday night.

These are big games, but it is great to be in a position to be battling for first place every night out. Hopefully we will have a good following at Murray Thursday night and a big crowd for Eastern Illinois Saturday night at the Show Me Center.

I sincerely believe that Southeast basketball is back!

Ron Shumate is the head basketball coach at Southeast Missouri State University