MEN'S OVC TITLE STILL FOR THE TAKING

As Southeast Missouri State University's basketball team prepares for its final home games of the regular season, things are still wild and wacky in the scrambled Ohio Valley Conference standings.

The Indians certainly did themselves plenty of damage by going 0-2 on their just-completed road trip, but -- with four games left in the regular season -- they still have a shot at a first-division finish in the 10-team OVC.

By losing 83-80 to Morehead State Saturday night and 84-76 to Eastern Kentucky Monday night, the Indians' losing streak increased to three games as they fell to 7-7 in OVC play, good for a sixth-place tie with Tennessee State.

Just last Thursday, the Indians were hosting Murray State in a first-place OVC battle. But they lost that one to begin their current slide.

"It was a tough road trip for us," said Southeast coach Ron Shumate, whose squad trailed by 17 points in both games and rallied furiously before falling short. "Now we've got our last two at home. We haven't been real good at home (7-5), but hopefully we can play well."

Southeast, 10-15 overall, will take on Tennessee Tech at 7:45 p.m. Saturday at the Show Me Center. Then Monday night, Middle Tennessee State comes to Cape Girardeau in the Indians' regular-season home finale.

After that, it will be on the road for the last two games of the regular season, against Tennessee-Martin and Eastern Illinois. Then the OVC postseason tournament will be held.

The Indians seem a virtual lock to qualify for the OVC tourney, since eight of the nine teams get in (Tennessee-Martin is ineligible). But the top four squads in the final regular-season standings earn home games for the first round of the tournament and that is Southeast's goal right now.

Austin Peay, which beat Murray State Monday night, inched ahead of the Racers into first place at 10-5. The Racers are in second at 9-5 while Eastern Illinois is third at 8-5.

Tennessee Tech and Middle Tennessee -- the teams that come to the Show Me Center Saturday and Monday -- are tied for fourth at 8-6, followed by Southeast and Tennessee State.

"It's still a wide-open race," Shumate said. "It hurt losing both games (on the road). But we've still got a chance to finish fairly high (in the OVC). We need to take advantage of these last two games at home."

* Injuries certainly played a major role in Southeast's road trip.

The Indians' two point guards, starter Allen Hatchett and backup Lakeo Keller, saw limited action, Hatchett because of tendinitis in his knees and Keller because of a chipped bone in his foot.

Hatchett played one minute Saturday against Morehead State while Keller played three minutes during that game. Hatchett was held out of Monday's game against Eastern Kentucky while Keller played 17 minutes.

"Our point guard situation is certainly giving us trouble right now," said Shumate. "Calvert (White) is playing hard and doing the best he can but he's not a natural point guard."

Hatchett is doubtful for Saturday while Keller is probable.

* Despite playing just 47 career games at Southeast, junior center Bud Eley continues to inch closer to spots on the school's all-time scoring and rebounding lists.

The 6-foot-10 Eley has 903 career points and 521 career rebounds. He needs 97 points to become the 17th player in Southeast history to score 1,000 points. Only three players -- Otto Porter, Ronny Rankin and Riley Ellis -- have accomplished the feat in two years.

Eley needs 26 more rebounds to move into 10th place on the all-time rebounding list at Southeast. Only Ellis reached the top 10 rebounding list in two years.

Eley is averaging 17.5 points and 10.4 rebounds per game to lead the Indians in both categories. He has reached double figures in both points and rebounds in 13 of Southeast's 25 games this season.

* Extremely close games continue to be the norm for the Indians.

Eight of the last 11 Southeast games have been decided by four points or less. The Indians are 4-4 in those contests.