DREAMBUILDERS GIVE SE REALITY CHECK, WIN 72-68

Gary Garner warned everybody that it would take a while for Southeast Missouri State University's Indians to become a good basketball team.

The 4,210 fans at the Show Me Center Saturday night no doubt agree with Garner now.

Southeast suffered through a dismal first half and, despite a second-half rally, suffered a 72-68 exhibition loss to the Dreambuilders, a team of former collegiate players.

As far as Southeast publicist Ron Hines could determine, it was the first exhibition defeat ever suffered by a Southeast men's basketball team."I'm disappointed we lost. You're always disappointed when you lose," said Garner, the Indians' head coach. "But I've said ever since we finished our recruiting that we'd be ragged early, that it was going to take us some time to become a good basketball team."When you say things as coaches, people think you're just talking. But we have a long way to go, which I expected. We won't be a very good basketball team for a while, but we're going to have a good basketball team. We just have to have patience and keep working hard."Added Garner, "When you have so many new players (the Indians have eight newcomers), you can't be good right away."Probably the best thing about Saturday's game, which was the Indians' exhibition opener, is that it doesn't count on Southeast's record. Once the regular season begins in less than two weeks, nobody will probably remember what happened against the Dreambuilders.

The Indians fell behind by 24 points in the first half and trailed 43-27 at halftime. They made a strong run in the second half, pulling to within three points twice, but the Dreambuilders held on down the stretch."I thought we'd play well enough to win, but I pretty much expected something like this," Garner said. "We did a lot of good things and a lot of bad things, more bad things."We played all 10 players (who were dressed out). We might have won if we had played it like a normal game, but that's not what exhibition games are for. And I don't want to make excuses. The Dreambuilders have a good basketball team."Primarily made up of former Division II players, the Dreambuilders had split their first two games, both against Division II squads. The Dreambuilders beat Nebraska-Kearney 103-102 and lost to Fort Hays State 101-86.

One of two former Division I players on the Dreambuilders did much of the damage as St. Louis University product Donnie Dobbs led all scorers with 19 points. He hit nine of 13 shots from the field.

Jesse James of Missouri Western had 14 points while Drake product Sam Powell added nine points.

The Indians were led offensively by Roderick Johnson, the leading returning scorer from last year's squad who had 16 points.

Mike Branson, the second-leading returning scorer from last season, had 12 points, as did new point guard Michael Stokes, a junior-college product.

Brian Bunche, another returning player, scored nine points and grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds. Newcomer Emmanuel McCuthison, another juco transfer, added eight points."In the first half we really got to standing around," Garner said. "Offensively, we weren't in sync at all. I thought our defense was good enough."One of the things I did like is we didn't foul much (the Indians had only eight fouls). But I thought we handled the end of the game poorly."Garner said the coming week of practice will be critical for the Indians, who will have their final exhibition game next Sunday when Vasda, a group of former college players out of Atlanta, comes to the Show Me Center for a 3 p.m. tipoff.

The regular season opens Nov. 19 when Western Carolina visits Cape Girardeau."The next week of practice will be really valuable for us," said Garner. "We'll go over this tape, break it down, and see what we really need to work on."By next Sunday, I expect us to be a lot better basketball team. This game will really help us."