Indians show grit in 73-63 loss to SMS

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Southwest Missouri State coach Barry Hinson said all along he expected Southeast Missouri State University's Indians -- no matter how shorthanded they were -- to give the Bears all they could handle Saturday night.

Boy, did Hinson ever know what he was talking about.

The Bears had to scratch and claw for virtually everything -- not to mention overcome a four-point halftime deficit -- before finally subduing the Indians 73-63 in front of 6,734 fans at the Hammons Center.

SMS evened its record at 1-1 while Southeast, which competed with six scholarship players and had just eight players in uniform, fell to 0-2.

"I knew coming in that, regardless of what you guys in the media thought, it would be a tough basketball game because of the tradition SEMO has and what coach (Gary) Garner brings to the game," said Hinson.

Garner, for the second game in a row, could not help but be proud of the way his Indians fought and battled to turn what had the makings of a mismatch into a highly competitive contest virtually from start to finish.

"Until we get everybody, we have to really fight and I thought we fought hard tonight," said Garner. "I'm proud of that."

Winans debuts

The Indians, although they were without center Daniel Weaver as he attended his brother's wedding, received a lift from the return of forward Drew DeMond and guard Derek Winans.

DeMond, who had missed the season opener against Birmingham Southern with a hand injury, scored eight points, pulled down 12 rebounds and blocked four shots.

Winans, a redshirt freshman who had missed the opener while serving a one-game suspension for a minor NCAA rules infraction, scored a team-high 18 points in his collegiate debut. He also had seven rebounds, three assists and three steals.

"I thought getting Drew and Derek back really gave us a lift," Garner said. "Derek is probably our best scorer, even though he's a freshman. And Drew is probably our best player, especially on the defensive end."

Said Winans of his first collegiate game, "It was a lot of emotion in the first half, a lot of adrenaline. I came out and felt pretty good. I just tried to play as hard as I could."

Demetrius King added 16 points for the Indians, 14 coming in the first half. He also had six rebounds. Freshman Brett Hale contributed 11 points.

SMS received a big performance from senior guard Robert Yanders, who did not score during last year's 73-71 Indian victory over the Bears at the Show Me Center.

Yanders hit all five of his 3-point attempts and scored a game-high 20 points.

"Robert can do that," Hinson said. "All of his threes came at big times."

The Bears' two imposing inside players, Scott Brakebill and Mike Wallace, had 18 and 11 points, respectively, and Wallace grabbed 12 rebounds as SMS won the battle of the boards 43-30. Guard Terrance McGee also added 11 points.

"Coming into the game, I knew we would have to give up something," said Garner. "We were more concerned with Wallace inside because he's a really good player, and with (Daniel) Novak from outside, but Yanders had a really good game."

Southeast, which used just seven players the entire contest, got off to a strong start and had SMS playing from behind virtually the whole first half.

Winans scored the game's opening basket and the Indians eventually built several early eight-point leads.

SMS finally grabbed its first advantage at 21-20 with just under eight minutes left. Then, after several lead changes and a 28-28 tie, the Indians again surged ahead by eight points.

King went on a personal 8-0 run -- hitting a 15-footer and consecutive 3-pointers -- to put the Indians up 36-28 with a minute left before the intermission. SMS scored the half's final four points to pull within 36-32.

The Indians' strong opening-half performance was fueled by impressive shooting as they hit 16 of 28 field-goal attempts for 57 percent. That included four of 10 from 3-point range.

But the Indians' shooting tailed off in the second half to just 26 percent on six of 23.

"Coming into our locker room, we were a little disappointed in our defensive effort, and we knew they had hit an incredible percentage," said Brakebill. "We knew we had to get on them tougher in the second half."

The Bears quickly took control in the second half, sparked by several early Southeast turnovers against pressure. All told, the Indians had 20 turnovers in the contest.

"The start of the second half, I thought was the most critical time of the game," said Garner. "I thought their guards really pressured our guards and we turned it over three, four times."

Trailing 39-36, the Bears used an 11-0 run to assume command. Wallace gave SMS the lead for good at 41-39 with a basket at the 15:19 mark.

But the Indians would not go away. They fell behind 56-45 but pulled to within 58-52. Then, after SMS built its biggest lead at 67-54, a conventional three-point play by Winans brought Southeast to within 68-61 with 57 seconds left. But the comeback ended there.

"Like coach says, the only thing you can do from a loss is learn from it," Winans said.