Not even close - Earl trouble dooms Southeast

MARTIN, Tenn. -- Sure, maybe they could have won their first four Ohio Valley Conference games .

But not even the best lawyer could argue the merits of Southeast Missouri State University's fifth OVC men's basketball matchup.

This one, an 89-73 loss Thursday at Tennessee-Martin, was never really a contest.

The Skyhawks, off to their best start since joining Division I in 1992, improved to 11-5 overall, 3-1 in the OVC.

The Indians, who in earlier league games couldn't preserve leads of 18 points against Eastern Illinois, 16 against Tennessee State and three with less than a minute left against Morehead State, fell to 3-13 and 1-4.

"We were never really in the game tonight," Southeast coach Gary Garner said.

"They jumped on us early and we never really could recover."

Joey Walker was one of the biggest thorns in Southeast's side. The 6-foot-6 forward, a junior-college transfer who averaged seven points per game, scored a career-high 24, many of them from in close after receiving great passes from his teammates. Walker hit 10 of 12 shots from the field.

"It felt good to score like that," said Walker, whose previous career high was 16 against Berry College. "My teammates were finding me and we really got our fast break going. We always practice on that.

"We think we're the most athletic team in the conference and the more we can get out and run the better off we are."

UTM also got strong performances from its primary standouts: center Jeremy Sargent, forward Brian Foster and point guard Jair Peralta.

Sargent, at 6-8, scored 14 points and blocked five shots and he solidified his hold on the shot-blocking lead in the OVC.

Foster, a powerful 6-5 and 225 pounds, scored 12 points. And Peralta, a 5-9 floor general second in the OVC in assists, dished out 10 to go with just one turnover. He scored 12 points.

Guard Jermi Hampton chipped in with 11 points for the Skyhawks.

Southeast was led offensively by Derek Winans with 17 points. Kenny Johnson followed with 16 points, along with five assists, while Damarcus Hence and Brett Hale came off the bench to contribute 14 and 10 points, respectively.

The Skyhawks, shooting 58.8 percent in the opening period on 20-for-34 -- many of the baskets were layups -- and forcing 12 turnovers, bolted to a 46-29 halftime lead as Walker had 14 points. UTM got on top 8-2 early and steadily built its advantage, capped by an 8-2 run to close the half.

"The 12 turnovers in the first half really hurt us, and several of them led to easy baskets," Garner said. "Going in, we knew limiting our turnovers would be a big key because they put so much pressure on the ball. They shot so well in the first half, but they had so many easy baskets."

UTM surged ahead 55-31 early in the final half. Southeast kept from getting totally run out of Skyhawk Arena over the final 15 minutes, but the Indians could get no closer than 11 points, that coming with under four minutes left.

"It's hard for us to come back from a big deficit," said Garner.

The Skyhawks' shooting didn't dip much in the second half as they finished the game at 56.9 percent on 33 of 58. And UTM had an impressive 25 assists to just 12 turnovers.

Southeast shot 43.3 percent on 26 of 60. The Indians finished with 19 turnovers.

mmishow@semissourian.com

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