SportsLine.com Report
March 16, 2000

Round 1: Indians fall just short of big upset, 64-61

Brian Beshara hit a 3-pointer with 17.8 seconds remaining to give fourth-seeded LSU a 64-61 victory over the 13th-seeded Indians on Thursday in the West Regional.

Beshara's first points of the second half came with three seconds left on the shot clock and snapped a tie at 61.

After two timeouts, the ball got away from Southeast Missouri's Antonio Short. Roderick Johnson picked it up for the tying shot, but the ball bounced off the rim and backboard as time expired.

"I prayed for it to go in, but it just eased out of there and didn't fall," Johnson said.

Johnson had 19 points and 11 rebounds for the Indians (24-7), who were playing their first game in the NCAA Tournament after becoming a Division I school in 1992.

"All we asked for is to have a chance to win at the end. We had a chance," Indians coach Gary Garner said.

There were six ties in a second half narrowly controlled by the Indians, who recovered after shooting a dismal 16 percent in the first half. Still, they hit just 20 of 58 field goals for the game.

"I told them to keep playing hard and those shots would start falling," said Garner, whose team led, 53-49, with just over five minutes remaining.

How They Got There

Southeast Missouri State reached its first NCAA Tournament by winning the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament and earning the league's automatic bid.

The Indians shared the regular-season title with Murray State, going 14-4 in the league, and entered the OVC tournament as the second-seeded team. They split two games against Murray State during the regular season, and beat the Racers, 67-56, in the OVC tournament championship.

A year earlier, the Racers edged the Indians in the championship game on a last-second shot.

Starting Lineup

• PG Michael Stokes (6-0, 165, Jr.): Stokes is a good perimeter defender, and is the team's second-leading scorer (13.9), hitting nearly 43 percent of his 3-point attempts. He was selected third-team OVC, finishing seventh in the conference in assists (4.2).
• SG Antonio Short (6-2, 180, Jr.): He missed seven games because of a broken wrist before Christmas, but came back and averaged 8.2 points. Combined with Stokes, Short gave the Indians one of the better backcourts in the OVC.
• C Brian Bunche (6-8, 240, Sr.): Bunche gives the Indians a load of muscle in the low post. Although not a big scorer (3.9 ppg, 6.0 rpg), Bunche is a good guy to have around -- a wide body and an imposing figure in the middle.
• SF Mike Branson (6-6, 200, Sr.): Like shooting guard Antonio Short, Branson is a good perimeter shooter and was chosen to the OVC third-team. Averaging 12.1 points, he is making 40.7 percent of his 3-pointers (55 of 135).
• PF Roderick Johnson (6-6, 220, Sr.): Johnson is strong enough to muscle his way in the post, and he has good range on his shot. An All-OVC second team player, Johnson led the Indians in scoring (13.9) and led the OVC in rebounding (8.5).

Keys to Success

Defense carried the Indians to the Ohio Valley championship, and that will be their key to winning in the NCAA tournament. The Indians are allowing opponents to shoot a mere 37.6 percent, including 29.5 percent on 3-pointers.

Offensively, Southeast Missouri has to maintain its balance, so its opponent can't afford to focus on one or two players. If a defense focuses on the perimeter, Roderick Johnson will score inside. If the focus is on the frontcourt, several of the Indians can score on the perimeter, including Johnson.

Being a team that likes to hoist the 3-pointer (about 18 per game), Southeast Missouri likely will have to hit at better than its season pace (34.6 percent) to hang around against a quality opponent.

The Bench

The Indians go eight or nine players deep. One player to watch is 6-11 center Nyah Jones, who is averaging close to six points and four rebounds. His long arms and agility make him an effective post player. Junior guard Amory Sanders and junior swing player Emmanuel McCutchison give the Indians more scoring punch off the bench. McCutchison has good range on his shot, and can beat defenders on slashing moves to the basket.

Offense

The Indians aren't a run-and-gun team, but will look to score in transition if the chance is there. ... They ranked eighth in the OVC in scoring offense, averaging 69.8 points per game, but that number wasn't higher because their main focus is defense. ... The Indians are shooting 44.9 percent from the field, 34.6 on 3-pointers and 70 percent from the line.

Defense

The Indians' forte is a sticky defense, mostly man-to-man. They like to trap and can press. They led the OVC in scoring defense, allowing 61.6 points per game, almost eight fewer points than Austin Peay, which ranked second.

Season Rundown

From the start, Southeast Missouri State was tough to beat.

The Indians won their first five games, were 8-1 at the Christmas break, and 11-2 in mid-January. Only once did the Indians lose back-to-back games -- in the first week of February, when they lost at Tennessee State 56-52 and at Austin Peay, 67-64 in two overtimes.

The Indians then won seven of their last eight games for a share of the regular-season title. Southeast Missouri dodged an upset in the OVC opener, slipping past Tennessee-Martin 76-74 in a quarterfinal game when Okechi Egbe missed a potential winning 3-pointer at the buzzer.

Once the Indians made the semifinals in Nashville, everybody was eyeing a matchup with Murray State in the title game. Middle Tennessee was no match in the semifinal game, losing to the Indians, 78-60.

In the championship, the Indians led by two with five minutes left, but took control with an 11-2 run in the next four minutes. They held Murray State to 26.8 percent shooting, 20 percent in the second half. Junior guard Michael Stokes spent most of the game guarding OVC player of the year Aubrey Reese, who was 1 for 18 from the field.