Southeast Missouri (11-11, 3-5 OVC) at Eastern Illinois (5-16, 2-6 OVC)

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Date: Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013
Tip-Off: 6 p.m., CT
Location: Charleston, Ill.
Site: Lantz Arena (5,300)
Series: Eastern Illinois leads, 22-20
Coaches: Dickey Nutt (232-259 overall, 43-72 at Southeast, 21-39 OVC). Jay Spoonhour (111-49 overall, 5-16 at EIU, 2-6 OVC).

Southeast Missouri Game Notes

Media Coverage
Redhawks Radio Network: K103 FM (KEZS), flagship; 1440 AM (KSIM); 903 AM (KWOC); 1470 AM (KMAL). Todd Bonacki, Play-by-Play.
Webcast: OVC Digital Network                                   
Live Stats: EIUPanthers.com
Facebook: GoSoutheast
Twitter: @GoSoutheast

Quick Tips

Suits and Sneakers Weekend (Jan. 25-27)
Southeast's men's basketball coaching staff will participate in the 10th annual Suits and Sneakers weekend. The Redhawk coaches will be wearing sneakers on the sidelines to support the event which unites coaches, fans, players, corporate partners and media to fight cancer and provide hope to all people facing the disease. Over 4,000 college and high school basketball coaches across the United States will be making much more than just a fashion statement this weekend.

Halfway Point
The Redhawks are currently 3-5 and stand in third-place in the Ohio Valley Conference's West Division midway through its league schedule. Southeast enters Saturday's matchup with Eastern Illinois with a three-game losing streak on the road in OVC play.

Tough January
Southeast closes out the month at Eastern Illinois Saturday. The Redhawks have lost five of their seven games in January and will finish a month with a losing record for the first time this season. Southeast went 5-4 in November and 4-2 in December before slipping to 2-5 in January. The Redhawks have dropped three of their last four contests by double figures.

Important Stretch 
The Redhawks have nine regular-season games remaining on their 2012-13 regular-season schedule and continue to position themselves for a spot in this year's Ohio Valley Conference Tournament. The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds are the divisional winners with the top seed going to the team with the highest conference winning percentage. The No. 3-8 seeds are based on conference winning percentage no matter what division. Southeast is presently third in the OVC West Division standings and seventh overall in the league with a .375 conference winning percentage. The 2013 OVC Men's Basketball Tournament is Mar. 6-9 at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium.

Series History
Although Eastern Illinois holds a slight 22-20 advantage in its overall series against Southeast, the Redhawks have won each of the last four meetings between these teams. Southeast will look to win in Charleston for the third-straight year. The last time the Redhawks beat the Panthers on their homecourt three years in a row was 1997-98, 1998-99 and 1999-00.

Nutt Moves Closer to 100 Assists 
Lucas Nutt, who leads the team and ranks fourth in the Ohio Valley Conference with 97 assists is on pace to get 100 in a season for the second time in his career. Nutt is averaging 4.4 assists per game through 22 starts. He last had 100 or more assists during the 2010-11 campaign (112). Nutt is currently sixth all-time at Southeast with 338 career assists.

Smith Approaching 100 Career Steals
Marland Smith needs only two more steals to reach 100 in his career. Smith has 98 steals in 115 career games at Southeast. He is fifth on the team with 13 steals this year. Smith currently ranks eighth all-time among the school's all-time career steals leaders.

Wilford Excels
One of the best things about guard Corey Wilford is that he can score in bunches. Wilford showcased that attribute once again when he scored 14 first-half points en route to matching a career-high 21 at SIU Edwardsville (Jan. 24). He scored nine of Southeast's first 12 points against the Cougars, helping grab the Redhawks their 14th halftime lead of the season. Wilford shot 8-of-14 (57.1 percent) from the field and scored nine of his points on 3-of-6 three-pointers. He scored 20 or more points for the third time this year.

Three vs. Four
The Redhawks and Panthers are third and fourth in the Ohio Valley Conference's West Division, respectively. Eastern Illinois enters Saturday on a two-game winning streak after beating Austin Peay, 77-67, on the road and UT Martin, 69-56, at home. Those two wins came after the Panthers had lost 12-consecutive contests. EIU is last in the conference in scoring offense (57.9 ppg), free throw percentage (.638), field goal percentage defense (.477), three-point field goal percentage defense (.394) and blocks (1.9 per game).