NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- An outstanding team defensive effort spurred coach Travis Ford's Eastern Kentucky University Colonels to an impressive 69-52 win over Southeast Missouri in the semifinals of the 2005 O'Reilly Ohio Valley Conference Men's Tournament Friday night in the Gaylord Entertainment Center.
EKU, who tied a school record for wins in a season with 21 with the win over SEMO, will play Austin Peay, a 67-61 winner over No. 1 seed and OVC regular season champion Tennessee Tech, in the earlier semifinal win Friday.
Tipoff Saturday (Mar. 5) for the championship game is 4:00 p.m. and will be televised live by ESPN2.
"It was important that we got off to a quick start tonight and we did that," said Ford, who saw his team win its sixth straight game to go to 21-8 on the season.
"It's tough to stop (Dainmon) Gonner and (Reggie) Golson, but we wanted to control their other guys. Our guards played great defense on their other players and that was the key to the win.
"I never felt safe with that second-half lead because Gonner and Golson are so tough, and if they got their three-point game going, they would get right back in it.
"Every player on our team has a role, and they played to it tonight with a lot of hard work out there on the court.
"Alonzo Hird has been the difference in our team the last three weeks. Our guards have been feeding off the other teams' having to collapse more on him."
With SEMO leading early 4-3, Eastern scored 10 of the game's next 12 points to go up 14-5 at the 13:34 mark. The Colonel lead stayed between nine and three points (24-21) before Eastern scored 11 of the half's last 13 points to lead, 35-23, at the break.
Eastern picked up where it left off in the first 20 minutes, pressuring the Redhawks' perimeter game and helping out down low on Gonner and Golson when it could.
SEMO cut it to 10 at 45-35 with 13:13 to go, but could never get the lead back into single digits again. Eastern's biggest lead was 65-44 with 1:34 left to play.
Eastern held SEMO to just 34.5 percent shooting from the field for the game.
Junior guards Matt Witt and Zach Ingles led the way for the Colonels with 19 and 16 points, respectively. Senior forward Michael Haney added 11 points.
Eastern won the rebounding battle, 38-35, as substitute Ryan Wiersma led the Colonels with nine boards. EKU hit 47.3 percent from the field and 75.0 percent from the free throw line.
Freshman center Darnell Dialls also contributed heavily to the win with four points and six blocks in just 11 minutes of play before fouling out.
Southeast Missouri ends its season with a 15-14 record. Golson led the Redhawks with 23, followed by Gonner with 17.
