Southeast basketball looks for revenge against Eastern Kentucky

There's no doubt that the Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team is thinking of its last meeting with Eastern Kentucky as it prepares for its Ohio Valley Conference tournament game against the Colonels tonight.

EKU erased a 10-point Southeast lead in the final four minutes of the game and Glenn Cosey banked in a long 3 at the buzzer to send Southeast home with a 79-78 loss on Feb. 1.

The Redhawks have an opportunity for revenge when they face the third-seeded Colonels in a quarterfinal game at 8 p.m. tonight at Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn.

"I do think that our guys' mindset is revenge, and I've been hearing them say that," Southeast coach Dickey Nutt said following Southeast's win Wednesday night. "Let's just not focus too much on that. Let's just focus on what we do and try to guard and try to be the best we can be and rebound the basketball. ... It's going to take an all out total effort. We've got to really handle their pressure. We've got 24 hours to get ready, to change, because we're going from night and day -- playing Eastern Illinois where they're very patient...to Eastern [Kentucky] where they like to run, and they're going to really try to pressure us defensively so we've got to make sure we take care of the basketball, and attack, attack, attack. That will be our theme tomorrow night."

EKU defeated Southeast 84-69 in the quarterfinals of the OVC tournament last season.

The winner of tonight's game faces No. 2 Murray State at 9 p.m. Friday night in the semifinals.

I'll provide updates throughout the game on Twitter @semoballErin.