SEMO finishes 13th out of 60 teams in Arkansas fishing tournament

Southeast Missouri State doesn't just have a bass fishing team — they have a pretty good bass fishing team.

SEMO finished 13th out of 60 teams in the Under Armour College Bass National Championship on the Arkansas River near North Little Rock, Ark., over the weekend, one spot behind Mizzou and one ahead of Arkansas.

Boater Taylor Gorton and partner Mike Rains finished with a two-day weigh-in of 9.48 pounds, a little more than a half-pound behind 12th-place Missouri. North Carolina State won the event, which aired on ESPNU and paid the winning team $250,000.

A few other SEMO notes of local interest:

• Bijon Jones, who left the Southeast men's basketball after last season, has signed to play at Indiana University East. Jones, of Jackson, Tenn., will have one year of collegiate eligibility. Jones started 12 games for SEMO last season and averaged 24.4 minutes, three points and 2.5 assists per game.

• A former SEMO assistant basketball coach is standing firm against critics as the new GM of the Golden State Warriors. The San Jose Mercury News featured a profile Sunday of Larry Riley; he coached the SEMO men's basketball team in the early '70s and earned his master's degree there.

• Keno Davis, another former Southeast men's assistant coach, has signed a contract extension as the head coach at Providence, where he recently finished his first season. He guided Providence to a 19-14 overall record; the win total was the most by a Providence coach in his first season.

• Leon Powell isn't likely to play this season for the SEMO men's basketball team because of what appears to be an ACL tear. The rumor was confirmed by coach Dickey Nutt in Wednesday's Southeast Missourian. Powell played the past two seasons at an Iowa junior college and was expected to anchor the team in Nutt's inaugural season as the Redhawks' coach.