SIU Edwardsville scored 18 unanswered points to begin the game and held off a late Quincy rally to pick up a 60-51 victory Thursday night at the Vadalabene Center.
         With the win, the Cougars improve to 10-9 overall and 6-7 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. Quincy dips to 8-11 and 4-8 in GLVC play.
         Quincy first got on the board nine minutes into the game on two free throws by Hosea Pratt. Quincy's first field goal came at the 6:43 mark of the first half.
         Meanwhile, SIUE hit 46 percent of its shots and took a 35-13 advantage into halftime. Quincy chipped away at the SIUE lead throughout the half and closed the SIUE lead to nine with just less than five minutes to play. But as the case has been recently, SIUE hit the majority of its free throws down the stretch to seal the victory.
         Ron Jones led the Cougars with 17 points. Tyler Hackstadt and Calvin Sykes each added 12. Joel Jaye pulled down seven boards.
         Jamal Thompson scored all of his 20 points in the second half to lead Quincy. Jordon Roth followed with nine on the night.
         The Cougars are idle from GLVC games this Saturday. They will be in action next Thursday when it plays host to Wisconsin-Parkside.
                -siue cougars-