Box Score EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – SIUE men's basketball used a strong second half Saturday to score a come-from-behind 71-57 win over Chicago State at Vadalabene Center.
The win snapped a two-game losing skid for the SIUE Cougars which improved to 2-3. Chicago State fell to 2-7.
"I thought our guys played pretty well," SIUE Head Coach Lennox Forrester said. "This is a game we wanted to win. Obviously losing the last two games, we wanted to stop the bleeding right now."
SIUE never led in the first half thanks in large part to Chicago State hitting three three pointers in the game's first six minutes. SIUE trailed 34-26 at the break. The Chicago State Cougars made 6 of their 15 three-point attempts in the first 20 minutes.
"We let them get off to a great start, and they were hitting a lot of threes," Forrester said.
The SIUE Cougars trailed 41-32 in the second half when they began a 16-0 run that spanned nearly five minutes. Chicago State's Clarke Rosenberg connected on a three-pointer to tie the game 48-48 with 10:45 to play but was issued a technical foul for something he said following the shot. Rosenberg led CSU with 19 points.
SIUE's Jerome Jones sank both free throws to put SIUE back on top 50-48, and it never trailed again. Rosenberg pulled Chicago State within one point at 53-52 with a pair of free throws before SIUE embarked a 10-0 run capped off by a three-pointer from Maurice Wiltz with 3:03 left that put SIUE on top 63-52.
Chicago State connected on just 1 of 13 three-point attempts after halftime.
"In the second half our guys executed the game plan a little bit better," Forrester said. "We closed out to their shooters."
Jones led SIUE with 17 points. He was 3 of 9 from three point range. Michael Messer added 12 points and Wiltz scored 11. Kris Davis and Tim Johnson each scored eight points.
"That's the strength of our team offensively," Forrester said. "We have so many guys who make plays and can make shots."
Chicago State won the rebounding battle 48-29, while SIUE forced 20 turnovers from Chicago State. SIUE turned the ball over just nine times as a team. Both of SIUE's wins this year have come when it has committed fewer than 10 turnovers.
The win marked the 11th time in 89 games under Forrester that SIUE has trailed at half but has come back to win. The last such win came Feb. 18 when SIUE defeated Northern Illinois at Vadalabene Center despite trailing by 10 at half.
SIUE travels to DeKalb for its next contest to take on the Northern Illinois Huskies Wednesday.
"We still have a long way to go, but I like the progress we made since coming back from Texas Pan American," Forrester said. "Hopefully we can get healthy fast because we have two tough road games coming up."
