EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – SIUE men's basketball erased a 10-point second-half deficit Saturday before falling to UT Martin 65-62 in Ohio Valley Conference action at Vadalabene Center.

"I just thought UT Martin outplayed us," SIUE Head Coach Lennox Forrester said. "(UT Martin) played hard on both ends of the floor, and we didn't."

The Cougars, 7-11 overall and 3-5 in OVC play, shot 33.3 percent (9-27) in the first half and connected on only 2 of 9 attempts from three-point range to find themselves down 34-28 at the break.

"Our guys didn't come out with a lot of energy at the start of the game," Forrester added. "I thought we played better down the stretch, but we dug ourselves too deep of a hole."

UT Martin, 5-16 overall and 2-7 in conference play, extended the lead to eight thanks to a Jeremy Washington layup just 38 seconds into the half. A three-pointer by UT Martin's Terrance Smith with 16:07 left gave the Skyhawks their largest lead of the night at 43-33.

A 19-9 run by the Cougars pulled SIUE even with UT Martin at 52-52 with 6:09 to play in the game. The Skyhawks had pushed their lead to five before Jerome Jones hit a three from the left wing to make it 57-55 with 3:59 left.

It was 59-57 UT Martin when Jones splashed home his third three-pointer of the night to make it 60-59 SIUE with 2:05 to play. It was the only lead the Cougars had for the game. Mike Liabo answered for UTM with a three-pointer of his own before Jones tied the score 62-62 with a jumper with just more than a minute to play.

Myles Taylor hit a pair of free throws to put UTM up 64-62, and Jones missed a three-point attempt with 29 seconds left. Taylor added a free throw with 16 seconds to play to seal the road win for the Skyhawks.

SIUE shot 46.4 percent (13-28) and hit four three-pointers in the second half.

"For the most part I thought we took some good shots," Forrester said. "But we didn't finish around the basket as well as we wanted to."

Mark Yelovich led the Cougars in scoring for the third straight game. He scored 16 points and pulled in a team-high seven rebounds. Jones scored 13 points. Michael Messer scored nine on three three-pointers.

Taylor turned in a double-double for the Skyhawks with 12 points and 14 rebounds. Liabo led UT Martin in scoring with 16 points. Washington scored 15 points. The Skyhawks won the rebounding battle 35-28.

The Cougars are off for a week before playing host to Eastern Illinois Saturday at 7 p.m.