SAINT CHARLES, Mo. – SIUE erased an early lead and won for just the second time after trailing at halftime, downing Lindenwood 63-58 Thursday night at Hyland Arena.

The Cougars have won three straight games to improve to 17-9 overall and 8-5 in the Ohio Valley Conference. The eight OVC wins match the most SIUE has earned in the conference. The Cougars also improved to 7-6 on the road to set a new program high in road wins at the Division I level.

The Lions got off to a 12-2 start and pushed the lead to 16-5 just nine minutes into the game.

"We knew it was going to be a battle when we got off the bus," SIUE Head Coach Brian Barone said. "They came out and punched us early. We didn't get off to the start we wanted."

Lindenwood matched its largest lead at 25-14 with just more than six minutes to play before halftime. From there, the Cougars finished the first half on a 14-5 run to cut the LU lead to 30-28 at the break.

DeeJuan Pruitt scored a driving layup to tie the score in the first minute of the second half.

"To trim it to two points at halftime, we understood we were right there," Barone said. "We got the bucket, tie game, let's go."

A forceful two-hand dunk by Pruitt off a feed from Ray'Sean Taylor gave SIUE its first lead of the night at 38-36 with 16:21 to play. SIUE never trailed in the game again and pushed its lead to as many as eight twice.

Pruitt, who didn't have a point in the first half, finished the game with 11 points and 12 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the year. Damarco Minor collected his fourth double-double with a game-high 19 points and 11 rebounds.

"I am so proud of this team to come out and battle the way they did," Barone added. "Credit to our guys. They read the situation. We started feeding those guys late first half and into the second half.

Lindenwood trimmed the Cougars' lead down to just two with 34 seconds left, but the Cougars sealed the win with a pair of free throws from Ray'Sean Taylor and another by Minor.

Taylor finished with 11 points, five rebounds and three assists. Terrance Thompson finished with seven points, two rebounds and a block. Lamar Wright scored seven points and added four rebounds and a block.

The Cougars outrebounded Lindenwood 45-36, matching their second-most rebounds in a single game this year.

Kevin Caldwell Jr. scored 13 points to lead three Lindenwood players in double figures. Jacob Tracey scored 12 and Cam Burrell added 10.

SIUE returns home to face Eastern Illinois Saturday at First Community Arena. Tipoff is slated for 3:30 p.m.

"We're not satisfied, we're going to keep building, but these guys have, again, accomplished something that hasn't been accomplished before," Barone said. "I won't take the accomplishments away from these guys."