EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – SIUE men's basketball erased a 12-point deficit on its way to its fourth win in a row, as the Cougars defeated Tennessee Tech 67-59 Saturday at First Community Arena.

SIUE improved to 11-6 overall and 4-2 in the OVC. The Cougars are now just one game out of first place in the OVC.

SIUE has now held three straight opponents under 60 points and opponents are averaging just 57.3 points against the Cougars during the four-game winning streak.

Tennessee Tech had a five-game winning streak snapped and also is 4-2 in league play. The Golden Eagles are 9-8 overall.

Offense didn't come easy for either side early and SIUE had an 8-5 lead with 11 minutes to play before halftime. The Golden Eagles used a 17-2 run to gain their largest lead of the game at 22-10 with 4:39 left in the first half.

The Cougars flipped the script from there and scored 15 of the final 19 points in the half to go into halftime trailing 26-25. Ray'Sean Taylor scored 12 of those points for the Cougars.

Taylor then opened the second half with a four-point play knocking down a three from right wing and then hitting his free throw to put SIUE up by three.

SIUE never trailed until a pair of free throws by TTU's Ray Glasgow made it 52-51 with 8:15 left in the game. A driving layup from Ray'Sean Taylor with 7:33 left put SIUE back on top and Desmond Polk extended the advantage to three with a jumper. Jaylon Johnson tied the game again with a three-pointer ahead of the media timeout.

Myles Thompson put the Cougars on top to stay with seven straight points following the timeout. Following back-to-back layups and with a four-point Cougar lead, Thompson again had the ball in his hands. With a hand in his face and the shot clock expiring, Thompson nailed a three-pointer from near the right corner to make it 62-55 Cougars with 4:20 left. TTU never got closer than three the rest of the game.

Ray'Sean Taylor led all scorers with 25 points. He added eight rebounds, two assists and four steals. Ring Malith followed with 14 points and nine rebounds. Brian Taylor scored 13 points.

After shooting just 36 percent (11-31) from the field and missing all six three-point attempts in the first half, the Cougars rebounded to shoot 53 percent overall in the second half. SIUE was 16-30 including going 5-11 (46 percent) from three-point range.

The Cougar defense limited the Golden Eagles to just 32 percent (18-56) shooting. Tennessee Tech, which came into the game ranked in the top 50 in three-pointers per game, connected on just 6 of 27 (22 percent). It was the first time this season that the team knocked down fewer than eight threes in a game.

Glasgow led Tennessee Tech with 19 points. Johnson had 16 points.

SIUE returns to the road for a two-game Tennessee trip. The Cougars will face Tennessee State in Nashville Thursday night.