EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – On a day where shots weren't falling, SIUE overcame a seven-point deficit in the second half to score a 65-54 win over conference-leader Morehead State in front of 1,818 fans at First Community Arena.

SIUE has won seven of its last eight games and improved to 7-3 in the Ohio Valley Conference, moving to within a game of the top spot in the league. The Cougars are 14-7 overall. SIUE also improved to 9-1 at home, including 5-0 in OVC home games.

Morehead State saw a five-game winning steak come to an end and dropped to 8-2 in the OVC and 13-8 overall.

SIUE led for much of the first half, but a late run gave the Eagles a 33-30 edge at the break. George Marshall converted a traditional three-point play to push Morehead State's lead to 40-33 with 13:42 left.

Then, after the Cougars missed their first 15 three-point attempts of the game, Ring Malith ended the drought with a three-pointer to cut the lead back to 40-36 and spurred SIUE on a 7-0 run to tie the score (40-40).

Morehead State briefly regained the lead with a free throw at the 7:24 mark, before the Cougars went on another 7-0 run to lead for good. The run was capped off by a Ray'Sean Taylor three-pointer, which was the first made field goal of the game for Taylor.

Another Taylor three-pointer gave SIUE a 52-43 lead with 3:34 to play and four consecutive free throws from Brian Taylor II pushed the SIUE advantage to 13 (56-43) with 2:23 left.

Ray'Sean Taylor led all scorers with 22 points. He finished 4-for-14 shooting but converted 12-13 at the free throw line. It was the fifth consecutive game he has scored at least 20 points. Malith finished with 14 points and Brian Taylor scored 12.

SIUE was just 17-47 (36 percent) shooting overall and just 3-18 (17 percent) from three-point range but made up for it by going 28-39 (72 percent) at the free throw line.

The Eagles got 18 points each from Tyler Brelsford and George Marshall.

Morehead State went 17-51 (33 percent) overall and 4-17 (24 percent) from three. The Eagles were 16-23 (70 percent) at the free throw line.

The Cougars held Morehead State to just 21 points in the second half. The win marked the sixth time this year that SIUE has trailed at halftime and come back to win the game.