JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Ring Malith turned in a career performance and SIUE men's basketball finished the game on an 18-2 run to score a 72-63 road win at North Florida Tuesday night.

SIUE improved to 6-3 with the win. UNF fell to 2-6.

Malith scored a career-high 31 points and added a game-high 10 rebounds in 32 minutes of work for his seventh career double-double. CJ Hall chipped in 10 points in just 10 minutes on 4-of-5 shooting from the field.  

SIUE got out to a fast start thanks to back-to-back three-pointers by Jordan Pickett to open the game. The Cougars led for the first six-plus minutes of the game when the Ospreys pulled ahead on a pair of free throws by Trey Cady.

A three-pointer from Hall at the 11:08 mark moved SIUE back in front 17-16 and a Jo Valrie tip in made it a three-point game.

The teams traded leads two more times and the Cougars led 30-39 at the break.

Again, the Cougars held on to the lead to start the half, but UNF overtook the Cougars on a three-pointer from BJ Plummer to make it 49-48 with 9:11 left. The Ospreys pushed their lead to as many as seven twice. It was 61-54 after a Cady jumper with 5:49 to play. That's when SIUE made its run.

A Jack Capion three-pointer capped an 8-0 run and put SIUE up 62-61 with 4:27 left. Malith hit one of two free throws to make it a two-point lead before UNF tied the score with 3:07 left.

Ring Malith scored the final nine points of the game to give SIUE its third true road win of the year.

The Cougars shot 41 percent (26-64) for the game, outrebounded the Ospreys 41-30 in the game and held a 30-22 advantage in points in the paint.

UNF finished the game 23-57 (40 percent) overall and 10-30 (33 percent) from three-point range.

Cady and Kamrin Oriol each scored 16 points to lead North Florida.

The Cougars return home to First Community Arena for a Saturday afternoon date with Western Michigan of the Mid-American Conference. Tipoff is slated for 1 p.m.