EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – SIUE men's basketball kept itself in the Ohio Valley Conference race, scoring a come-from-behind 84-72 win over Tennessee State Saturday in front of 2,112 fans at First Community Arena.
The Cougars stayed one game behind OVC-leader Southeast Missouri and improved to 11-5 in OVC play, also assuring themselves of the program's first-ever winning record in OVC play. SIUE is 18-9 overall. TSU fell to 9-7 in the league and 13-14 overall.
The Cougars swept the season series from Tennessee State for the first time since the 2020-21 season.
The Tigers started quick and built a double-digit lead before the halfway point of the first half. By the 9:37 mark, TSU had its largest lead at 26-13 following a free throw by Travis Harper.
The Cougars chipped away several times, only to have the Tigers hit a shot to take the lead back up.
A steal and a dunk by Brian Taylor II made it 39-32 with 1:26 to play before half. A turnover followed by two free throws by Brian Taylor trimmed the lead to five (39-34) with 1:04 to play. A Ray'Sean Taylor steal led to a Myles Thompson dunk which got the Cougars within three (39-36) with 37 seconds to play. TSU pushed it to four with a free throw, but Ray'Sean Taylor found Brian Taylor on the left wing for a three-pointer at the buzzer to make it 41-40 at halftime.
The Cougars scored the first seven points of the second half to led 46-40 on a dunk by Desmond Polk at 17:18. The Tigers fought back, pulled ahead and led 55-50 after a three-pointer by Knute Wood with 13:00 left.
Two free throws by Brian Taylor with 8:45 left capped off an 11-2 SIUE run and the Cougars never trailed again in the game. Two more free throws by Brian Taylor gave SIUE its first double-digit lead (70-60) with 6:08 left.
Brian Taylor led all scorers with 22 points on 5-of-8 shooting and a perfect 10-10 day at the free throw line. Ray'Sean Taylor scored 15 points. He was 3-5 from three-point range. He also added a season-high eight assists. Ring Malith (13) and Kyle Thomas (10) also finished in double figures for the Cougars.
On the defensive end, Arnas Sakenis finished with five blocks.
SIUE connected on 49 percent (26-53) of its shots overall and knocked down 8-20 (40 percent) from three-point range. The Cougars were 24-30 (80 percent) at the free throw line.
Tennessee State was 25-62 (40 percent) from the field and 11-27 (41 percent) from deep. The Tigers were 11-17 (65 percent) at the free throw line.
The Tigers turned the ball over 21 times, leading to 21 points for SIUE. The Cougars also outscored TSU 34-22 in the paint, despite the Tigers holding a 41-30 edge in rebounding.
Justus Jackson scored 15 points to lead five Tigers in double figures.
SIUE will travel to Morehead State (Thursday) and Southern Indiana (Saturday) in the final two road games of the regular season.
