EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – SIUE men's basketball led wire to wire Saturday on its way to its third straight win, defeating Tennessee Tech 62-58 at First Community Arena.

The Cougars improved to 6-4 in the Ohio Valley Conference and 13-8 overall. Tennessee Tech has lost four straight and fell to 2-8 in the OVC and 7-14 overall.

The Cougars were bolstered by the first career double-double from Arnas Sakenis who scored a team-high 16 points while leading all players with 12 rebounds. Tyler King added 14 points and Kyle Thomas scored 11.

Cold shooting left Tennessee Tech without a field goal for the game's first five minutes. The Golden Eagles started the game just 1-14 shooting and SIUE had a 21-6 lead after a three-pointer from Thomas with 8:06 to play in the first half.

Tennessee Tech responded with a 10-0 run and pulled within three, at 27-24, at halftime.

SIUE opened the second half on a 19-4 surge to again lead by 15 at 46-31. It was 51-36 when TTU used a 12-2 run to get the lead down to five.

The Cougars pushed the lead out to as many as nice twice in the game's final minutes and finished on an 8-3 run for the final margin.

The Cougars shot 42 percent (23-55) for the game, won the rebounding battle 36-35 and finished with nine assists and just eight turnovers.

TTU shot 38 percent (22-58) for the game finished with eight assists and just six turnovers.

JaJuan Nichols paced the Golden Eagles with a game-high 17 points. Mekhi Cameron scored 15 and was 7-8 at the free throw line. Ty Owens scored 11.

SIUE returns to the road for a Thursday contest at Morehead State.