EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Fifth-seeded SIUE men's basketball erased a nine-point halftime deficit but ultimately fell to eighth-seeded Eastern Illinois 77-71 in overtime in the first round of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament at the Ford Center.
The Cougars dropped to 19-13 with the loss. Eastern Illinois improved to 13-19.
Four SIUE players finished in double figures scoring. Arnas Sakenis collected his fourth career double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds to pace the Cougars offensively. Sakenis finished with three blocks for the game and a program-record 160 for his career. Tyler King scored a team-high 19 points. Jordan Pickett scored 12 points and Jo Valrie added 10 points.
Darrion Baker added eight points. Jack Campion finished with eight assists for the game and 166 in his lone season as a Cougar, setting a program-record at the Division I level. It is the second-most in any single season at SIUE.
After the game went to overtime tied at 65, SIUE hit just two of eight attempts from the field in the extra period.
Eastern Illinois led 40-31 at halftime despite the Cougars holding as much as a nine-point lead early in the half. The Cougars opened the game with three consecutive three-pointers and knocked down their first five attempts from long range.
The Cougars took their first lead of the second half after a Baker three-point play when he put back a layup after an offensive rebound to put SIUE in the lead 50-48. Pickett connected on his fourth three-pointer of the night to put SIUE up 53-50.
SIUE trailed 64-60 with 2:00 to play in the second half when Tyler King buried a three-pointer to pull the Cougars within one. Arnas Sakenis hit a pair of free throws with 1:11 to play to put SIUE back in front 65-64. Meechie White hit one of two free throws with 50 seconds to play to tie the score 65-65.
The Cougars matched their second-most three-pointers in a game, going 12-30 (40 percent) from three-point range. Overall SIUE was 23-62 (37 percent) from the field.
Eastern Illinois shot 51 percent from the field for the game. Terry McMorris finished with the double-double of 15 points and 13 rebounds. Zion Fruster scored 23 points.
