Trailing by eight midway through the first half, the Eastern Kentucky University men’s basketball team turned up the defense and proceeded to cruise to a 78-61 victory over Southern Illinois University Edwardsville on Thursday night at McBrayer Arena.
The Colonels (8-9, 1-1 OVC) continue their four-game home stand on Saturday when Eastern Illinois visits McBrayer Arena. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m.
SIUE (5-11, 0-2 OVC) got off to a hot start, hitting on 9-of-15 from the field, including 5-of-9 from outside the arc. A pair of free throws by Keenan Simmons with 9:59 left in the first half gave the Cougars an eight-point lead, 26-18. However after a three-pointer by Tre Harris with 10:36 showing on the clock, the visitors went cold from the field the rest of the half, missing 15 straight field goals, including six from deep.
Eastern Kentucky turned the Cougar cold streak into a 19-4 run and went to the locker room at halftime in front by seven, 37-30. Six different Colonels scored during the run. Freshman guard Parker Chitty had a nifty baseline drive reverse lay-up. Senior guard Isaac McGlone went coast-to-coast for one of his two lay-ups during the run.
SIU Edwardsville finished the first half 9-for-30 from the field for 30 percent. EKU hit on 15-of-26 for 58 percent.
SIUE missed its first four shots of the second half to run its streak to 19 straight misses from the field. Eastern scored 11 of the first 15 points of the second stanza to double its halftime lead to 14. Freshman guard Asante Gist scored seven of the 11. The lead went to 20-plus on back-to-back lay-ups from McGlone that capped a 7-0 spurt and made it 64-41 with 8:03 remaining in the game.
The Cougars never got closer than 17 the rest of the way, which occurred in the final 30 seconds.
Gist finished with a career-best and game-high 25 points to go along with five assists. He connected on 6-of-12 from the field and 13-of-14 at the free throw line. Sophomore forward Nick Mayo added 16 points and seven rebounds. Junior forward Zach Charles posted 10 points and five rebounds, while McGlone contributed eight points, five assists, four rebounds and two steals.
Harris came off the bench to lead SIU Edwardsville with 21 points. He went 4-of-13 from three-point range. SIUE shot 29 percent in the second half and finished the night 16-of-54 form the field (29.6 percent). The Cougars made just 7-of-25 (28 percent) from behind the arc.
The Colonels shot 51 percent on the night and went 20-of-24 (83.3 percent) from the charity stripe. EKU had a 42-33 rebounding advantage and outscored the Cougars 54-8 in the paint.
Steve Fohl
Associate Director of EKUSports Communications