SIUE Loses Seventh Straight Game

ROCK HILL, S.C. – Winthrop's long-range shooting negated an impressive shooting day by SIUE as the Eagles soared to a 93-73 win over SIUE in men's basketball Tuesday at the Winthrop Coliseum.

SIUE has now lost seven straight and fell to 2-9. Winthrop snapped a four-game losing streak and improved to 5-7 with the win.

Winthrop connected on a season-high 15 three-pointers for the game, including seven in the first half.

"Early in the game we over-helped a couple of times," SIUE Head Coach Brian Barone said. "Once they got a couple of early shots to go in they got some confidence to start the game; they hadn't been shooting great."

For the second straight game, SIUE never led in the contest. Winthrop broke out to an 11-0 lead Tuesday and never looked back. The Eagles pushed the lead to 17-4 when SIUE made a push. The Cougars used an 8-0 run to pull within five points with 10:52 left before half. Back-to-back three-pointers by Jamal King made it 23-12 Winthrop with 8:36 left. Winthrop led 42-27 at the half.

The Cougars never close the gap to less than 14 points in the second period despite shooting 61.3 percent (19-31) during the half. The Cougars were 30-63 (47.6 percent) from the field for the game. It was their second-best shooting performance of the year.

"One of the things that we're doing a better job of is starting to understand where the shots should come from," Barone said. "Guys are taking, for the most part, better shots and they can have a higher success rate."

The Eagles were 30-59 (50.8 percent) from the field. Winthrop finished the game 15-29 (51.7 percent) from long range.

"Ultimately it came down to they had us in too many scramble situations and we weren't disciplined enough to contain that first step," Barone added.

Zeke Moore and Cam Williams each finished with 15 points to lead the Cougars. For Moore it was his fourth straight double-digit scoring effort and the sixth in his last seven games. He tied his SIUE career high with four three-pointers.

Tyresse Williford scored 12 points and added six assists.

"For Ty, 12 points, six assists and one turnover on 5-6 shooting," Barone said. "That is a huge game for him."

Brandon Jackson scored eight points and Treavon Martin added six points and two steals all in the second half.

"He didn't play in the first half and I thought with the way they were guarding, they were leaving our 4-men open and Tre can really shoot the ball," Barone said of Martin. He did a heck of a job. He was locked into the scouting report. He knocked down two jumpers and had a nice dive to the rim with the little jump-hook. He was one of the bright spots today."

D.J. Burns paced Winthrop with a career-high 19 points. Chandler Vaudrin scored 13 points and was 4-5 from three-point range. The Eagles outrebounded the Cougars 42-26.

SIUE continues on the road with a Saturday afternoon game at Detroit Mercy.

"We have a lot of return games and in the future I won't be scheduling all around the country like this," Barone said. "It is the hand we were dealt and we're just going to have to figure it out. We get to play basketball. We will go up to Detroit and try to find a way to get a win."