COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Three SIUE players finished with season-highs in scoring Saturday but it came in a losing cause. The Cougars fell to Tennessee Tech 86-63 in Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball at the Eblen Center.
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SIUE has dropped four straight games and is now 3-11 overall and 0-2 in the OVC. Tennessee Tech improved to 10-5 and 2-0.
The Cougars fell behind by 17 early in the first half before making a run at the Golden Eagles. A three-pointer by Aleksa Jugovic at 9:34 made it 27-10. Yemi Makanjuola made a short jumper with 4:47 to play in the half to cap off a 17-5 run by SIUE and trim the TTU lead to 32-27. It was as close as the Cougars came the rest of the way.
"I give credit where it is due first of all," SIUE Head Coach Jon Harris said. "Tennessee Tech is a good basketball team. They came to play. They competed a little bit harder and set the tone early in the game and it kind of snowballed from there."
Tennessee Tech finished the half with a 10-2 surge and led 42-29 at the break.
"It's really a recurring theme," Harris said. "You dig yourselves a hole, you make a run, but then we don't get enough stops to get over the hump."
SIUE was 13 for 25 (52 percent) from the field during the first half but hit just 26.9 percent (7 for 26) of its shots in the second half. Tennessee Tech was 31 for 54 (57.4 percent) for the game.
The Cougars never did get the Golden Eagle lead under double digits in the second half.
Carlos Anderson scored a career-high 16 points to lead the Cougars. Connor Wheeler tied his season high with nine points, which all came in the second half. Jake Newton knocked down a pair of three-pointers and finished with a season-best eight points.
"Carlos did some really good things," Harris said. "He's really growing. We've been getting positive contributions from Jake and that's good to see. Connor put together a good second half. There were some bright spots out there."
Ryan Martin led Tennessee Tech with a game-high 26 points. Anthony Morse scored 17 points and Torrance Rown and Hakeem Rogers each scored 12. Rogers was 4 for 8 from three-point range.
"This is our league. It is a league dominated by guard play," Harris added. "Everyone can penetrate and pitch. Everyone has a couple of shot makers. We have to do a better job of containing the basketball."
The Golden eagles doubled SIUE's production inside, outscoring the Cougars 44-22 in the paint. TTU also capitalized on 16 SIUE turnovers, scoring 19 points from the takeaways.
SIUE returns home to face Belmont Wednesday night in Edwardsville. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. and the game will be broadcast live on the American Sports Network.
"This team is hungry and this team is not going to quit," Harris said. "This team is going to continue to push. We'll continue to grow."
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