Sangamon Sun

Men's Basketball Concludes Regular Season with SEMO Saturday

Game 31
SIUE Cougars (17-13, 8-9 OVC) 
vs. Southeast Missouri Redhawks (15-15, 10-7 OVC) 
Saturday, February 25, 3:30 p.m. 
First Community Arena (4,000), Edwardsville, Illinois

LAST TIME OUT 
A furious comeback fell short for SIUE Thursday in a 79-74 loss to Little Rock at First Community Arena. The Cougars have dropped four in a row. The Trojans led 73-63 with 4:13 to play before SIUE reeled off the next eight points. The Cougars had the lead down to two after a pair of free throws form Damarco Minor made it 73-71 with 1:55 to play. Following a Little Rock miss, SIUE had the ball back with a chance to tie or take the lead when Ray'Sean Taylor was blocked going to the rim. The ball glanced off his leg before going out of bounds to give possession back to Little Rock. The Cougars never got any closer. 

TOURNEY TIME
For the first time, the Cougars have qualified for the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament in three consecutive years. SIUE will play as the No. 6 or No. 7 seed and will face Southern Indiana in the first round Wednesday in Evansville, Indiana. 

RECORD WINS
With 17 overall wins, SIUE has won its most games at the Division I level. Seven road wins also is a program high at Division I. Eight OVC wins ties the program best. 

DO IT FOR FREE
SIUE leads the OVC in free throw percentage at .735. The Cougars lead the league in free throws made per game at 17.1, which ranks 11th in the NCAA and attempts at 23.3, which is 12th nationally. SIUE has had nine games this year with at least 30 free throw attempts. The Cougars attempted 41 free throws Jan.5 vs. Tennessee State, which was the most in a single game since 2018.

BLOCK PARTY
SIUE tied the school record for blocks with 11 against Illinois Tech. The Cougars lead the OVC in blocks at 4.1 per game, which ranks 63rd in the NCAA. Five Cougars appear in the top 14 individually in the OVC. 

WRIGHT PLACE
With 15 points against UT Martin, Shamar Wright eclipsed the 1,000-point plateau for his career, becoming the 17th player at SIUE to do so. He has 1,073 career points, which is 11th all-time at SIUE. He is averaging a career-best 10.9 points per game. He scored a season-best 20 points at TSU last Saturday. 

Original source can be found here