WEDNESDAY'S SCORES
IUPUI 69, @Eastern Illinois 66
Arkansas State 73, @Southeast Missouri 49
@Evansville 76, SIU Edwardsville 46
IUPUI 69, EASTERN ILLINOIS 66
CHARLESTON, Ill. - Eastern Illinois trailed by eight points with just over three minutes remaining and had their rally fall just short as Tyler Laser's 3-pointer as time expired bounced off the back rim giving IUPUI (2-0) a 69-66 win over the Panthers (1-1) on Wednesday night at Lantz Arena.
IUPUI led 65-57 following a jumper by Jon Avery with 3:06 left in the contest. EIU would close it to four points with 32 seconds left on a 3-pointer by Shuan Pratl and to three points on a 3-pointer by Curry McKinney with 15 seconds remaining. EIU would foul Leroy Nobles who missed the front end of the one-and-one and McKinney grabbed the rebound to give the Panthers the ball with 13 seconds left. Laser's shot would miss as the buzzer sounded. Laser finished with 14 points.
IUPUI jumped out of the gates in the first half building a 10-2 lead as Billy Pettiford made couple of trips to the free throw line by drawing two quick fouls on EIU big man Ousmane Cisse. IUPUI would build the lead to as many as 11 points in the first half before the Panthers made a late charge. McKinney cut IUPUI's halftime lead to 37-35 with a lay-up.
Edin Suljic would give the Panthers their first lead of the game with 18:24 to play as he hit a jumper in the lane. Alex Young then sparked a 15-3 Jaguars run starting at the 15:43 mark as he hit a jumper followed by a Robert Glenn dunk. IUPUI extended the lead to as many as 12 points before EIU was able to chip away at the margin.
Pratl finished with 14 points for EIU while Suljic added 11.
IUPUI had four players score in double figures with Nobles scoring 24. Pettiford added 11 with Glenn and Young each scoring 10.
ARKANSAS STATE 73, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 49
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AP) - Brandon Reed scored 17 points to lead Arkansas State over Southeast Missouri 73-49 Wednesday night.
Reed was 6 of 11 from the field for Arkansas State (2-0). JeJuan Brown recorded a double-double, scoring 11 points and grabbing 13 rebounds and Martavius Adams scored 10 points for the Red Wolves.
Southeast Missouri (0-2) was led by Anthony Allison with 10 points.
The Red Wolves took a 12-2 lead to open the game and the lead never fell below 10 points the rest of the way. The Red Wolves led 43-21 at the half. They shot 52 percent from the field in the first half and finished 44 percent for the game.
Southeast Missouri has lost 21 straight dating to last season.
EVANSVILLE 76, SIU EDWARDSVILLE 46
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - For the third time this season, the SIUE Cougars fell behind and couldn't dig out of an early hole. The Evansville Purple Aces went ahead
20-4 Wednesday night and cruised to a 76-46 win in front of 3,823 at Roberts Stadium.
The Cougars went without a field goal for the first 6:33 of the game and never could bounce back, shooting 31 percent from the floor (16-52) for the game.
Sophomore Mark Yelovich (Mt. Zion) led the way for SIUE, 0-3. Yelovich scored
11 points and added seven rebounds. Senior Aamir McCleary (Philadelphia, Pa.) was the only other Cougar to score in double figures. McCleary scored 10.
Sophomore James Haarsma paced the Aces. Haarsma poured in a career-high 22 points and pulled down 12 rebounds.
Evansville, 2-0, dominated the glass Wednesday night, grabbing 49 rebounds to SIUE's 24. The rebounding edge led to a 42 of Evansville's 76 points coming in the paint.