Men’s Basketball Set Back By SIUE 79-58

Published: April 13, 2021

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. The men's basketball team failed to contain NCAA Division I Southern Illinois University Edwardsville as the Cougars stretched a four-point halftime lead into a 79-58 win Saturday night at the Vadalabene Center.

Greenville (10-7) was led in scoring by junior Markeith Brown who netted 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting to go along with five rebounds. Andy Traeger finished with 13 points as he was 3-of-11 from three-point range for the Panthers in the losing effort.

Guard Corey Wickware led SIUE with a game-high 17 points. It was his 18^th double-digit scoring output this season and the eighth time he has led the Cougars in scoring.

The Panthers played suffocating defense in the first half to force the Cougars into 14 turnovers, but fell short of the lead as SIUE caught fire from the field. SIUE shot 45.8 percent (11-of-24) from the floor, including a mark of 5-of-10 from three-point range,to hold the 31-27 margin at intermission.

In the second half, the Cougars used a 21-2 run during a span ofover seven minutesto close the door on the traveling Panthers. SIUE shot 15-of-29 as a team to post a percentage of 51.7 in the period.

"Our guys played really hard tonight and hung in there the whole time," said first year assistant coach and former GC player Stephen Groves. "They just had the check mark in the shooting column and used it to their advantage in the second half. We simply failed to match it."

Greenvillehits the court again on Wednesday, Feb. 2, as they travel to Eureka College to take on the Red Devils at 8p.m. in a St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference bout.