History Made – First Ticket Punched

SIUE Cougars Win The OVC Title

(St. Louis, MO) – Southern Illinois Edwardsville is the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament champion. Cougar coach Brian Barone was determined to see history made and it was made on Saturday in Evansville, Indiana.

SIUE defeated regular season champion Southeast Missouri 69-48 for the program’s first ever Division 1 championship of any kind. Their 22 wins are a program record and the next historical event will be playing in the NCAA Tournament.

Those in attendance and watching on TV witnessed history made when senior guard Ray’Sean Taylor became the program’s all-time leading scorer across all the divisions. Taylor surpassed Jason Holmes’ total of 1,949 points. Now the OVC ‘Player of the Year’ has scored 1,952 points.

By watching Taylor, we observe history made on a consistent basis. He is the program’s first OVC ‘Player of the Year’, SIUE’s all-time leading scorer, and three-point converter (293).

History Made – The Championship Game

Southeast Missouri opened the game with a 12-5 start, but the Cougars chipped away at that deficit and took the lead with 8:31 left in the first half and finished the opening session with a nine-point advantage.

Tenacious SEMO defense changed the game’s complexion at the start of the second half. After a Taylor free throw increased the lead to 10 points (36-26), the Redhawks put the brakes on the Cougar offense and scored the game’s next ten points. The teams were tied at the 14:47 mark and again at the 14:17 mark the score was tied at 38.

Then SIUE went on a 19 to two run. The game was all but over.

Taylor finished with 24 points (making 13 of 16 free throws). Ring Malith added 12 and Brian Taylor added ten. SIUE’s bench outscored SEMO’s reserves 19-2 and the Cougars dominated the glass to the tune of 50 to 31. They ruled ‘the paint’ scoring 40 ‘points-in-the-paint’ to SEMO’s 22.

While SEMO’s Rob Martin connected on three of seven three-point attempts, the rest of his team was zero for 17.

Martin was named to the all-tournament team along with Taylor, Malith, SIUE’s Myles Thompson and Little Rock’s Mwani Wilkinson.

 

History Made – Ticket Punched – SIUE is Going Dancing

On Sunday, March 16th the Cougars will hear their team name called on the NCAA Tournament Selection Show on CBS. While most bracketologists have slated the OVC champion to be sent to Dayton, Ohio, we won’t know for sure until that Sunday night.

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