Cougars drop out of top eight

Rick Crossin
Assistant Sports Editor

Members of the SIUE men's basketball team may be feeling a sense of urgency as the 1999-2000 season draws to an end.

The Cougars are ninth overall in the Great Lakes Valley Conference and in danger of missing the conference tournament. Only the top eight teams are invited to the tournament, which begins Thursday, March 2, at Evansville, Ind.

The reason the Cougars ended up in such a precarious situation was because of two conference losses over the weekend.

SIUE (5-10) lost to Lewis University (11-5) Thursday night and the University of Wisconsin-Parkside (2-14) Saturday afternoon .

Poor shooting was the story of Thursday's 79-59 loss as SIUE shot 42 percent from the field compared to 50 percent by Lewis.

Sophomore guard Ryan Sexson led the Cougars with 16 points, including four three-pointers. Marty Perry was the only other Cougar to score in double digits with 13.

SIUE succeeded in holding Flyer forward Tarrie Monroe to just 11 points, but four other Lewis players scored in double digits as well.

Forward Jeremy Wilson led Lewis with 20 points and Jonah Batambuze chipped in 13 points.

Turnovers once again were the difference in the contest, as SIUE gave the ball away 20 times.

Ty Moss missed his fifth straight game with an ankle injury, but he would play in Saturday's matchup with Wisconsin-Parkside.

Moss scored three points in his return, but SIUE lost 63-49. Travis Wallbaum led SIUE in scoring with 14 and six rebounds.

The Cougars committed 24 turnovers in the game, six above their season average.

Brian Coffman led the Rangers with 18 points and five rebounds. Willie Robinson was the only other player to score in double digits for Wisconsin-Parkside, scoring 15 points.

The Cougars will face the University of Southern Indiana Tuesday.

Southern Indiana is third in the conference with a 12-3 record. Habib Ademi leads Southern Indiana in scoring with 14.4 points per game, which is good for 10th in the GLVC.

Southern Indiana leads the GLVC in scoring at just over 90 points per game and wins each game by an average margin of 13 points.

The Cougars' game Tuesday begins at 7:30 p.m. in Evansville, Ind.