Southern Illinois University Edwardsville has earned the first automatic bid of the 2025 NCAA men's basketball tournament, defeating Southeast Missouri State, 69-48, to win the Ohio Valley Conference championship Saturday night in Evansville, Indiana.
With the win, SIUE also earned its first berth in the Division I NCAA men's tournament in program history. The school moved up from Division II in 2008 after competing in the Great Lakes Valley Conference for 15 years.
Head coach Brian Barone has the Cougars in the field of 68 for the first time with only the third winning season in his six years in Edwardsville. After finishing 8-13 in Barone's debut season. SIUE goes into the NCAA tournament with a 22-11 record and 13-7 mark in the OVC.
The Cougars shook off a slow start, falling behind 12-5 before going on a 15-4 run and taking the lead on a 3-pointer by Brian Taylor II. SIUE didn't surrender the lead for the remaining eight minutes of the first half and opened up a 35-24 margin at halftime behind nine points from Ray'Sean Taylor and eight by Brian Taylor.
However, after shooting 32% (10-of-31) in the first 20 minutes and scoring far below their 75 points per game average, SEMO made its first three shots of the second half, including a 3 by Rob Martin that cut the Cougars' lead to 36-31. The Redhawks kept chipping away at the free-throw line until tying the score at 36-36 on a layup by Brendan Terry.
But SIUE regained the lead at 40-38 on a jumper from Declan Dillon and subsequently went on a 9-0 run capped by a 3 from Ring Malith to open up a 10-point margin. SEMO went cold again, missing eight consecutive shots before Terry finally broke the drought. Yet by then, the Cougars expanded their lead to 15.
Ray'Sean Taylor, the OVC Player of the Year, finished with 20 points and 13-of-16 free throws to lead the Cougars. He also took over as the school's all-time leading scorer with 1,950 points. Malith added 12 points. Both players grabbed seven rebounds in the win.
Poor shooting was ultimately SEMO's downfall. The Redhawks shot 28% (17-of-60) from the floor, hitting only 3-of-24 of their 3-point attempts. Martin led SEMO with 18 points, followed by Terry's 16. The Redhawks finish their season with a 21-12 record and 15-5 conference mark.