EVANSVILLE, IN - Southern Indiana shot a blistering 56 percent from the floor to defeat the University of Illinois Springfield men's basketball team, 85-64, Saturday afternoon at the PAC.

The host Screaming Eagles dominated the glass against the University of Illinois Springfield men's basketball, 40-23, and grabbed 11 offensive rebounds to UIS' three.

UIS scored the first six points of the game behind a pair of buckets from senior forward Jesse Tesmer. Over the next three minutes, the Screaming Eagles scored 13 straight points to take the lead and take control of the game. The hosts built up an 18-point advantage, 31-13, by the 8:35 minute mark.

The Prairie Stars began to chip away at the lead and pulled within eight points, 38-30, after a 17-8 run of their own. Six different players scored for UIS during the run. USI guard Bobo Drummond was cluth for the hosts as the Peoria-native knocked down a three to push the lead back to double digits and then scored again to give Southern Indiana a 45-33 lead heading into the break. Drummond finished with a game-high 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting.

Freshman Bahari Amaya (Harrisburg, Ill.) scored a team-best 15 points for the Prairie Stars on 5-of-10 shooting. Transfer senior Jesse Tesmer (Greencastle, Ind.) was a perfect 6-for-6 from the floor to finish with a career-high 14 points.

Back-to-back buckets by junior Richard Freeman (Indianapolis, Ind.) and Tesmer brought UIS within eight, 45-37, just 90 seconds into the second half. That was as close as they got though on Saturday. After the teams traded buckets over the next two minutes, Drummond knocked down another three for the hosts that kick started a 20-8 run that broke the game wide open. The Screaming Eagles pushed the lead to as many as 25 down the stretch as they rolled to the 85-64 win.

UIS is back in action this Friday against Cumberland at 7 p.m.