RICHMOND, Ky. – Despite connecting on a season-high 60 percent of its shots, SIUE dropped a 78-72 decision to Eastern Kentucky in Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball Saturday at McBrayer Arena.

The Cougars, now 4-8 overall and 0-2 in the OVC, hit 27 of 45 field goal attempts in the game, including 7 of 13 tries from three-point range. The 27 made field goals were the most for the Cougars against a Division I opponent this season, and second only to 29 made baskets against Eureka.

For the second straight game, late turnovers proved to be the Cougars' undoing. The Colonels forced SIUE into 17 turnovers. The Cougars turned the ball over four times in the final five minutes of the game.

"Again, one thing that has been hurting us is turnovers," SIUE Head Coach Lennox Forrester said. "Down the stretch turnovers hurt us again."

Mark Yelovich scored 14 points, to move into third place on SIUE's all-time scoring list. Yelovich now has 1,268 points for his career. He moved past John Edwards who scored 1,267 points from 1985-87. Yelovich was 4 of 6 from the floor and 6 of 8 from the free throw line. He also paced the Cougars with a game-high seven rebounds.

"He's such a big part of what we do and what we've done over the last four years," Forrester said. "When he's in the game and he has the basketball good things happen. He makes us better."

Yelovich was one of four Cougars to score in double figures. Jerome Jones led SIUE with 15 points. He was 6 of 9 from the field, including 3 of 4 from three-point range. Michael Messer had 12 points and Kris Davis added 10.  

"We're getting better as a basketball team, Forrester added. "We're getting healthy. We're getting guys that can really help our team finally playing more minutes."

EKU, now 12-3 overall and 2-0 in the OVC, took an eight-point lead into halftime. Deverin Muff hit a three-pointer 15 seconds into the second half to extend the lead to 11 at 39-28. Derian Shaffer cut the lead to nine with a tip-in. Mike DiNunno then gave Eastern Kentucky its largest lead of the night with a three-pointer to make it 42-30.

It was 47-37 with Maurice Wiltz was fouled and hit a pair of free throws to start a 7-0 Cougar run to cut the lead to three points. EKU again stretched the lead.

A Corey Walden free throw made it 56-46 Colonels with 11:01 to play when the Cougars proceeded on another scoring run. This time a 14-2 run over the next 3:41 put the SIUE up 60-58 with 7:19 left in the game.

Walden tied the game at 60 with two more free throws before DiNunno and Messer traded three-pointers to leave the score knotted at 63 with 5:37 left. The Colonels scored the next five points to go up 68-63 and never trailed again in the game.

DiNunno paced the EKU offense with 17 points including four three-pointers. Walden scored 16 points and was 8 of 8 at the free throw line. Eric Stutz scored 13 points and Orlando Williams scored 12.

The Cougars finished the game with a season-high 17 assists. Davis, Wiltz and Reggie Reed each collected four assists. Yelovich and Tim Johnson had two assists each.

The Cougars return home to continue OVC play against Jacksonville State Thursday in a 7 p.m. game.

"Now it's a matter of how we pick ourselves up and get going," Forrester said. One thing we have to do is to protect our home court. That's what we have to do starting Thursday."