Wallace carries E. Illinois over SE Missouri 72-70

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AP) — Josiah Wallace had 29 points as Eastern Illinois picked up its first conference road win, edging Southeast Missouri 72-70 on Thursday night.

Marvin Johnson added 11 points for the Panthers (15-14, 8-9 Ohio Valley Conference), who survived a last-second shot after Shareef Smith made 1 of 2 free throws with five seconds left.

Quatarrius Wilson scored 19 points and grabbed eight rebounds for the Redhawks (7-23, 3-14), who have lost three straight. Sage Tolbert added 16 points and 14 rebounds. Skyler Hogan had 14 points.

A Wallace layup with just under three minutes to play had the Panthers up 67-63 but Isaiah Gable knocked down a 3-pointer and Hogan made a layup to put the Redhawks back on top with less than two minutes to go.

Wallace made two free throws with 1:41 to play and after a miss by SEMO, Wallace scored in the paint a minute to go. Both teams came up empty on their next possession before Alex Caldwell scored to cut the deficit to one but he couldn’t connect on the final shot after the Smith free throw.

Eastern Illinois defeated Southeast Missouri 61-59 on Jan. 25. Eastern Illinois finishes out the regular season against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville on the road on Saturday. Southeast Missouri finishes out the regular season against UT Martin on the road on Saturday.