RICHMOND, Ky. – Freshman Roderick Pearson scored a career-high 22 points and the Southeast Missouri Redhawks forced 17 Eastern Kentucky turnovers as the Redhawks earned an 88-74 win in men's basketball Tuesday night in McBrayer Arena. The victory ended a six-game losing skid for SEMO (4-11, 2-4 OVC) while the Colonels (8-5, 3-2) dropped their second straight home conference game.

Eastern Kentucky shot 59.3 percent (16-of-27) in the first half to take a 41-32 cushion into the break. The Colonels tallied the first two points of the second half to build their biggest lead, 43-32, only to see Southeast Missouri go on a 16-5 spurt to level the contest at 48-all with 14:04 remaining.

A three-pointer by Terrick Willoughby one minute later gave the Redhawks the lead for good, 52-51. Two more Willoughby buckets pushed the Southeast Missouri advantage to six points, 57-51. The Colonels closed the gap to two points on two occasions, but would get no closer.

After a Mike Rose lay-up cut the SEMO lead to 59-57 with 8:33 left, the Redhawks put the game away with a 16-2 run thanks to netting 7-of-8 field goal attempts, four of which were three-pointers. Southeast Missouri hit 8-of-12 (66.7 percent) from behind the arc in the second half while connecting on a season-high 59.1 percent (13-of-22) of their three-pointers for the game.

Pearson finished with a double-double as the guard tallied 11 assists to go along with his 22 points. Three other Redhawks notched 14 points on the evening – Brandon Foust, David Johnson and Willoughby.

For the first time in over a year, five Colonels recorded double-figure points. Freshman Josh Daniel came off the bench and registered a personal-high 15 points in 16 minutes of action. Fellow freshman Adam Leonard netted 17 points while hitting five three-pointers.

Eastern Kentucky's 17 turnovers led to 30 Southeast Missouri points. The 88 points were also the most given up by the Colonels this season.

The Colonels are right back in action Thursday night, Jan. 4, at Tennessee Tech. Eastern has lost seven straight games in Cookeville dating back to the 1997-98 season. Tip time is slated for 8:30 p.m.