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CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – The Eastern Kentucky University men’s basketball team led from start to finish in a 59-56 road win at Southeast Missouri Thursday night in the Show Me Center. With the win, the Colonels (18-8, 10-4) reached double-figure Ohio Valley Conference victories for the sixth straight year.

Senior Josh Taylor paced EKU with 18 points. Junior Justin Stommes added 14 points, 12 of which came in the first half. Meanwhile, freshman Willie Cruz led the Colonels in rebounding with a personal-high seven boards.

Southeast Missouri’s Anthony Allison recorded 16 of his game-high 20 points in the second half. The Redhawks (7-18, 3-11) have now lost six consecutive OVC games.

Eastern Kentucky jumped on top of SEMO early, as four different Colonels tallied a bucket on the way to an 8-0 lead. Stommes’ only three-pointer of the night put EKU ahead, 21-10. Late in the first half, Stommes converted a three-point play to push the Colonel lead to 15 points, 34-19.

The visiting Colonels shot 50 percent (15-of-30) from the floor in the first 20 minutes of action to take a 36-23 cushion into intermission.

Back-to-back three-pointers from junior Josh Daniel and Taylor gave Eastern its largest lead of the contest, 48-29. However, the Colonels would score just 11 points in the final 14 minutes of play allowing Southeast Missouri to hang around.

A pair of three-pointers from Allison along with another trifecta from Derek Thompson helped SEMO close the gap to seven points with five minutes left, 56-49. Two Allison free throws with 1:50 remaining brought the Redhawks to within two points, 56-54. SEMO had a chance to take the lead on its next possession, but Thompson missed a long-range three-point attempt.

Taylor finally ended Eastern Kentucky’s cold spell with a running lay-up with 19 seconds left to put EKU back up by four points, 58-54. The Colonels twice missed chances to ice the game down the stretch on the free throw line, but Southeast Missouri couldn’t net either of its two looks from three-point land allowing EKU to earn the season sweep.

In the final eight minutes of the second half, the Colonels were 2-of-9 (22.2 percent) from the field and 1-of-7 (14.3 percent) from the free throw line.

Eastern Kentucky continues its road swing Saturday, Feb. 13 at Eastern Illinois. Game time is set for 7 p.m. ET.