EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The 25^th-ranked University of Southern Indiana men's basketball team had a second half comeback stopped short by the University of Illinois Springfield, 79-70, Thursday evening in Springfield, Illinois. USI, which had its winning streak stopped at six, saw its overall record fall to 19-6, 10-3 in the GLVC, while Illinois Springfield goes to 14-9 overall, 6-7 GLVC.
 
The Screaming Eagles flew out to early leads of nine points, 11-2 and 13-4, in the first six minutes. USI was nearly perfect from the field to start the game, hitting six of the first seven shots. The Prairie Stars responded with short burst of points and control of the glass to get their first lead of the game at 26-25 with 4:59 remaining in the opening half.
 
USI and Illinois Springfield would trade leads in the final four minutes before the Stars took a 34-33 advantage into the intermission. USI junior guard Alex Stein (Evansville, Indiana) and freshman forward Emmanuel Little (Indianapolis, Indiana) led the Eagles' offense in the first 20 minutes with eight points each.
 
After trading buckets to start the second half, the Stars began to pull away from the Eagles and built a 14-point lead, 59-45, with 11:41 remaining in game. USI fought back to get back to within one point, 61-60, with 15-4 run led by Stein and Little, who had eight and seven points, respectively, during the offensive burst.
 
The one-point deficit would be as close as the Eagles would come as the Stars would reestablish control with a quick 8-2 run and raced to a 79-70 victory.
 
Little finished contest by tying for a game-high with 23 points and grabbing a game-best 10 rebounds. The double-double was the freshman's sixth of the season and his third game of 20-or-more points in 2017-18.
 
Stein followed with 22 points to round out the double-digit scorers for the Eagles. The junior became the sixth Eagle all-time to climb over the 1,400-point plateau in a career and has 1,412 points in two-plus seasons.
 
The Eagles return to the friendly surroundings of the PAC for Senior Night Saturday versus seventh-ranked Bellarmine University. The Knights saw their record rise to 21-2 overall and 12-2 in the GLVC after defeating McKendree University, 87-66, tonight in Lebanon, Illinois.
 
USI lost the first meeting of the season with Bellarmine, 78-62, in Louisville, Kentucky, on January 15, but has a 50-41 all-time series lead over the Knights. Stein led the Eagles with 13 points, while junior guard/forward Nate Hansen and Little added 12 points each in the January loss. Freshman guard Mateo Rivera rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10 points.