Tennessee St. 83, E. Illinois 63

Published Mar. 1, 2009 4:21 a.m. ET

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Darius Cox scored 23 points and Tennessee State defeated Eastern Illinois 83-63 on Saturday night. Jerrell Houston added 19 points and 11 rebounds, which Gerald Robinson had 19 points for the Tigers (12-7, 9-9 Ohio Valley Conference), who clinched the No. 6 seed in the conference tournament that starts on Thursday night. Tennessee State shot 63 percent form the field in the second half (17 of 27), later taking a 43-25 lead at the break. The Tigers led 45-25 on a Jerrell Houston layup with 19:03 left in the game. Romain Martin scored 29 points for the Panthers, who earned the No. 7 seed in the OVC tournament with the loss. The loss also prevented Eastern Illinois (12-11, 8-10) from finishing at .500 in conference play for the first time since 2003. Tennessee State outrebounded the Panthers 34-22 en route to its fifth straight win.