MACOMB, Ill. - Lindenwood men's basketball (6-9, 0-2 OVC) dropped their first road Ohio Valley Conference game of the season to OVC newcomer Western Illinois (10-6, 3-0 OVC) by a final score of 57-68. Lions were held to under 30 points in both halves.

"Tonight was a tough loss on the road," said head coach Kyle Gerdeman. "I thought we competed during our first road conference game, but we just did not finish the game in order to get a win."

Darius Beane was the Lions' leading scorer on Saturday with 16 points on 7-15 shooting. Beane also had two assists and two steals. Keenon Cole continued his double figure scoring streak to 15 games after scoring 13 points in the loss. He also added eight rebounds.

Lindenwood's offense jumped out early at Western Illinois to a 12-4 lead. During that span, Keith Haymon II hit a big three while Cole added a turnaround jumper for the Lions. Isaac Ondekane added big minutes in his second start of the season posting nine points in the first half.

Beane and Cole traded off baskets midway through the first half to extend the Lions' lead to 18-11. Jeremiah Talton then added a deep three in transition off a pass from Beane to give LU a 10 point advantage with 9:13 left to play.

Western Illinois went on a big 13-1 run to regain to lead at 22-26. KJ Lee and James Dent Jr. both had three pointers in that span. Ondekane put on the spin moves down low to cut the Leathernecks' lead to 26-27 with 3:26 remaining. WIU closed out the half on a 7-2 run to go up 28-34 at the break.

Lindenwood was outrebounded in the first half 13-25 which included 12 Leatherneck offensive rebounds. Rebounding was an issue for the Lions throughout the game especially on the offensive glass. LU shot 41.7% at halftime and was led by Ondekane with nine points.

In the first four minutes of the second half, Western Illinois jumped out to a 10 points lead off a 9-5 run led by Drew Cisse who ended the game with nine points and 17 rebounds, 11 of those on offense.

Talton scored a layup with 12:55 left to play to cut the WIU lead to six points (39-45). Cole would continue the comeback for the Lions with a layup of his own to cut the lead to four points.

After being down seven points with 10:21 remaining, Cole was called for a technical foul which opened up the offense for the Leathernecks. After two free throws by Dent Jr., he would then make back-to-back threes to extend to lead to 43-56.

Beane ended the final couple minutes of the game on a scoring run posting eight of his 16 points from the 10:23 minute mark to the 5:00 minute mark. It was not enough as the Lions fall on the road.

Tommie Williams added six points on the Lindenwood bench while Talton and Haymon both added five each. LU was outrebounded 23-50 which included 24 offensive rebounds for the Leathernecks.

Lindenwood will return to action on Thursday, Jan. 6 at 7:30 p.m. CT as they travel to in-state rival Southeast Missouri for an OVC battle. For more information go to lindenwoodlions.com.