ST. CHARLES, Mo. – Keenon Cole scored a game-high 20 points and made 10 free throws, including eight-straight in the final 1:28 to give Lindenwood (8-14, 2-7) a 58-54 win over Southeast Missouri (7-15, 2-7) Tuesday night in a low scoring affair at Hyland Arena.
 
LU completed a two-game sweep of SEMO this season.
 
Fourteen ties and nine lead changes later, the game was decided at the free throw line with Cole carrying the Lions to victory. He buried six of his free throws in 20 seconds to hold off the Redhawks for good. 
 
After Evan Eursher's two free throws tied the game at 50-50 with 1:04 to go, Cole was fouled and responded with two free throws of his own to regain a two-point edge for the Lions.
 
Aquan Smart was then fouled and went to the line to shoot two. Smart missed his first shot and made his second pulling the Redhawks within one at 52-51 with 12 seconds on the clock.
 
Cole and Nathan Johnson tacked on two free throws each to increase LU's lead to 56-51 before Eursher drained a 3-pointer to narrow the Lions' margin to 56-54 with 1.1 seconds.
 
Cole made his last two free throws to seal it.
 
SEMO and LU struggled in a first half that ended with only 38 combined points.
 
LU scored 12 of its first 15 points of the game off turnovers and used a 10-0 run to take a double-digit lead midway through the first half.
 
After Braxton Stacker threw down a dunk off a nice lob pass from Smart in transition to tie the game at 5-5, the Lions scored the next 10 points to pull ahead, 15-5, with 11:10 remaining.
 
SEMO capitalized on a stretch which saw LU go scoreless for over five minutes and went on a 9-0 surge to get within one. Earley's layup cut the Lions lead to 15-14 with 5:51 left to play.
 
Cole ended the long drought for LU when he scored a layup and followed that up with splitting two free throws to get the Lions an 18-14 advantage.
 
The Lions went ahead by four on a driving layup by Jaylon McDaniel before Stacker scored the final bucket of the half cutting LU's lead to 20-18 at the intermission.
 
SEMO turned the ball over 13 times and shot 33.3 percent (6-of-18) from the field, while LU made just 29 percent of its shots going 9-of-31 from the floor in the opening 20 minutes of play.
 
It was the lowest scoring first half SEMO was involved in since the Redhawks (19) and Tennessee Tech (19) also teamed up for 38 points on Feb. 7, 2019.
 
Earley turned in a double-double 19 points and 11 rebounds to lead SEMO. He shot 7-of-11 from the field and made 5-of-6 free throws. Two of his free throws gave the Redhawks their largest lead (37-31) of the night with 8:44 in the second half.
 
Smart followed with 11 points and Eursher contributed nine points and six boards.
 
Cole went 10-of-12 at the free throw line to complement his five made field goals. He also grabbed eight rebounds.
 
Beane, who scored 12 of his points in the second half, finished with 14. He also had the game-clinching steal.
 
SEMO (1-of-10) and LU (1-of-11) were a combined 2-of-21 from 3-point range.
 
The Redhawks return home to host Western Illinois Feb. 3.