HAMMOND, La. – Southeastern Louisiana withstood a second-half rally by UIW to win its 14^th straight home game, 74-63, in Southland Conference action Monday afternoon in the University Center.

    The Lions (9-6) won their third straight overall in moving to 2-0 in Southland play for the first time since the 2009-10 season.

    Southeastern's home win streak is its longest since a 23-game streak from Feb. 22, 2003 to Feb. 5, 2005. UIW (5-8, 0-2) was the last team to defeat the Lions in the University Center, taking a 75-71 win on Jan. 16, 2016.

    Sophomore guard Marlain Veal helped ensure there would not be a repeat of that loss, tossing in 24 points while recording six assists. Junior forward James Currington contributed 13 points and a game-high nine rebounds while sophomore forward Moses Greenwood had 10 points and eight rebounds.

    Southeastern shot 40.6 percent from the field but out-rebounded UIW 41-38 and committed a season-low nine turnovers.

    "Even though we didn't have our best game in the area of shooting, we actually played very well in other areas," Southeastern head coach Jay Ladner said. "Defensively, we did another good job and it won the game for us. I'm just very proud we could win a game when we didn't shoot the basketball as well as we've had, but we out-rebounded them, had a season low in turnovers and just made some tough plays to stretch that game back out for us."

    Southeastern held UIW, the second-highest scoring team in the Southland coming in, to its second-lowest scoring output of the season. The Cardinals were led by Jalin Hart with 14 points and four assists. Shawn Johnson had 13 points and seven rebounds while Miles Bankes added a team-high eight rebounds and nine points. UIW shot 43.1 percent overall after hitting 57.7 percent of its shots in the second half.

    Southeastern took a 39-25 lead into the half and led 44-29 after a three-point play by junior forward Eddy Polanco with 16:14 remaining. But UIW went on a 10-0 run over the next 4:22 to get to within two. Three Hart layups, another one by Simi Socks and a Sam Burmeister 3 cut the deficit to 44-42 with 12:03 left.

    Veal ended the drought for the Lions with a layup at the 11:52 mark. Baskets by Currington and Greenwood made it 51-44 with 10 minutes remaining. UIW again rallied, cutting the lead to 57-54 on a Tyler Singleton layup with 5:13 left.

    But Southeastern responded with an 8-1 run over the next 2:42 as Currington scored off a Veal pass and Greenwood drove in for a layup. Veal scored off a steal by sophomore guard Dimi Cook to make it 65-55 with 2:31 remaining.

    After UIW cut the deficit to 8 on a Hart layup, Veal and Currington each hit jumpers and Veal added a pair of free throws to give Southeastern a 71-57 lead with 35 seconds left.

    UIW took its final lead of the game at 7-6 on a Socks layup with 15:32 left in the first half. Following a steal by junior guard Davon Hayes, Veal lofted a pass to Greenwood for a dunk to give Southeastern the lead for good. A pair of free throws by Polanco and one by senior center Dominic Nelson gave the Lions a 16-9 lead at the 11:13 mark.

    UIW cut the margin to 16-14 on a Bankes layup with 10:08 left. A 5-0 run, capped by a Nelson putback pushed the lead back to 21-14 with 7:37 remaining. After a Devin Wyatt layup, the Lions went on a 12-1 run highlighted by a pair of 3s by Veal and a Currington layup. A Veal free throw gave Southeastern its biggest lead of the half at 33-17 at the 4:29 mark.

    The Cardinals came back with a 6-0 spurt to pull to within 33-23 on a Hart layup with 1:55 left. But Currington answered with a jumper in the paint and Veal took a steal in for a 37-23 lead with 1:03 remaining. A Polanco layup made it 39-25 at the half.

    The Lions open a three-game conference road trip at Houston Baptist Thursday at 7 p.m.