Vincent leads Southern Illinois past Illinois St. 81-78

CARBONDALE, Ill. (AP) Leo Vincent scored a career-high 24 points, including the winning 3-pointer with 24 seconds left, to help Southern Illinois rally from a 12-point, second-half deficit and beat Illinois State 81-78 Tuesday night.

Illinois State (9-9, 3-2 Missouri Valley Conference) led 56-44 with 15 minutes to play.

An 11-2 run pulled Southern Illinois (15-3, 4-1) within three about 2 1/2 minutes later.

Illinois State's Deontae Hawkins made a layup to make it 72-68 with 4:15 left, but Mike Rodriguez had five points as the Salukis scored eight in a row to take a four-point lead with 1:29 left.

DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell converted a 3-point play and, after Vincent made two free throws, Hawkins hit a 3 to tie it at 78 with 55 seconds remaining - setting up Vincent's winner.

Paris Lee missed a potential tying 3 on the other end.

Vincent hit a career-high six of his seven 3-point shots.

MiKyle McIntosh, who scored a career-high 20 in Illinois State's loss to Indiana State on Saturday, scored 25.