ST. LOUIS - Indiana State fell to host Saint Louis by the score of 63-54 in the opening round of the College Basketball Invitational in front of 3,542 fans at The Chaifetz Arena.

ISU, which accepted its first postseason bid since 2001, ends the season with a 17-15 record, which is its first winning season since that same campaign. Saint Louis continues in the CBI with a 21-11 mark.

The Sycamores were without the services of senior Harry Marshall, who missed the game with a foot injury.

Indiana State was led in scoring by eight points each from five different players -- Rashad Reed, Koang Doluony, Dwayne Lathan, Isiah Martin and Aaron Carter.

Indiana State fought to end as they trailed 54-38 with just over eight minutes left but were sparked by the hot shooting of Koang Doluony who hit a pair of 3-pointers to ignite a 10-3 burst to cut the lead down to 57-48 with 4:17 left in the contest.

Lathan continued the run with a free throw with 3:01 on the clock to make it 57-49. Saint Louis scored their first points of the game since the 7:08 mark on a free throw by Conklin to make it 58-49 with 1:34 remaining.

SLU hit three more free throws and Aaron Carter tacked on two more to make it 61-51 with 42 seconds left in the contest. Carter then followed up a pair of Billiken free throws to hit his first trey of the contest with 27 seconds left to make it 63-54.

The Sycamores hit 17-of-53 shots from the field (32.1 percent) while they were 6-of-17 from 3-point range (35.3 percent). Saint Louis made 23-of-57 shots from the field (40.4 percent), but the Sycamores limited the Billikens to just a 4-of-22 mark, including a 0-10 ledger from downtown in the second half, from 3-point range.

Indiana State, the nation's second leading free throw shooters coming into the contest, was 14-of-21 in the game (66.7 percent) while SLU was 13-of-20 (65 percent). Saint Louis owned a 39-36 lead in the rebounding wars although the Sycamores used 11 offensive rebounds to score six second chance points.

ISU made 17 turnovers in the contest that Saint Louis converted in 23 points while the Sycamores were able to muster six points off 12 Billiken miscues.

Carl Richard paced the Sycamores with nine rebounds, one of three Sycamores to record at least seven caroms. Lathan added those seven while Reed posted a career-high eight in his final collegiate contest.

Saint Louis got an early 3-pointer from Mitchell before Lathan answered by hitting 1-of-2 free throws before a minute ticked off the clock. The Billikens the scored the game's next six points for a 9-1 cushion as Reed answered the spurt with a trey to trim the SLU lead to 9-4. Saint Louis then went on an 8-0 run for a 17-4 advantage as Isiah Martin scored inside the make it 17-6 with 14:32 to go in the opening stanza.

The Billikens added a free throw by Remekun at the 14:08 mark and Printy countered with a triple with 12:55 to go which cut the SLU lead down to 18-9.

SLU went up 22-9 and Reed hit his second 3-pointer of the first half to cut the Billiken cushion down to 22-12 with 10:25 on the clock.

The Sycamores went scoreless over the next three minutes before Crawford hit a jumper with 7:37 on the clock to trim the Billiken lead down to 28-14.

ISU's defense held SLU to just four points over the next three minutes but the Sycamores could only muster a pair of Crawford charity tosses as the SLU lead grew to 32-16.

ISU's Martin scored a bucket with 2:11 to go and Reed followed that up as the Sycamore defense held Saint Louis to points and cut into the cushion further at 32-20 with Reed's basket at the 1:36 mark.

A 3-pointer by SLU's Jordan with 1:20 left in the half made it 35-20 before Printy hit a reverse lay-up with a minute on the clock to make it 35-22. Reed connected on a pair of free throws with 37.2 seconds left to stretch the lead out to 37-22 and then Lathan connected on a driving lay-up as the clock ticked under 10 seconds to make it 37-24 and Reed nearly connected on a buzzer beating trey as the clock expired to send the teams into the half.

The Sycamores were paced by Reed's eight points at the half while Printy had five.

Down 37-24 at the half, the Sycamores used a quick five points out of the gate, spurred by a conventional 3-point play from Dwayne Lathan to make it 37-27 and then a pair of free throws by Carl Richard after making a steal with 17:24 on the clock. SLU answered with a bucket of their own and then a put back by Isiah Martin with 15:43 to go cut the Billiken lead down to 41-31.

A Koang Dolouny breakaway lay-up with 12:42 on the clock made it 46-33 but SLU answered with another basket on the Billikens' next possession to make it 48-33 as the clock reached the 12-minute mark.

The Sycamores then began a parade to the free throw line hitting 1-of-2 shots three separate times to make it 50-36 on a charity toss by Carl Richard with 10:03 on the clock.

Richard continued his solid second half of play with a jumper in the paint that made it 54-38 with 8:55 left.