ST. LOUIS -- Led by sophomore guard Jake Odum and his 17 points, Indiana State earned a 66-51 victory over Southern Illinois in the opening round of the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament at the Scottrade Center.

The Sycamores advance to the quarterfinals of the MVC Tournament with the victory and will take on No. 1 Wichita State on Friday, March 2. Tip-off is set for 1:08 p.m. (ET) in a game that will be televised on MVC TV as well as ESPN3.com.

ISU improves to 18-13 with the win while Southern Illinois sees its season end with an 8-23 mark.

Indiana State has now won each of their last four MVC conference tournament games, all under second-year head coach Greg Lansing. The win marks the first four-game winning streak for the Sycamores in MVC Tournament play throughout the history of ISU's league membership.

Odum scored 17 points points to lead the team and added a team-high eight rebounds. Joining Odum in double figures scoring with 15 points was Dwayne Lathan while Myles Walker tallied 12.

Sycamores missed their first three shots, but Jake Odum got Indiana State going just under two minutes into the contest on a driving lay-up to knot the score at two. After SIU briefly took another lead, Myles Walker answered with a conventional 3-point play at the 16:55 mark to once again tie the score at 5.

ISU found itself down 7-5, but the Sycamores got a defensive stop and Lucas Eitel drained a wide-open 3-pointer with 14:58 remaining to give the Sycamores their first lead of the game at 8-7.

In fact, Justin Bocot hit a lay-up with 16:11 on the clock and would not score another field goal until Mamoudou Seck hit a jumper with 9:02 remaining as the Sycamore defense allowed just four Saluki free throws over a seven minute stretch to lead 15-11 before the Seck basket. Printy answered the Seck field goal with his first 3-pointer of the game to stretch the lead out to 18-13 with 8:13 remaining. 

Odum hit the Sycamores' last 3-pointer on January 13 at SIU Arena and added with the perfect 12-of-12 performance by Indiana State on February 11 as well as Eitel's trey to start things off, ISU hit 14 3-pointers in a row against SIU over a three-game stretch this season before a Printy miss in the first half.

Printy's 3-pointer was followed by a driving lay-up from Lathan as well as a third-chance bucket from Justin Gant with just over six minutes remaining to stretch the ISU lead out to 22-13 and cap a 7-0 Sycamore run. SIU cut the Sycamore cushion down to 22-17, but Kitchell scored inside off a feed from McWhorter with 4:45 remaining to run the lead out to 24-17. 

Southern Illinois would get as close as five points twice in the final two minutes of the first half, but the Sycamores answered each time with a bucket by Jake Kitchell at the 1:19 mark and a lay-up by Lathan with 17 seconds remaining to take a 30-23 lead into the half.

ISU allowed the Salukis to hit just 6-of-23 shots from the field in the opening stanza (26.1 percent), including a 1-of-7 mark from 3-point range. SIU was 10-of-11 from the free throw line before halftime, while ISU was limited to just 2-of-6.

Jake Odum hit a pair of free throws with 20 seconds elapsed in the second half to stretch the lead out to 32-23 before Justin Bocot and Carl Richard each hit 3-pointers around the 19 minute mark as the Sycamore lead was 35-26. 

ISU eventually would take a 37-28 lead, but SIU scored nine of the next 11 points to inch within 39-37 on a 3-pointer by Kendal Brown Surles which hit high off the rim and bounced home. Odum was fouled on a drive with 12:51 remaining to make it 41-37 as he reached 12 points scored in the contest.

SIU cut the Sycamore lead down to 43-40, but the Sycamores scored six points in a row on back-to-back baskets from Walker as well as running jumper by Odum at the 8:11 mark to strech the cushion out to 49-40. SIU scored the game's next four to cut the lead down to five points before Odum answered with an elbow jumper to run the advantage out to 51-44 with 4:16 to go.

The lead grew back to 54-46 as the clock ticked towards four minutes remaining on a conventional 3-point play by Walker, but the Sycamores gave up one to SIU as the ISU lead was trimmed right back to down 54-49. Richard countered with two free throws to make it 56-49 and after another defensive stop Lathan tallied a conventional 3-point play to run the lead out to 59-49.

Mamadou Seck led the Salukis with 14 points -- one of three Southern Illinois players to reach double figures scoring.