WEDNESDAY'S SCORES
@Southeast Missouri 87, Webster 41
@South Dakota 89,
Southern Indiana 74
@Marquette 89,
Little Rock 49
UT Martin 78, @Bradley 67
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 87, WEBSTER 41
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - – Marqueas Bell finished with a double-double 15 points and 10 rebounds, and 12 different players scored for Southeast Missouri (1-2) in an 87-41 blow out win over Webster University Wednesday.
SEMO led wire-to-wire in a dominating performance to grab its first win of the season.
The Redhawks were all over the Gorloks from the opening tip.
SEMO used an 11-2 run out of the gate and built a 29-6 lead in the first 9:25 of the contest. Nine players reached the scoring column during that surge that ended on a Braxton Stacker 3-pointer with 10:35 left in the first half.
Almodovar extended the Redhawks margin to 38-13 when he buried a 3-pointer with just under seven minutes to go.
After redshirt-freshman Jay Reynolds' first career 3-pointer put SEMO ahead by 26, Troy Cole, Jr. threw down an alleyoop dunk off a pass from Bell to give the Redhawks a 45-17 advantage at the 3:53 mark.
SEMO headed into the intermission with a comfortable 46-22 lead.
The Redhawks heated up to shoot 54.8 percent (17-of-31) from the field and forced 11 turnovers in the first half.
SEMO continued to destroy the Gorloks in the second half.
This time, the Redhawks put together a 19-2 jaunt to grab a 41-point lead. Blaize Sagna drained a 3-pointer to widen SEMO's lead to 65-24.
Defensively, SEMO held WU scoreless for the first 5:18 of the second stanza.
The game couldn't get over quick enough for the Gorloks who were outscored, 41-18, in the final 20 minutes of play.
Another 3-pointer by Reynolds ran SEMO's lead to 75-31 with 6:51 to go.
Cole, Jr.'s tip-in (85-35) and a breakaway layup by PJ Farmer (87-37) gave the Redhawks their largest leads of the night before polishing off the victory.
Bell completed his first career double-double by shooting 6-of-8 from the field and a near-perfect 3-of-4 at the free throw line off the bench. It was his third-straight game scoring in double figures. He also matched a career-best six assists.
Stacker followed with 10 points.
The Redhawks finished the night with a .516 field goal percentage and made eight 3-pointers. Additionally, SEMO received a big 50-19 boost from its bench.
SOUTH DAKOTA 89, SOUTHERN INDIANA 74
VERMILLION, S.D. - University of Southern Indiana Men's Basketball fell on the road, losing to the University of South Dakota, 89-74, Wednesday evening in Vermillion, South Dakota. The Screaming Eagles are 0-3 to start the year, while USD begins 2025-26, 2-2.
USI senior guard Ismail Habib hit the opening bucket of the game and propelled the Eagles to an early six-point lead, 10-4. The Coyotes rallied to take the lead, 12-10, and started a run of four lead changes over the next seven minutes.
South Dakota took the lead for good in the first half when it generated a 14-2 run to lead, 29-18, with 5:47 before halftime.
The Eagles responded and pulled to within four points, 35-31, when junior guard Kaden Brown sank a three-pointer from downtown. Brown scored six of his team-best first-half nine points during the run.
The Coyotes re-extended the lead to 12 points by the end of the half, 44-32, by outscoring USI, 7-1, in the final two minutes before the intermission.
USI started slow in the second half and found itself down 17, 53-36, after five minutes had passed. The Eagles' offense was only able to connect on two of seven from the field during the start of the final 20 minutes.
After falling behind by 19 points, 58-39, the Eagles' offense made a small 7-0 dash to pull to within 12, 58-46, with 12:01 left. Brown, Habib, and senior guard Sheridan Sharp combined to contribute the points during the run.
The Eagles were never able to close the gap further and cross the double-digit barrier in the final 10 minutes of the game as the Coyotes closed out the 89-74 final.
In the scoring column, Habib led three Eagles in double-digits with 19 points. The senior guard was five-of-14 from the field, including two three-pointers, and seven-of-nine from the stripe.
Brown followed close behind with nine more points in the second half for 18. The junior guard posted four-of-11 from the field, including the three first-half three-point field goals, and seven-of-nine from the line.
Senior guard Cardell Bailey rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10 points. He also had a team-high eight rebounds.
MARQUETTE 89, LITTLE ROCK 49
MILWAUKEE, Wis. - Little Rock wrapped up its two-game Wisconsin road trip Wednesday night, falling 89-49 to Marquette at Fiserv Forum.
Terrion Burgess led the Trojans with 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting, adding four rebounds and a pair of assists in 38 minutes of play. Tuongthach Gatkek contributed seven rebounds, four points, and two blocks, while Kachi Nzeh finished with four points and five boards.
Truman Claytor provided a spark for Little Rock with nine points, hitting 3-of-4 from three-point range in just 11 minutes. Caleb Pennyfeather added six points and six rebounds off the bench.
Despite the loss, the Trojans showed bright spots, particularly in the first half when they shot 48% from the field and went toe-to-toe with the Big East powerhouse through the opening stretch.
Little Rock (1-2) trailed 14-12 with 12:25 remaining in the first half when the Trojans rattled off an 8-0 run sparked by a Gatkek dunk and capped by back-to-back threes from Kachi Nzeh and Truman Claytor. Marquette (3-1) suddenly found itself down 20-14 with just over 10 minutes left, prompting a timeout.
The Trojans looked to build on the momentum, but Marquette responded with a run of its own took the lead into halftime.
UT MARTIN 78, BRADLEY 67
PEORIA, Ill. - Four double-digit scorers guided the University of Tennessee at Martin men's basketball squad to another big victory this evening as the Skyhawks defeated Bradley by a 78-67 margin at Carver Arena.
As a result, UT Martin is now 3-0 for just the second time in its NCAA Division I history (since 1992) – also starting the 2020-21 campaign with three consecutive victories. The Skyhawk defense was the story as UT Martin held the Braves – who won 28 games and advanced to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) quarterfinals last year – to 15 percent shooting (3-of-20) from beyond the three-point arc and 33.3 percent (17-for-51) overall.
Matas Deniusas and Andrija Bukumirovic each scored a game-high 20 points while combining to shoot 66.7 percent (14-of-21) from the floor. Deniusas also grabbed a game-high seven rebounds with three assists while Bukumirovic snared six boards.
Dragos Lungu (11 points, game-high seven rebounds, three steals) and Filip Petkovski (10 points, eight assists, six rebounds, two steals) also led a Skyhawk squad that shot 45.8 percent (11-for-24) from three-point land.
Bradley also saw four players score in double figures, led by Ahmet Jonovic's 16 points. Jaquan Johnson tallied 14 points, seven rebounds, four assists and nine steals while AJ Smith and Timoty van der Knaap each scored 13 points apiece.
"I'm just so proud of our guys," UT Martin head coach Jeremy Shulman said. "Coach Brian Wardle is one of the best coaches in the country at any level – Bradley has won 20-plus games three years in a row. I just wanted to execute well enough tonight to keep it close and give ourselves a chance. Our guys did even more than that – they've just bought into our system and each other. They're just a joy to coach every day and we can't wait to get back to work."
The Skyhawks used a 10-2 run early to set the pace – leading for 25:46 of clock time by the end of the night. Midway through the first half, the Braves (1-2) scored eight unanswered to take a 20-15 advantage but back-to-back Bukumirovic buckets reclaimed the lead for UT Martin at 31-28 with 3:56 to go before the break.
Despite the fact that the Skyhawks held Bradley without a field goal over the final 8:33 of the half, the Braves made a living at the free throw line to take a slim 36-34 edge at the intermission. Deniusas and Bukumirovic each scored 13 points apiece in the first 20 minutes as Johnson's nine points led Bradley, who scored 21 of their 36 points at the charity stripe after shooting 26.9 percent (7-of-26).
UT Martin came out firing in the second half as a Luca Colceag three-pointer with 13:25 remaining boosted the Skyhawk lead out to 48-41. Two more ties followed but after back-to-back triples from Petkovski and AJ Hopkins, UT Martin did not trail for the final 8:46.
Bukumirovic and Afan Trnka splashed big three-pointers in a 44-second span to basically seal the win. Lungu also took over down the stretch, compiling seven points over the last 5:22 of clock time.