Ohio Valley Conference

JSU's Walker Russell

NO. 1 MURRAY STATE 65, UT MARTIN 52
Murray State used some of its trademark pressure defense and a streak of hot shooting in the first half to defeat the UT Martin Skyhawks, 65-52, Tuesday. With the win, the top-seeded Racers advance to Friday's semifinal matchup with No. 4 Jacksonville State. Tip-off is set for 6:00 p.m. Central at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville.

The Racers went ahead 32-13 with 2:15 before the half on a 12-0 run, with Issian Redding hitting two three-pointers during the outburst and the Racers also getting baskets by Trey Pearson and Darnell Hopkins.

The half ended with Shawn Witherspoon heaving a half court shot at the buzzer that was counted good when Cleve Woodfork was called for goaltending, giving the Racers a comfortable 39-18 cushion heading into the locker room.

UT Martin (13-15) put together a 13-3 run to start the second half and drew to within 11 points with 13:16 left on a free throw by Newson.

Tyler Holloway's three-pointer with 12:36 left kept the Racers ahead 46-32 with 12:55 left. Both teams were in the bonus with 11:11 left in the contest.

The Skyhawks again trimmed the lead, this time down to 10 with 10:02 left on two free throws by Newson.

Hopkins scored a three-point play with 5:32 left, and then hit a mid-range jumper on the next possession to push the lead back out to 55-40.

A three-pointer by Jeremy Kelly cut the UTM lead to nine at 61-52 with 37 seconds left, but that's as close as the Skyhawks would get, as the Racers hit 5-of-8 free throws down the stretch to ice the victory.

The Skyhawks were led by Newson, who tallied a double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds. Jeremy Kelly shook off a bad shooting night to finish with 13 points and five steals.

The Racers placed three players in double-digit scoring, led by Hopkins' 20 points on 6-of-9 shooting, including 4-of-7 from the three-point arc. Issian Redding scored 12 points, while Witherspoon scored 10 points, pulled down a co-team-high seven rebounds, and swiped five steals.

Those three Racers provided the offense. Senior center Pearson Griffith provided the defense, swatting away a career-high eight shot attempts and also pulling down seven rebounds.

The Racers shot 34 percent overall from the field (16-for-47), while the Skyhawks shot 28.6 percent (18-for-63).


NO. 2 SAMFORD 78, NO. 7 TENNESSEE STATE 67
Samford advanced to the semifinal round of the 2006 O'Reilly Ohio Valley Conference Tournament on Tuesday as the Bulldogs used a standout performance from Jerry Smith to defeat the Tennessee State Tigers, 78-67, at Seibert Hall.

With the win, No. 2 Samford (19-10) will move on and face third-seeded Tennessee Tech on Friday at 8:30 p.m. Central in the Gaylord Entertainment Center located in downtown Nashville, Tenn.

It was the first time that the Bulldogs reached the second round of a conference tournament since the 2000-01 season.

Smith fell just shy of recording a triple-double, finishing the game with 15 points, nine assists and eight rebounds while shooting 5-of-10 from the field and committing just one turnover.

With the Bulldogs leading 71-63 late in the game, Tennessee State (13-15) started fouling to save time on the clock and Smith knocked down four consecutive free throws. His clutch shooting helped extend Samford's advantage to 75-65 with 32 seconds remaining.

The Bulldogs shot 90.5 percent from the charity stripe in the contest, while the Tigers were even better, hitting 92.3 percent of their foul tries.

Samford's J. Robert Merritt knocked down five of his eight 3-point attempts and led all scorers with 22 points on a 6-of-12 shooting performance overall.

Travis Peterson added 14 points on 5-of-11 shooting on Tuesday and drained a pair of critical second-half 3-pointers. He also turned in a dunk midway through the second period to give Samford a 54-43 lead with 11:57 remaining.

Tennessee State had only six players score points in the contest, with four Tigers finishing in double figures.

Reiley Ervin and Wayne Arnold tallied 20 points apiece, while Clarence Matthews and Andrae Belton scored 11. Ervin, Arnold, Matthews and Bohannon accounted for 62 of the team's 67 points.

The Tigers shot 54.2 percent from the floor in the first half and fought to a 34-34 tie at the intermission. Samford finished with a 48-percent first-half performance and shot 52.4 percent from beyond the arc.


NO. 3 TENNESSEE TECH 78, NO. 6 AUSTIN PEAY 74
Tennessee Tech rallied from a late six-point deficit and scored the game's final six points to earn a 78-74 victory over Austin Peay Tuesday night in the Eblen Center to advance to the semifinals of the 2006 O'Reilly Ohio Valley Conference Men's Basketball Tournament.

No. 3 Tech (19-11) will meet No. 2 Samford Friday at 8:30 p.m. Central in the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville.

Senior Milone Clark scored 18 points to lead Tech, pushing his career total over 1,000 points.

Austin Peay used a 7-0 run to erase a 61-60 Tech lead as the Governors built a 67-61 cushion with 6:33 to play. The Govs still led by six, 69-63, with 5:40 remaining before Tech answered with a 7-0 run to regain the lead. Ra'Shun Bryant started it with a layup, and after two free throws by Anthony Fisher, Belton Rivers hit a 3-pointer to put Tech ahead, 70-69, with 3:23 to go.

The score was tied at 70-70 and again at 72-72, before Drake Reed hit a shot for APSU with 1:54 to play and the Govs were on top, 74-72. Tech got one free throw by Fisher with 56 seconds to go to make it a one-point APSU lead, then Clark slammed home a dunk and the Golden Eagles were up, 75-74, with 47 ticks on the clock.

Tech's defense forced a missed shot and a foul and Fisher canned a pair of free throws with 20 seconds left for a 77-74 lead. APSU's Todd Babington fired a 3-pointer with six seconds left that missed and Derek Stribling grabbed the rebound, was fouled and made one free throw to clinch the win.

The Golden Eagles roared to an early 11-point lead in the first 10 minutes, but Austin Peay battled back to close the gap to three in the final minute of the opening period as Tech took a 36-31 lead into halftime. The game was tied once in the opening minutes and the lead changed hands five times before Tech moved ahead, 21-10.

In the first 10 minutes of the second half, the score was tied six times and the lead changed hands eight times.

In addition to Clark's game-high 18 points, Amadi McKenzie had 16 points and nine rebounds, Fisher finished with 12, and Jonathan Jones added a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Reed paced APSU with 16 points, Derek Wright had 13 points and seven assists, Zac Schlader scored 12 with eight rebounds and Maurice Hampton finished with 11 points and four steals.


N0. 4 JACKSONVILLE STATE 86, NO. 5 EASTERN KENTUCKY 59
Senior Walker Russell closed his career at Pete Mathews Coliseum in style, scoring 21 points, pulling in 11 rebounds and dishing out 11 assists to become the first player to record a triple-double in school history. He led the Gamecocks (16-12) to a convincing 86-59 win over Eastern Kentucky in the first round of the 2006 O’Reilly OVC Men’s Basketball Tournament to advance to Friday’s semifinals in Nashville, Tenn., where they will face regular-season champion Murray State at 6 p.m. CT.

The Gamecocks shot 59 percent from behind the arc and held the Colonels (14-16) to 41-percent shooting from the floor to pick up JSU’s first postseason win since joining the OVC and just the second in the school’s Division I history. Jax State was 21-for-28 from the floor in the second half for a 75-percent success rate.

Russell was 5-of-7 from 3-point land and 8-of-16 from the floor and pulled in eight boards in the second half in the win, capping a career that has his name plastered throughout the Gamecock record books.

Russell was bettered in the points column by junior Courtney Bradley, who scored 25 on 11-of-14 shooting. Fifteen of those came in a second half that saw him hit his only two attempts from behind the arc. Sophomore Dorien Brown added 16 points to wrap up three Gamecocks in double figures.

The Colonels were 2-for-22 (.091) from 3-point range and loss the battle of the boards, 42-27. Senior Matt Witt scored 15 points to lead EKU.

It was all Gamecocks from the start, as they led by as many as 11 in the first half and took a nine-point advantage into the locker room. EKU cut it to seven early in the second half, but watched JSU outscore them 48-28 the rest of the way.