FRIDAY'S SCORES
Eastern Kentucky 73, @High Point 70
@Tennessee State 67, USC Upstate 64
@North Dakota State 69, Morehead State 49
EASTERN KENTUCKY 73, HIGH POINT 70
HIGH POINT, N.C. - Eastern Kentucky held on for a 73-70 win over High Point on Friday night. Senior Mike DiNunno tied his season-best with 22 points and hit all four of his free throws in the final 30 seconds to help secure the win.
High Point (4-6) took a 58-56 lead on a dunk by John Brown with 5:08 left in the game but the Colonels (10-2) scored the next six points and never trailed again. Corey Walden’s basket tied it, 58-58, for the ninth and final time. DiNunno’s lay-up capped the spurt and gave Eastern a 62-58 lead with just over three minutes to play.
The Panthers got within two five times but EKU answered each time. The Colonels made 8-of-10 free throws in the final two minutes.
DiNunno made 6-of-12 from the field, including 4-of-9 from three-point range. He also added five rebounds and five assists. Corey Walden contributed 13 points and six rebounds. Glenn Cosey finished with 12 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Brown, HPU’s leading scorer, only had two points at halftime, but finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Allan Chaney added 14 points.
Eastern shot 50 percent in the second half and 44 percent for the game. The Colonels knocked down a season-best 22 free throws on 29 attempts (76 percent). High Point shot 38 percent for the game.
TENNESSEE STATE 67, USC UPSTATE 64
NASHVILLE - The Tennessee State men’s basketball made a season-high 10 three-pointers en route to a 67-64 victory over USC Upstate on Friday night.
Jordan Cyphers, after missing the team’s last game with a stomach virus, notched a season-high 22 points in the win and was four-of-seven from beyond the arc.
TSU forced 19 turnovers in the game and shot 47.8 percent from the field (22-of-46).
Tennessee State won the tip, but didn’t score a point for the first 3:20 of the game. Jordan Cyphers ended the drought with a three-pointer, but TSU still trailed the Spartans, 3-6.
Over the next four minutes, USC Upstate had a pair of rim-rocking dunks, but two threes from Kellen Thornton tied the game for the first time at 11 each.
Thornton led all scorers during the opening stanza with 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting. He finished with 14 points on five-of-13 shoting.
The teams traded blows for the better part of the half and the lead changed six times. Neither side was able to gain more than a one-possession advantage until the Spartans went up 29-25 with a layup off of a TSU inbound pass. The score would be the last of the period.
TSU forced 10 turnovers in the first half, but USC Upstate outscored the Tigers 20-8 in the paint during the first 20 minutes.
The Spartans opened the second half on a 6-2 run, prompting TSU head coach Travis Williams to burn a timeout. The pep-talked worked, as the Tigers scored seven straight to pull within one at 34-35 with 15 minutes left in the game.
Tashan Fredrick led the charge with an assisted three-pointer and a floater inside the lane.
The Tigers still trailed by two at the 12:35 mark until Cyphers hit his third three of the game, and the second in the past two minutes, to take the lead at 42-41.
Again, the teams went back-and-forth until Pat Miller hit TSU’s eighth and ninth threes in quick succession to put the Tigers up 55-49 with 7:54 left in the game.
The Tigers kept the lead for the remainder of the contest and eventually went up by eight when Miller found Green down low for an easy lay-in with two minutes left.
Miller finished the game with 12 points, six assists and a team-high five rebounds.
A buzzer-beater by the Spartans would have sent the game to overtime, but the shot fell wide and TSU walked away with a 67-64 victory.
NORTH DAKOTA STATE 69, MOREHEAD STATE 49
FARGO, N.D. - Juniors Marshall Bjorklund and Taylor Braun combined for 39 points on 13-of-16 from the field and the North Dakota State men’s basketball team registered a 69-49 win over Morehead State on Friday night at Bison Sports Arena.
The Summit League Bison improve to 10-3 on the season with their fifth victory in the past six contests, while the Ohio Valley Conference Eagles slip to 5-7 overall. NDSU also moves to 2-0 in the all-time series with a season sweep of Morehead State.
Bjorklund posted a game-high 20 points on 8-of-8 shooting and 4-of-5 from the free-throw line, while Braun contributed 19 points on 7-of-9 from the charity stripe and sophomore Lawrence Alexander was NDSU’s third double-figure scorer with 12.
Bjorklund also pulled down a game-high nine rebounds, while Braun yanked seven missed shots from the glass. Alexander was credited with a game-best five assists.
North Dakota State finished at 56 percent for the game (24-of-43), including 74 percent from inside the arc (20-of-27). The Bison also connected on 85 percent from the free-throw line (17-of-20).
Morehead State was limited to 35 percent overall (16-of-46), including just eight percent from long distance (1-of-13). The Eagles did, however, drill 84 percent from the charity stripe (16-of-19).
Junior Chad Posthumus paced MSU with team highs of 14 points and eight rebounds. Sophomore Angelo Warner added 10 points for the Eagles, while senior Devon Atkinson tallied nine and junior Maurice Lewis-Briggs tossed in eight.
North Dakota State posted advantages of 31-22 in rebounding, 32-18 in paint points, 11-8 in second-chance points and 6-0 on the fast break. Both teams committed 14 turnovers, while Morehead State managed a 7-4 advantage in steals.
The Eagles never led in the contest. The game’s only tie was at 16-all with 9:04 before intermission, but the Bison followed with a 13-4 spurt and never looked back. NDSU’s biggest lead of 69-47 came with 2:15 remaining in the second period.