SATURDAY'S SCORES
@Belmont 90, UT Martin 53
@Eastern Kentucky 59,
Morehead State 52
Jacksonville State 61, @Eastern Illinois 55
@Tennessee State 81, Southeast Missouri 69
@SIUE 58, Tennessee Tech 54
Murray State 71, @Austin Peay 68
BELMONT 90, UT MARTIN 53
NASHVILLE - Behind a career-high 32 points from senior Ian Clark (Memphis, Tenn.), Belmont men's basketball defeated UT Martin, 90-53, Saturday afternoon.
After pouring in 30 points Thursday night in victory over Southeast Missouri, Clark again showcased his sensational, all-around game in another inspired performance.
UT Martin's Justin Childs scored the game's first points, but Belmont held the Skyhawks scoreless for the next five minutes. A three-pointer from freshman Craig Bradshaw (Franklin, Tenn.) capped an 11-0 Belmont run to make the score 11-2 six minutes in.
The visiting Skyhawks did well to control tempo in the opening 10 minutes, but Bruin pressure and united defense started to open things up.
Myles Taylor cut the score to 13-9 with 11:48 left in the half, but Belmont forced 12 first half turnovers to unleash high percentage shots in transition.
Ian Clark scored 12 straight Belmont points during one stretch, making the score 27-16 with 5:07 left in the half.
Then after two free throws and a dunk by Blake Jenkins (Knoxville, Tenn.), Clark added two more deep three-pointers and a blocked shot as the first-half buzzer sounded to give Belmont a 46-22 lead at halftime.
Belmont (13-4, 4-0 OVC) shot 57 percent (17-for-40) from the field in the opening 20 minutes - including 6-for-12 from three-point distance.
But Clark was the story, scoring 24 points in the first half on 9-9 shooting, 4-4 from three-point distance and 2-2 from the free throw line.
After driving layins from senior Kerron Johnson (Huntsville, Ala.) and Bradshaw to start the second half, Clark scored six more points to cap a 14-0 Belmont run, making the score 62-26 with 13:49 left.
Clark tallied a new career-high on a transition tip-in basket with 10:36 left.
Aside from Bradshaw, the Bruins also got solid bench contributions from sophomore Reece Chamberlain (Goodlettsville, Tenn.), senior Adam Barnes (Clarksville, Tenn.) and sophomore Holden Mobley (Nashville, Tenn.) down the stretch.
All told, Belmont shot 53 percent (32-for-61) from the field - including 11-for-27 from three-point distance. The Bruins scored 35 points off 25 Skyhawk turnovers, coming two shy of the Curb Event Center record for steals.
11 Bruins scored in the game.
Clark's 32 point effort came on just 15 field goal attempts. Bradshaw also equalled his career-high with 11 points.
Taylor led UT Martin (4-14, 1-5 OVC) with 15 points.
EASTERN KENTUCKY 59, MOREHEAD STATE 52
RICHMOND, Ky. - For the first time in 34 years, the Eastern Kentucky is 4-0 in Ohio Valley Conference play. The Colonels used a big mid-game run to take control in a 59-52 victory over rival Morehead State on Saturday at McBrayer Arena.
The last time EKU won four straight to start the conference schedule was in 1978-79 when the Colonels began OVC play 5-0.
Morehead State never trailed during the first 16 minutes of the game and took its largest lead of six, 20-14, on a jumper by Maurice Lewis-Briggs with 5:07 on the clock.
Eastern Kentucky shut the Eagles down after that bucket. The Colonels ended the half on an 18-1 run. Orlando Williams scored seven and Tarius Johnson added six during the spurt. A three-pointer by Williams and a lay-up by Mike DiNunno in the final 40 seconds sent EKU to the locker room with an 11-point lead, 32-21.
The Colonels scored the first five points of the second half to stretch the run to 23-1 and never looked back. Two free throws from Johnson capped the run and gave the home squad a 16 point advantage, 37-21. EKU stretched its lead to as many as 20 twice, the last time coming with less than five minutes to go. With less than four minutes remaining, Morehead State had only scored 35 points.
The Eagles closed the gap to seven twice in the final 20 seconds of play.
DiNunno led Eastern with 13 points to go along with four assists and three steals. Johnson finished with 11 points and a team-best seven rebounds. Orlando Williams and Eric Stutz each added 10 points.
Drew Kelly led Morehead State with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Bakari Turner added 11 points off the bench.
Eastern Kentucky shot 40 percent from the game and made only a quarter of its three-point attempts. However, the Colonels took advantage of 22 Eagle turnovers, out-scoring the visitors 26-19 off miscues.
MSU hit on 37 percent of its shots from the field and 28 percent from behind the arc.
JACKSONVILLE STATE 61, EASTERN ILLINOIS 55
CHARLESTON, Ill. - Senior Tarvin Gaines carried the Jacksonville State men's basketball at times on Saturday night, but the biggest three of his 22 points came on a 3-pointer with 78 seconds to play that broke a tie and led the Jacksonville State a 61-55 win at Eastern Illinois.
Gaines recorded his second 20-plus scoring night of the season, one that saw him score the first seven points for the Gamecocks (12-5, 4-2 Ohio Valley Conference), but his biggest shot was the key in a win on a night in which leading scorer Darion Rackley sat because of a hand injury suffered in Saturday's practice.
Gaines and junior Brian Williams shouldered the load without Rackley, combining for 38 points and both driving the Gamecocks for stretches during the win over a Panthers (3-15, 0-5 OVC) team that seemed determined to snap a 10-game losing streak.
Williams added 16 points, 12 in the second half, and scored eight in a row at one point in the second half to keep JSU in a back-and-forth battle that saw 11 ties and eight lead changes. The Lawrenceville, Ga., native also set up shots for his teammates, dishing seven assists just two days after an eight-assists outing at SIU-Edwardsville. He had five rebounds, as well.
Another big performance in Rackley's absence came at his shooting guard position. Junior Rico Sanders, a transfer from South Alabama that became eligible after the fall semester due to NCAA transfer rules, made his first basket of his JSU career, a 3-pointer with 7:70 left in the half. He then made two more attempts from behind the arc in the half to account for all of his nine points and help JSU hang on in a hard-fought first half.
Defensively, the Gamecocks kept the Panthers' leading scorer Josh Piper to just two points and Morris Woods, their leading scorer in league play, to four. EIU did win the battle on the glass, 30-28, and shot 46 percent (5-for-11) from 3-point land. Senior Ronnie Boggs led JSU in rebounds with seven, while Sherman Blanford's seven led the Panthers.
The Gamecocks were sluggish in the first half but managed to carry a slim 29-26 lead into the locker room at the break. Gaines scored JSU's first seven points and ended the half with 12, but Sanders 3 first-half 3-pointers were the difference in the first 20 minutes.
A Boggs trey, his first bucket of the night, started the second half and a Gaines free-throw gave the Gamecocks a 33-26 lead, their largest to that point, just over a minute into the half. The Panthers slowly chipped away, however, and tied it at 39-39 on a Cameron Harvey 3-pointer with 13:21 to play.
After the two exchanged blows for a few trips down the court, Taylor Jones connected on his third 3-pointer in as many tries in the game to give the Panthers their first lead of the second half, 46-43 with 7:55 to play.
After three lead changes over the next six minutes, Gaines connected on his biggest shot of the night and his Gamecocks were able to hold off the Panthers the rest of the way. They had their best look on the ensuing possession, but Alex Austin took an extra dribble before taking his attempt from the top of the key. That hesitation allowed Nick Cook to close and get a piece of his shot and set up JSU at the free throw line, where it was able to put the game on ice.
TENNESSEE STATE 81, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 69
NASHVILLE - The Tennessee State men's basketball team held on to defeat Southeast Missouri State, 81-69, on Saturday night.
The victory kept two streaks alive by winning the game as the Tigers improved to 5-0 in conference play and 6-0 inside the Gentry Center. TSU has now won 17 of its last 18 home games dating back to last season.
Kellen Thornton had a career-high 28 points in the victory (10-of-15) and tied a career-high with 16 boards.
Patrick Miller also had a strong game with 20 points (7-of-13) and five assists. Miller has now scored over 10 points in every game of TSU's six-game winning streak.
TSU (11-7, 5-0 OVC) started the game on an 11-4 run that featured three threes from Miller, Tashan Fredrick and Jordan Cyphers. The strong outside shooting helped the home squad drill nine of its first 12 field goals in the game (75 percent).
The Tigers eventually stretched the lead to 20-7 when Jordan Gaither poured in a contested jumper from the elbow. The score prompted SEMO head coach Dickey Nutt to call the team's first timeout of the contest.
The stoppage in play did little to slow down the Tigers, as Thornton put TSU up by 12 with a slam at the 5:10 mark.
Thornton finished the first period with 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting (67 percent). The senior also had a half-high five rebounds.
Thornton added another jam with 40 seconds remaining in the half, and the Tigers went to the locker room with a 43-29 lead.
TSU shot a season-high 64 percent (13-20) from the field during the first half and drained a season-best five triples.
SEMO (10-9, 2-3) was able to cut TSU's lead down to nine during the first eight minutes of the second stanza, but Cyphers nailed his third three of the game to put the Tigers up 61-49.
Again the Redhawks made a charge, and got within three of TSU when SEMO's Nick Niemczyk nailed a three with three-and-a-half minutes to play. The shot was part of a 15-6 Redhawk run.
TSU head coach Travis Williams called a timeout after the triple and drew up a play for Cyphers. The guard was open from beyond the arc and drained another three to make the score 73-67 in favor of the home squad.
TSU only allowed SEMO to make one more basket during the game's last three minutes and the Redhawks were forced to foul TSU for the remainder of the contest. The Tigers were a perfect 6-for-6 from beyond the charity stripe during the last minute of the game, and hung on for an 81-69 victory.
TSU was 19-of-22 (86.4 percent) from the free-throw line while SEMO was just 6-of-16 (37.5 percent).
SIUE 58, TENNESSEE TECH 54
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - SIUE men's basketball used a strong defense and a balanced offense to earn its first Ohio Valley Conference win of the year, a 58-54 victory over Tennessee Tech at Vadalabene Center.
The Cougars, now 5-9 overall and 1-3 in the OVC, snapped a four-game losing streak with the win. Tennessee Tech fell to 7-10 and 1-4.
Michael Messer and Jerome Jones were the only Cougars to score in double figures, but three other SIUE players scored at least seven points. Messer led the team with 14 points and seven rebounds, while Jones scored 13 points. Messer was 7 of 8 from the free throw line, including hitting five in the game's last 15 seconds.
Mark Yelovich chipped in nine points and five rebounds. Kris Davis scored eight points and dished out a game-high six assists. Derian Shaffer scored seven points while grabbing five rebounds. Ray Lester added five points while tying his career high with six rebounds.
The Cougars held Tennessee Tech to just 34 percent (16-47) from the field. The 16 made field goals by the Golden Eagles tied a season-low by an SIUE opponent.
SIUE connected on four three-pointers in the first half to take a three-point lead into the locker room 26-23. The Golden Eagles shot just 29 percent (7-24) in the first half and missed all 12 of their attempts from three-point range.
Tennessee Tech's Jud Dillard scored 29 points to lead all scorers while hauling in a game-high 12 rebounds.
The Cougars extended the lead to as many as 10 when Kris Davis hit a three-point shot to put SIUE on top 43-33 with 9:32 to play. Tennessee Tech remained in the game, thanks in part to a disparity in free throws. The Golden Eagles hit 19 of 26 for the game, including 10 of 12 in the second half. SIUE hit just 51.5 percent (17-33) for the game. Aside from Messer the Cougars were 10-25 (28.5 percent) from the charity stripe. The Golden Eagles also outrebounded the Cougars 38-32.
MURRAY STATE 71, AUSTIN PEAY 68
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - The Murray State Racers scored their fourth straight win at Austin Peay Saturday in a 71-68 victory at the Dunn Center in Clarksville, Tenn.
Led by Isaiah Canaan's 26 points and a double-double from Ed Daniel of 21 points and 13 rebounds, the Racers (12-4) moved their mark in the Ohio Valley Conference to 3-1.
Trailing by as many as five in the first half, MSU closed the opening 20 minutes with a 7-1 run to lead 31-29.
After APSU took a 41-39 lead at the 11:58 mark of the second half, the Racers went in front 44-41 on a three-point play from Canaan with 10:37 remaining. MSU took the lead again at the 9:22 mark when Canaan hit his fourth three-point basket of the day for a 47-45 lead.
The Governors were ahead again by one point when Daniel scored a three-point play with 6:07 remaining to give MSU the lead for good.
But bringing home the win wasn't easy for MSU, as Travis Beltran kept APSU in the game with two banked in threes in the final seconds. The last was a four point play after he was fouled that made it a 70-68 game with 11.8 remaining. Jeffery Moss made one free throw to make it a three point lead with 4.8 left and APSU wasn't able to get a possible tying three off.
The game featured nine tied scores and 13 lead changes.
MSU had a 40-31 edge in rebounding.
Game Notes
The Racers have now won four straight games on APSU's home court since their last loss here on Feb. 4, 2009. MSU leads the all-time series with APSU 73-41.
The second game of the season series for the Racers and Govs will be at the CFSB Center in Murray, Ky. (Feb. 2) and will air on ESPNU in a noon tip.
Isaiah Canaan's 26 points tonight moved him closer to becoming the sixth member of the MSU 2000-Point Club and the 17th player to reach the magic mark in the OVC. He moved past Garrett Beshear (1950-53) for ninth place on the MSU all-time scoring list now with 1,724 points. Eighth place on the list is Frank Allen (1989-93) who has 1,811 points.
Canaan also extended his school-record streak of making a three-point basket to 25 straight games.
Daniel recorded his ninth double-double of the season which ranks him among the best in NCAA D-I.