THURSDAY'S SCORES
Morehead State 75, @Southeast Missouri 59
@Belmont 83, Eastern Kentucky 76
SIUE 66, @Austin Peay 53
@Tennessee State 66, Jacksonville State 60
@Murray State 70, Eastern Illinois 49
MOREHEAD STATE 75, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 59
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - The Morehead State men’s basketball team used a 45-23 rebounding advantage to post a 75-59 win over Southeast Missouri on Thursday evening at the Show Me Center.
The Eagles, who snap an eight-game road skid, improve to 9-10 overall and 3-2 in the Ohio Valley Conference. The Redhawks, who drop their third straight contest, fall to 10-10 on the season and 2-4 in league play. MSU has also won nine of the last 10 in the head-to-head series.
Junior Drew Kelly led four Morehead State players in double figures with 15 points, while sophomore Angelo Warner contributed 12, junior Bruce Reed added 10 and junior Bakari Turner tossed in 10.
Kelly’s double-figure performance was his sixth straight and 30th in two-plus years at Morehead State. Turner now has three consecutive double-figure efforts and 40 points during that stretch.
Junior Chad Posthumus led the Eagles with 13 rebounds, including eight on the offensive end, in 25 minutes, while senior Devon Atkinson handed out six assists with just one turnover in 31 minutes.
In addition to its largest rebounding margin this year against a Division I opponent, MSU recorded an 18-4 edge on the offensive glass. The differential led to a 10-3 advantage in second-chance points.
Morehead State shot 41 percent (22-of-54) overall, 33 percent (6-of-18) from three-point range and 74 percent (25-of-34) from the free-throw line. The Eagles collected 13 assists and six steals.
Southeast Missouri shot 46 percent (22-of-48) overall, 19 percent (3-of-16) from long range and 57 percent (12-of-21) from the charity stripe. The Redhawks recorded 10 helpers and eight thefts.
Sophomore Nino Johnson paced three SEMO players in double figures with 13 points on 5-of-5 from the floor. Junior Tyler Stone added 11, while junior Lucas Nutt contributed 12 points and five assists.
The affair featured 13 ties and four lead changes. Neither team led by more than four points in the first period, but Morehead State finished on a 31-15 run over the final 11:44 of the tilt to pull away.
BELMONT 83, EASTERN KENTUCKY 76
NASHVILLE - In a game with the spirit and intensity of March, Belmont University men's basketball defeated Eastern Kentucky, 83-76, Thursday night.
After winning its first four OVC games by an average of 29 points per game, Belmont knew that it would face tougher sledding against the Colonels, who also entered the evening undefeated in OVC play.
Belmont held EKU to two made field goals the first 8:27 of the game in leading 11-4.
After Mike DiNunno cut it to 20-12, Blake Jenkins capped a 9-0 Belmont run to make the score 29-12 with 4:52 left in the half.
The Colonels cut the score to 33-24 at halftime.
EKU continued the momentum into the second half, taking its first lead - 41-39 - with 17:02 left on a DiNunno three-pointer.
From there, an intense, spirited affair ensued, with the lead and momentum swinging back and forth.
DiNunno gave EKU a 69-65 lead with 6:39 left, before Ian Clark capped a 12-0 Belmont run to give the Bruins a 77-69 lead with 3:26 left.
After two deep threes from DiNunno cut the score to two with 2:38 to go, Belmont went 6-for-6 from the free throw line in the final 2:13.
Belmont is 14-4, 5-0 OVC.
SIUE 66, AUSTIN PEAY 53
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - SIUE never trailed after the third minute of play Thursday, earning a 66-53 road win over Austin Peay in Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball.
Jerome Jones put the Cougars up 4-3 with 17:47 to play and the Cougars never trailed again. Austin Peay, now 5-14 overall and 1-4 in OVC play, never even tied the score again.
SIUE, who improved to 6-9 overall and 2-3 in the OVC, extended its lead to nine when Jones hit a jumper to make it 23-14 with 7:28 to play before the half. The Governors then went on a 9-0 run to cut the Cougar lead to two at 23-21 with 4:19 left. SIUE outscored Austin Peay 9-4 to end the half with a seven-point advantage (32-25).
The Cougars pushed their lead to 11 several times early in the second half, but Austin Peay made a run again. SIUE led 40-29 when the Governor again ran off nine straight points to make it 40-38 Cougars with 13:17 to play. Mark Yelovich nailed two free throws with 10:13 left to cap an 8-0 SIUE run that made it 48-38 Cougars.
The Cougars connected on 12 of 13 free throws for the game. Michael Messer was 8-8 at the free throw line and hit six consecutive free throws late in the second half to help SIUE seal the game.
Jones led all scorers with 22 points. He was 9-18 from the field and hit a pair of three-pointers. Messer finished with 10 points and tied for team lead with eight rebounds. Kris Davis also scored 10 points.
Mark Yelovich added eight points and eight rebounds. Yelovich pushed his career totals to 1,293 points and 504 rebounds. He is the only the fourth player in school history to have more than 1,000 points and 500 rebounds.
As a team SIUE outrebounded Austin Peay 39-28. The plus-11 rebounding margin is the largest of the year for the Cougars.
TENNESSEE STATE 66, JACKSONVILLE STATE 60
NASHVILLE - Deshawn Dockery hit a three with 13 seconds remaining, helping the Tennessee State men’s basketball team upended Jacksonville State, 66-60, on Thursday night.
The victory pushed the Tigers’ home record to 8-0 and their OVC record to 6-0, which are the best marks since the 1994-95 season.
Kellen Thornton and Patrick Miller led TSU in scoring with 17 apiece while Jordan Cyphers also scored in double-figures with ten.
M.J. Rhett narrowly missed his third double-double in five games as the sophomore grabbed a game-high 10 boards and scored nine points.
Rhett’s work on the glass helped the Tigers to a 30-22 rebounding advantage during the contest.
JSU started the game on a 6-2 run, but the swing was promptly ended by an emphatic two-handed slam by Rhett at the 17-minute mark. Rhett flew by and over defenders to complete the play, got fouled and made the following free throw to put the Tigers down one.
Rhett finished the first period with five points (2-of-3), a half-high five rebounds and a block.
Another dunk, this one by Kellen Thornton, put TSU up by three with just over 13 minutes left in the half. Thornton’s bucket was the exclamation point on a 9-2 TSU run.
TSU maintained a small advantage for the better part of the first half and Thornton was again able to extend the Tigers’ lead with a coffin corner triple and a lay-in on the following possession. The second hoop put TSU up 23-17 with six minutes to go in the opening frame.
Thornton had a half-high 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting (66.7 percent) and grabbed two boards during the opening stanza.
Tennessee State got up by as many as 11 points during the first, and Jordan Cyphers poured in a three with just seconds remaining to send the Tigers into the locker room with a 33-22 advantage.
TSU ended the half on a 22-9 run and shot 55 percent (11-of-20) while holding the Gamecocks to a 36.4 line (8-of-22) during the first 20 minutes.
The Gamecocks started the second half off strong and took the lead, 43-42, with a 21-9 run that spanned over seven minutes. JSU only missed one of nine field goals during the stretch (88.8 percent).
TSU eventually regained the lead when Miller nailed a jumper at the 11:08 mark, and raised the score to 53-45 when Miller converted his second triple in as many trips down the floor.
Again, JSU came back and eventually pulled within one when Ronnie Boggs hit a three with three minutes to go.
Thornton answered with a triple of his own, but the score remained tight until Dockery canned his game-sealing three.
Miller drained one-of-two free throws and that would be all the Tigers needs, as they defeated the Gamecocks 66-60.
TSU shot 50 percent (22-of-44) for the game and 57.1 percent from downtown (8-of-14).
MURRAY STATE 70, EASTERN ILLINOIS 49
MURRAY, Ky. - The Murray State Racers used a burst of six straight three-point baskets to pull away from visiting Eastern Illinois 70-49 at the CFSB Center in Murray, Ky.
The Racers (13-4) pushed their record in the west division of the Ohio Valley Conference to 4-1.
With the game tied 31-31 with 17:30 left in the game, the Racers got back-to-back threes from Dexter Fields for a 37-31 lead. While MSU was locking down the Panthers defensively, Isaiah Canaan sandwiched a pair of threes around another from Fields for a 10-point lead with 13:16 left. Jeffery Moss capped the Racer explosion with a three and MSU had an 18-2 run to lead 49-33 with 12:03 remaining.
MSU stretched the lead to 65-45 with 3:16 left after Canaan hit two more threes.
For the game, MSU hit 11-of-25 from long range and were 9-of-12 in the second half. While the Panthers (3-16, 0-6) were 4-of-16 for the night.
Canaan led the way for MSU with 17 points on 5-of-10 from three-point range, while Fields added 12 on 4-of-9 threes. Ed Daniel was one rebound away from a double-double and scored 10 points.
The first half saw MSU jump out to a 12-4 lead and a late 6-0 run gave them a 27-24 lead at the half.