SATURDAY'S SCORES
Tennessee State 66, @Jacksonville State 57
Murray State 74 at Southeast Missouri 66
@UT Martin 76,
Austin Peay 74 (OT)
@Eastern Kentucky 78, SIUE 72
@Morehead State 65, Eastern Illinois 50
Belmont 83, @Tennessee Tech 52
TENNESSEE STATE 66, JACKSONVILLE STATE 57
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - The Tennessee State men’s basketball team extended its win streak to four games with a 66-57 comeback win over Jacksonville State on Saturday.
The victory pushes the Tigers’ record to 9-7 overall and they lead the OVC’s East Division with a perfect 3-0 mark.
It is the first time since the 1994-95 season that the Tigers started 3-0 in OVC play. TSU is also 13-2 in its last 15 conference games.
For the second game in a row, M.J. Rhett came up big for the Tigers, scoring ten points and grabbing a career-high 16 boards.
Patrick Miller led TSU in scoring for the third game in a row with 19 points on 3-of-9 shooting. Miller was also 12-of-16 from the line and tallied a game-high four assists.
Kellen Thornton and Jordan Cyphers also finished in double-figures in points with 14 and 11, respectively. Thornton also had a double-double with 14 boards.
Tennessee State came out of the gate strong, winning the tip and starting on an 8-0 run. Rhett had four points during the charge including a powerful two-handed alley-oop that added an exclamation mark to the end of the streak.
Jordan Cyphers provided the assist on Rhett’s slam and then found Thornton on another lob at the 11:50 mark to give TSU a 14-8 advantage.
Thornton had a team-high eight points on four-of-seven shooting (57 percent) and seven boards at the break.
The Tigers clung to their lead for much of the first half until a 10-0 JSU run made the score 24-20 in favor of the Gamecocks. Jacksonville State ended the run by Darion Rackley converting a rare four-point play with just over three minutes to play in the opening stanza.
Cyphers narrowly missed a half-court heave as the first half horn expired, and TSU went into halftime trailing the Gamecocks 24-26.
All of TSU’s nine first half field goals occurred inside the paint, allowing the Tigers an 18-8 advantage down low and a ten percent higher shooting percentage (38 to 28).
Tennessee State hit its first outside jump shot five minutes into the second half when Tashan Fredrick canned a three to tie the game at 34 apiece.
The score remained close for the better part of the half, but TSU eventually went up by five when Cyphers converted a layup with11:58 left in the game.
From there, JSU wound up putting TSU in the double bonus with more than eight minutes left in the game. The Tigers responded by nailing 10 free throws, which were the team’s only points during the seven-minute stretch.
Thornton finally broke the charity stripe streak by slamming home a dunk with just over two minutes left in the game. His slam put the Tigers ahead for good at 60-53.
Thornton added another slam at the 24 second mark and TSU rallied to defeat the Gamecocks 66-57. TSU held the Gamecocks to 17-of-52 shooting for just a 32.7 percent line. The Tigers also dominated JSU on the glass, winning the battle 47-28.
MURRAY STATE 74, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 66
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - The Murray State Racers scored a come-from-behind 74-66 win Saturday at Southeast Missouri State in the Show Me center in Cape Girardeau.
MSU (11-3, 2-0) erased a 44-32 deficit with 16:00 remaining to grab their first lead of the day with 10:33 left. MSU’s 20-8 run was the decisive blow to move to 2-0 in the early OVC race.
Isaiah Canaan scored 23 of his 28 points in the second half, while Ed Daniel hauled in 17 rebounds to go with 15 points and Stacy Wilson tossed in 14 points to lead the Racers to back-to-back road wins to start the OVC season.
Trailing 49-39 with 14:08 remaining, the three-time defending Ohio Valley Conference champs dug deep to get back into the game with a big run. Canaan hit his first two threes of the day to cut the SEMO lead to four and Wilson followed with another three and the Racers were down 49-48 with 12:11 remaining.
Again the Racers were down by four with 12:05 remaining when Canaan hit another three and Daniel went to the line and tied it at 52-52 with 11:20 left. MSU took its first lead of the day when Wilson found Daniel inside and MSU led 54-52 with 10:33 remaining, it was a lead MSU never gave back.
Another Canaan three and MSU had its largest lead of the day of six at 58-52 with 6:52 left. MSU held SEMO from the 12:05 mark to the 6:33 mark with no points and made a 10-0 run of it. With 1:36 remaining, SEMO (10-7, 2-1) had a chance to tie but Tyler Stone’s three was no good. MSU made 9-of-10 from the free throw line to bring home the win.
MSU won the rebound battle 43-29 with Daniel pulling down an amazing 10 offensive boards.
UT MARTIN 76, AUSTIN PEAY 74 (OT)
MARTIN, Tenn. (AP) - Myles Taylor drained two free throws with 1 second left in overtime to lift Tennessee-Martin over Austin Peay 76-74 Saturday night in Ohio Valley Conference action.
Taylor was put on the line after grabbing the rebound off the Governors' Travis Betran's 3-point miss. Betran was trying to snap a 74-all tie set when Mike Liabo made 2 of 3 free throws for the Skyhawks with 15 seconds left.
Liabo's 3-pointer put UT Martin (4-12, 1-3) ahead 72-71 with 1:01 left, but Austin Peay's Will Triggs converted a three-point play with 22 seconds remaining for a 74-72 advantage.
UT Martin forced overtime after Dee Oldham's jumper set a 66-all tie with 24 seconds left in regulation. Betran missed a 3-pointer just before that buzzer, too.
Austin Peay (4-12, 0-2) has now lost eight consecutive games, including three straight by two points each.
Liabo finished with 21 points and Taylor 19 with 13 rebounds.
EASTERN KENTUCKY 78, SIUE 72
RICHMOND, Ky. - A late 16-5 run was enough to send Eastern Kentucky past a hot shooting SIUE squad, 78-72, on Saturday at McBrayer Arena.
Despite shooting 60 percent for the game, the Cougars (4-8, 0-2 OVC) led for only 17 seconds over the final 37 minutes of the contest. The Colonels (12-3, 2-0 OVC) led by as many as 11 three times early in the second half and were in front by 10, 56-46, after a lay-up and free throw by Corey Walden with 11 minutes remaining.
SIUE answered with a 14-2 run. Jerome Jones and Kris Davis each hit three-pointers during the spurt and each accounted for five points. A lay-up by Michael Messer capped the run and put the visitors in front by two, 60-58, with 7:19 showing on the clock. Seventeen seconds later Walden hit two free throws that would start the game-clinching run.
After Walden’s two from the charity stripe, Mike DiNunno nailed a three-pointer. Messer answered with a three to tie it for the seventh and final time. Orlando Williams scored four straight and EKU led the rest of the way. Lay-ups by Jeff Johnson and Glenn Cosey, and a tip-in off an offensive rebound by Marcus Lewis wrapped up the 16-5 run and put the Colonels in front 74-65 with 43 seconds to play.
Eastern converted all four of its free throws in the final 30 seconds and finished the game 19-of-21 (90.5 percent) from the stripe.
DiNunno led four players in double figures for EKU with 17 points. Walden finished with 16 points, four assists and four rebounds. Eric Stutz went 4-for-5 from the field and 5-for-5 from the free throw line for 13 points. Williams finished with 12 points.
Jones led the Cougars with 15 points. Mark Yelovich added 14 points and a game-best seven rebounds.
SIU made 27-of-45 from the field for 60 percent, including 7-of-13 (54 percent) from behind the three-point line. Eastern Kentucky connected on 26-of-56 for 46 percent and made just 7-of-25 (28 percent) from deep. However, the Colonels out-scored the Cougars by eight at the free throw line and committed nine fewer turnovers.
MOREHEAD STATE 65, EASTERN ILLINOIS 50
MOREHEAD, Ky. - Morehead State held Eastern Illinois to 32 percent shooting in the first half and used a 23-5 run in the second period to register a 65-50 victory on Saturday night at Johnson Arena.
The Eagles improve to 8-8 overall, 7-2 at home and 2-0 in the Ohio Valley Conference with their third consecutive win, while the Panthers slip to 3-13 on the season, 0-8 on the road and 0-3 in league play with their ninth straight defeat.
MSU has now won 85 percent (57-10) of its home games over the past five campaigns, including 92 percent (34-3) in OVC action. EIU continues to lead the all-time series 22-12, but the Eagles have won each of the last four affairs.
Eastern Illinois made 6-of-19 from the field in the first half en route to only 17 points. The Panthers hit 46 percent (12-of-26) in the second half, but finished at just 40 percent (18-of-45) overall.
Morehead State drilled 48 percent (22-of-46) from the floor in the contest. The Eagles managed only 39 percent (9-of-23) before the break, but canned 57 percent (13-of-23) in the second stanza.
Morehead State posted scoring advantages of 20-2 off the bench, 15-4 on the fast break, 8-3 on second chances and 28-20 in the paint. The Eagles also recorded a 36-21 rebounding advantage.
MSU committed 22 turnovers and forced 21. The Eagles managed a 9-8 edge in steals and 23-21 upper hand in points off turnovers.
Junior Drew Kelly, junior Maurice Lewis-Briggs and sophomore Angelo Warner led Morehead State with 11 points apiece. Junior Sherman Blanford paced Eastern Illinois with a game-best 14 points, while sophomore Josh Piper added 13.
Lewis-Briggs pulled down a game-high nine rebounds, while Warner contributed seven. Senior Devon Atkinson dished out a game-best six assists, while junior Chad Posthumus tallied four of Morehead State’s five blocked shots.
Morehead State’s largest lead of 21 points came with 5:17 to play, but Eastern Illinois closed the tilt with an 18-12 spurt. The Panthers scored the game’s first two buckets, but the Eagles put together a 10-0 run and never looked back.
BELMONT 83, TENNESSEE TECH 52
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - In arguably its finest game of the season, Belmont University men's basketball defeated Tennessee Tech, 83-52, Saturday night.
Riding strong, united defense and sizzling shooting of senior Ian Clark(Memphis, Tenn.) and junior J.J. Mann (Smyrna, Ga.), Belmont opened the game on a 26-3 run over the first 10 minutes.
The intense defense and rebounding continued throughout the game, as the Bruins led 51-24 at halftime, and by as many as 40 in the second half.
Belmont handed out 24 assists on 32 made field goals, as nine Bruins scored.
Mann had a career-high 21 points, while Clark passed Adam Mark for third on the NCAA era Bruin scoring list with 19 points. Blake Jenkins had 10 points, while Kerron Johnson provided eight points, 10 assists, three steals and zero turnovers.
Belmont is 11-4, 2-0 OVC, with seven of the 11 victories away from home.