MONDAY'S SCORES
@Morehead State 68, Jacksonville State 54
@Eastern Kentucky 61, Tennessee Tech 55
@Eastern Illinois 88, Austin Peay 59
UT Martin 77, @Tennessee State 58
@SIUE 79, Murray State 58
MOREHEAD STATE 68, JACKSONVILLE STATE 54
MOREHEAD, Ky. - Junior guard Allie Turner nailed eight three-pointers and scored a career-high 28 points to lead the Morehead State women’s basketball team to a 68-54 victory over Ohio Valley Conference foe Jacksonville State Monday at Johnson Arena.
Turner, who was 8-of-10 from distance, came within one of the school single-game record for triples as the Eagles improved to 9-18 overall and 5-8 in the league. JSU remained winless at 0-26 overall and 0-14 in the conference.
MSU finished with 11 three-pointers in the game and moved above 200 treys for the year, the sixth consecutive season with more than 200 three-pointers. It marked MSU’s eighth game with double digit three-pointers this season.
The Eagles vaulted to a 9-2 lead, thanks to a pair of triples by Turner and one from sophomore guard Almesha Jones. The Eagles led by as many eight, 14-6, and settled for a 28-25 advantage at the break. The Eagles were 6-of-21 from beyond the arc in the half.
MSU went on to push its lead to as much 53-38 with 5:41 left. The Gamecocks never trimmed the Eagle lead lower than 10.
Junior guard Terrice Robinson registered her 23rd double-figure game with 14 points, while junior guard Tyler Ituen pulled down a career-best 11 rebounds – including six on the offensive end - and scored seven points. Jones and Robinson each totaled five of MSU’s 17 assists.
The Eagles, who rank 12th in the league in rebounding, out-gunned the visitors on the boards, 37-34.
The Eagles also nailed 17-of-18 from the free throw line.
Miranda Cantrell and Danielle Vaughn combined for 28 points on the night for the Gameoocks. Cantrell registered her second career double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds. The College Park, Ga.-native has scored in double figures in five consecutive games. Cantrell was a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line.
Vaughn narrowly missed out on a double-double performance with 10 points and seven rebounds. The Huntsville, Ala.-native was 4-of-6 from the free throw line.
EASTERN KENTUCKY 61, TENNESSEE TECH 55
RICHMOND, Ky. - – In a battle of the top two teams in the Ohio Valley Conference East Division, Eastern Kentucky University’s women’s basketball team took advantage of a late Tennessee Tech scoring drought to secure a 61-55 win Monday night at McBrayer Arena.
The win puts Eastern alone in first place in the East Division and one game behind Eastern Illinois for the best record in the conference.
The Lady Colonels (16-8, 10-3 OVC) started the second half with an 11-2 run to turn a three-point lead into a 12-point advantage. Senior Brittany Coles got it started with a jumper and a three-pointer, EKU’s eighth trey of the game. Twenty-four of Eastern’s first 35 points came off three-pointers.
Senior Alex Jones scored the next six points to cap the run. Her basket with 15:38 left in the game gave Eastern Kentucky its largest lead, 41-29.
Jones came up one point shy of a double-double, finishing with nine points and a game-best 15 rebounds.
The Golden Eagles (15-11, 9-4 OVC) did not go away easy. An 8-0 run by the visitors quickly got the game back to a six-point margin. Baskets by Diamond Henderson and Jala Harris got Tennessee Tech within three, 49-46, with 7:54 remaining.
Moments later senior Raechele Gray found junior Marie Carpenter streaking to the basket on a fast break. Carpenter’s lay-up began a stretch of seven straight for EKU. After the bucket by Harris, Tech went 4:23 without scoring again.
Gray’s 3-pointer capped the Lady Colonel run and stretched the lead to 10, 56-46. Tennessee Tech never got closer than five the rest of the way.
Carpenter had 18 points. Coles finished with 15 points and eight boards. Gray had five assists and no turnovers in 33 minutes of action.
Henderson led the Golden Eagles with 17 points. T’Keyah Williams had 14 points and seven rebounds.
Both teams shot 38 percent from the field. EKU went 9-for-20 (45 percent) from behind the arc while Tech made just 3-of-14 (21 percent). The Lady Colonels turned 17 TTU turnovers into 22 points while the Golden Eagles scored just four points off 12 Eastern turnovers.
In the first half, the Lady Colonels were out-scored by 10 in the paint but knocked down seven shots from behind the arc. EKU led by six after a three-pointer by senior LaRa`e Allen with 1:44 left. Tennessee Tech made its lone three-pointer of the first half in the final minute and trailed by three, 30-27, at the break.
SIUE 79, MURRAY STATE 58
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - SIUE women's basketball pumped in a season-high 55 points in the second half and rallied past Murray State 79-68 Monday night at the Vadalabene Center.
After shooting just 23.8 percent (10-42) in the first half, SIUE did an about face and shot 66.7 percent (20-30) over the final 20 minutes.
SIUE evened its record to 7-7 in Ohio Valley Conference play. Murray State dropped to 15-10 overall and 7-6 in the OVC.
The Cougars finished with four players in double figures. Jazmin Hill led SIUE with 15 points. Raven Berry earned her fourth straight double-double and 11th of the season with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Tierny Austin scored 14. CoCo Moore scored 11, all in the second half.
Ashley Capotosto's insertion in the starting lineup boosted the Cougars. She posted season highs in rebounds with 10 and steals with four along with nine points.
SIUE was one point off its season high with 79 points. Most of the team's offense came near the basket with SIUE dominating 48-22 in the paint.
Murray State led at halftime 30-24 behind Tessa Elkins who scored 11 of her game-high 17 points in the first half. Keiona Kirby kept the Racers excited with her three second-half three-pointers and finished with 15 points. Erika Sisk scored 14 points and added a team-high eight rebounds.
SIUE also had a strong night at the free throw line. The Cougars hit their first 10 from the charity stripe and finished 16 of 20 overall.
UT MARTIN 77, TENNESSEE STATE 58
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Lady Tigers three-game winning came to an end Monday night at the Gentry Center as UT Martin used a big first half run to defeat TSU 77-58.
Chelsea Hudson had a season-high 17 points off the bench in 21 minutes, but it wasn't enough as TSU didn't have anyone else reach double figures. Kesi Hess and Simone Hopes added nine points, while Tanesha Stenson and Destiney Gaston both had eight points off the bench
The game started off at a fever pace with TSU (11-13, 7-6 OVC) and UTM (13-14, 8-5 OVC) tied at 10 just three minutes, 30 seconds into the contest. A Jasmine Newsome three tied the game at 10 for the Skyhawks, which was the catalyst for a 17-0 run over the next 4:50 to give Martin a 24-10 advantage.
Newsome had 31 points on 12-of-27 shooting to go along with seven rebounds. Teammate Heather Butler equaled Newsome with 31 points on 7-of-18 shooting and six boards. The juniors combined to go 8-for-17 from three.
After scoring 10 points in the first three-and-a-half minutes of the game, it took TSU nearly 12 minutes to score their next 10. TSU shot 4-of-6 from the floor to start the game, including a pair of three's from Hess, before missing 13 of their next 15 attempts.
UT Martin headed into the locker room with all the momentum and a 44-28 lead.
The game slowed down early in the second half as it took the two OVC teams until 11:32 remaining in the game to combine for the 20 points that it took them all of 3:30 of the first half to do.
The Big Blue never cut the deficit to single digits as they closest they got in the second half with 13.
TSU shot 30 percent from the field (20-of-66) while UTM shot 46 percent (26-of-56), including 58 percent in the first half.
The Lady Tigers did hold the advantage on the glass outrebounding UT-Martin 44-38 and pulling down 22 boards on the offensive end.
The Skyhawks have now won the last six meetings.
EASTERN ILLINOIS 88, AUSTIN PEAY 59
CHARLESTON, Ill. - Senior Kelsey Wyss set the school record for career three pointers made on Monday night as the Panther women’s basketball team captured an 88-59 win over Austin Peay. EIU clinched a share of the Ohio Valley Conference’s West Division in the victory, improving to 11-2 in conference action.
Wyss now has 164 career three pointers, breaking the previous record of 162 set by Lauren Dailey (2001-04). Not to be outdone by her teammate, sophomore forward Sabina Oroszova set the Panther single-game record for blocks with seven.
The first 14 minutes of the game saw five ties and nine lead changes until the Panthers used an 18-2 run to take a 38-32 advantage with 21 seconds remaining in the half. Austin Peay’s Nicole Olszewski hit a three pointer as time expired to cut the Lady Govs (7-18, 2-11 OVC) deficit to 13 points (38-25) at intermission.
The Panthers hit 56.3 percent of their field-goal attempts (18-for-32) in the second half while draining 50 percent (7-for-14) of their three pointers to build a 34-point lead (74-40) with 7:21 left in the contest. EIU won its seventh consecutive game and posted its seventh game of the season with 80 or more points in the victory.
Ta’Kenya Nixon paced the Panther offense with a game-high 18 points on 8-for-11 shooting. The senior guard also had a game-high eight assists and five steals on the night. Katlyn Payne added 15 points while Mariah King rounded out the double-figure scorers with 11 points.
Both Wyss and Mitchell added nine points for EIU. Defensively, the Panthers had 28 more rebounds (55-27) than the Lady Govs. Oroszova grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds while Mitchell pulled down nine.
On the night, the Panthers were 30-for-66 from the floor and 13-for-32 from behind the arc, one three pointer shy from tying the EIU single-game record. EIU was also 15-for-18 from the charity stripe.
Tiasha Gray led Austin Peay with 14 points, going 7-for-12 from the floor. Kaitlyn Hill added 13 points and team-high six rebounds. The Lady Govs finished the contest going 24-for-66 from the floor and 4-for-15 from behind the arc.