THURSDAY'S SCORES
@Southeast Missouri 76, SIUE 67
@Murray State 79, Belmont 74
Eastern Illinois 93, @UT Martin 65
Tennessee State 88, @Austin Peay 82 (OT)
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 76, SIUE 67
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Marland Smith broke the school's all-time career record in three-point field goals made and Nino Johnson added 17 points, 12 rebounds and seven blocks to lead Southeast Missouri (12-13, 4-7) to a 76-67 win over SIU Edwardsville (8-12, 4-6) Thursday night at the Show Me Center.
A native of Little Rock, Ark., Smith buried two of his three 3-pointers in the second half and broke the record when his trifecta gave Southeast a 66-54 lead with 7:23 remaining. His 220 three-pointers surpassed Derek Winans' 219 (2001-05) for the new mark.
While Smith took care of business on the perimeter, Johnson dominated underneath the basket, earning his team-high seventh double-double of the season. Johnson also fell just three swats shy of tying Bud Eley's single-game record of 10 blocked shots (vs. Morehead State, Jan. 4, 1999). Johnson, who was not in the starting lineup for the second-straight game, led Southeast to a commanding 32-14 advantage in the paint and helped give the Redhawks a 24-2 boost off the bench.
Jerome Jones had 19 points in the first meeting between these teams earlier this season and nearly matched that total in the game's first 5:21. Jones stormed out of the gate to score 19 of the Cougars first 23 points, including 16 over that opening stretch. He caught fire, making 6-of-7 field goals, 4-of-5 threes and 3-of-3 free throws to help grab SIUE a 23-13 lead with 11:57 left to play in the first half.
That, however, was all SIUE had in the early going.
Southeast answered Jones' rampage with a 20-3 run to build a seven-point cushion. Most of the Redhawks damage came with Jones on the bench after he picked up his second foul with 10:08 remaining.
The Cougars sputtered to only one point in over four-and-a-half minutes when Jones exited the game. The Redhawks immediately seized the opportunity when A.J. Jones converted a three-point play to ignite the run. Jones buried a three-pointer to tie the game at 26-26 at the 7:33 mark.
Smith followed with a three-pointer on Southeast's next possession, giving the Redhawks their first lead of the game 39 seconds later. Johnson, who also contributed six points, capped the ambush with a layup to push Southeast's lead to 33-26 with 5:36 left.
Southeast outscored SIUE, 28-9, in the last 11:57 of the first half to take a 41-32 lead at the intermission. The Redhawks shot 50 percent (16-of-32) from the field and outscored the Cougars 20-6 inside the paint in the first half alone.
Jones shot 58.3 percent (7-of-12) from the field himself, while the rest of his teammates made a combined 5-of-23 field goals for 21.7 percent.
SIUE started the second half strong, using a 10-3 run over the first 3:39 and quickly pulled to within two when Ray Lester made a pair of free throws to make it a 44-42 game with 16:21 left. That was as close as the Cougars would get, as Southeast countered with a 13-0 run over the next 3:01. Smith's other three-pointer gave the Redhawks their largest lead of the night at 57-42 with 13:20 on the clock.
Johnson made a near-perfect 8-of-9 field goals and established a new career-high in blocks, while Smith added 13 points on 4-of-8 from the field and 3-of-4 from downtown. Tyler Stone and Jones followed with 12 and 11 points, respectively. Stone also had three blocks, as Southeast turned in a season-high 10 against SIUE. True freshman Jared White had a nice game as well, scoring seven points in 23 minutes off the bench.
Jones scored a game-high 31 points and grabbed eight rebounds to lead SIUE.
MURRAY STATE 79, BELMONT 74
MURRAY, Ky. - The Murray State Racers won for the fourth straight time at home Thursday in a 79-74 victory over the Belmont Bruins at the CFSB Center in Murray, Ky.
The Racers (17-5) improved their mark in the Ohio Valley Conference to 8-2, while handing the Bruins (19-5, 10-1) their first league loss.
Senior guard Isaiah Canaan led the way with 26 points including the go-ahead three-point basket when the game was tied at 74-74 with 33.9 seconds left. Canaan got to the free throw line 17 times on the night and made 15, both career highs.
The Racer attack also got 16 points from Stacy Wilson and 13 from Brandon Garrett as Ed Daniel had a game-high 10 rebounds. Canaan and Daniel combined for 10 of MSU’s 15 assists in the game.
As the clock dipped under the five-minute mark, the Racers had the game comfortably in hand leading 67-53, but the Bruins mounted a rally.
With 2:31 left, Belmont’s Trevor Noack hit a three and after the Racers turned it over on the press, Ian Clark hit a three and suddenly the MSU lead was down to 70-66. MSU led by six again on two Canaan free throws with 1:23 left, but BU’s Clark hit another three and after a MSU turnover on the press, Clark tied it with a three at 74-74 with 57 seconds remaining. After Canaan’s go-ahead three, the Racers held Belmont the rest of the way for the win.
The Racers won the battle of the boards 32-26, while forcing 12 turnovers and only giving it back eight times.
In the first half, MSU used a 9-0 run to take their first lead of the game at 14-8 at the 14:05 mark when Wilson, Canaan and Garrett scored after a pair of steals and a defensive stop. MSU pushed their lead to 32-18 with 4:21 before half when Daniel and Garrett scored down low and Wilson hit a pair of threes that were assisted by Canaan and Daniel. MSU led 36-26 at the half.
EASTERN ILLINOIS 93, UT MARTIN 65
MARTIN, Tenn. - Five Eastern Illinois players scored in double figures as the Panthers rode a 65 percent night shooting to a 93-65 road win at UT Martin. With the win EIU sweeps the season series over UTM, marking the sixth straight year that one school has swept the season series.
EIU improved to 7-17 overall, 4-7 in the OVC. UTM fell to 6-17, 3-8 in the OVC.
After going 1-of-17 from 3-point range last Saturday at SIU Edwardsville, EIU lit up the nets from 3-point range in the first half at UTM going 9-of-12.
Austin Akers began the hot shooting at 15:15 which put the Panthers up 7-5 after Myles Taylor had scored the Skyhawks first five points. Akers would get another 3-pointer to drop in with 48 seconds left that gave EIU the 43-34 lead.
In between the Akers 3’s, Malcolm Herron and Alex Austin had the hot hand for EIU shooting 3-pointers. Herron had back-to-back 3-pointers around the 8-minute media timeout with his shot at 7:06 putting EIU up 11 points at 31-20.
Justin Childs spearheaded a 10-0 UTM run hitting three free throws, a jumper and a 3-pointer as the Skyhawks trimmed the margin to 31-30 at 4:24. Austin answered for EIU with back-to-back 3-pointers as EIU closed the half on a 12-4 run.
The Skyhawks opened the second half with a 7-2 run as Mike Liabo’s 3-pointer with 18:16 to play cut the margin to four points at 45-41. Akers answered for EIU as he finished with 13 points, eight assists and seven rebounds. Akers was 3-of-4 from 3-point range including a banked-in shot from the left hand corner.
Taylor Jones and Cameron Harvey added to the Panthers hot 3-point shooting night as the Panthers pushed the lead back to double digits on Harvey’s 3-pointer at 16:37. EIU finished shooting 12-of-19 from 3-point range for 63 percent.
Liabo cut the lead back to single digits just prior to the 16-minute time out as he had 10 points for UTM. Taylor led the Skyhawks with 19 and Terrence Smith had 11.
Morris Woods put EIU back up 12 points at 14:45 and the Panthers pulled away. Woods had a team high 18 points. Austin had 16 and Herron 14 going 4-of-5 on 3-pointers. Blanford had his third double-double of the year with 12 points, 10 rebounds.
EIU out rebounded its opponent for the fifth straight game as EIU has won four of its last five. EIU had a 27-23 rebound margin.
TENNESSEE STATE 88, AUSTIN PEAY 82 (OT)
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - The Tennessee State men’s basketball team escaped Clarksville, Tenn. with an 88-82 overtime victory over Austin Peay on Thursday night.
With the score tied at 65 with only five seconds to go in the game, APSU’s Will Triggs stole the ball and passed it up ahead to Herdie Lawrence. Lawrence scored a layup, giving APSU a two-point lead.
On TSU’s inbound play, the Tigers threw the ball down the court and Jordan Cyphers caught the pass and attempted a triple. The shot fell short of the rim, but right into the hands of Kellen Thornton. Thornton tipped the ball in the hoop with just tenths of a second remaining in the game to force overtime.
In the extra period, Patrick Miller scored nine points and led TSU (14-10, 8-3 OVC) to the six-point victory. Miller’s dunk with 27 seconds left in the game made the score 86-77 and ended all hopes of a miracle by the Govs.
Miller ended the game with a team-high 25 points on 7-of-15 shooting. The guard also notched seven assists and four swipes.
Cyphers added 19 points while M.J. Rhett canned 18 and was 7-of-8 from the field.
The first half was a see-saw affair with neither side gaining much of an advantage over the other. In fact, there were 10 lead changes and six ties within the first 20 minutes of the game.
Cyphers and Thornton got the Tigers started by each canning a triple. However, a three from APSU’s Travis Betran a minute later made the score 7-6 in favor of the home team.
Thornton finished the game with nine points and a team-high 11 rebounds.
From that point, TSU went on a 6-0 run that was led by a pair of hoops from Robert Covington. His first was a strong two-handed slam that was set up by a Rhett steal.
Covington had 10 points and five boards in 17 minutes of action.
The Tiger run put TSU up 12-7 with 16:56 left in the first. The five-point lead would be the biggest point spread of the first period.
The Govs (5-19, 1-9 OVC) responded to the Tennessee State streak with a 9-1 run that featured a pair of back-to-back dunks from Chris Horton.
Again the Tigers came back to pull off another long run. This one had TSU pouring in 11 points compared to just four for the Govs. A jumper by Miller ended the string of TSU buckets and left the Tigers up 27-22 with 7:47 left in the opening stanza.
After Miller’s hoop, neither side led by more than a field goal for the remainder of the first half, and a pair of free throws from Miller made the score 36 all heading into the break.
Miller ended the first half with a team-high ten points on 3-of-8 shooting and a steal. TSU swiped five balls during the first 20 minutes and caused nine APSU turnovers.
TSU came out strong to start the second half and led by five at 45-40 when Cyphers drained a triple with 17:25 to go.
The Tigers continued to lead throughout the frame and eventually went up by six when Miller converted on a layup with 9:47 left.
From that point, the Govs chipped away at the Tiger lead and eventually tied the score at 63. That basket set up the wild final two minutes that featured three ties and two lead changes.
TSU was outrebounded 41-36 during the game, but the Tigers shot 49.2 percent (30-of-61) while the Govs were held to a 43.3 line (29-of-67).