SUNDAY'S SCORES
@Tennessee Tech 87, Hiwassee College 48
@#1 Kentucky 82,
Eastern Kentucky 49
TENNESSEE TECH 87, HIWASSEE COLLEGE 48
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - With finals exams spread out before them this coming week, the Tennessee Tech basketball team had one final test to their unblemished home record Sunday afternoon in Eblen Center before taking a break from action.
Thanks to a dominating team effort over the final 12 minutes of the first half, the Golden Eagles (5-3) improved to 5-0 on their home floor with an 87-48 victory over Hiwassee College.
Nursing a four-point, 14-10 lead with 12 minutes to play in the half, the Golden Eagles went on a 19-3 run to take control of the contest. The most impressive note is that six different Golden Eagles put points on the board in the run.
Anthony Morse opened the stretch with a slam dunk, and Aleksa Jugovic capped it with his second 3-pointer, that trey coming with 5:21 to play for a 33-13 Golden Eagle lead. In between, Tech got also points from Torrance Rowe, Javon McKay, Charles Jackson and Mason Ramsey.
Jackson finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds for his seventh double-double in the first eight games of the season. Jordan Johnson added a career-best 18 points on 7-for-10 shooting including 4-for-5 from downtown.
At the close of the 39-point victory, all 12 Golden Eagle players were in the scoring column. Notable among them, Shirmane Thomas had six points, three assists and four steals, Josiah Moore added nine points, six rebounds and two steals, DeOndre Haynes finished with five points, four rebounds and a team-high five assists, and Ramsey had five points and six rebounds.
Hiwassee (1-12) was led by Aario Johnson with 12 points and eight rebounds, two steals and one blocked shot.
Tech limited Hiwassee to 29.2 percent shooting (19-for-65) and forced 23 turnovers. The Golden Eagles shot 47 percent (31-for-66) from the field and squeezed out a 43-42 edge on the boards. Tech had 11 steals and 10 turnovers.
The largest lead in the game was 41 points, when Johnson knocked down a 3-pointer with 2:53 to play for an 81-40 margin.
#1 KENTUCKY 82, EASTERN KENTUCKY 49
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The game plan worked, but Eastern Kentucky couldn’t knock down open looks in the first half and lost at No. 1 Kentucky, 82-49, on Sunday at Rupp Arena.
The Colonel offense generated great looks at the basket throughout the first half, but they made just 17 percent (6-for-35) from the field and made only 2-of-17 from three-point range. UK knocked down 55 percent of its shots while building a 41-14 lead at the break.
EKU (4-3) shot 35 percent (12-of-34) in the second half from the field and finished with 49 points, the fourth most points scored this season against the top ranked defense in the nation. Eastern had more points against UK than Providence (38) and Kansas (40).
Denzel Richardson led the Colonels, and tied for the game-high, with 19 points. He made 8-of-11 from the field and all three of his three-point attempts on his way to eclipsing his previous career-high of 18 points.
Corey Walden finished with 12 points and four rebounds. Timmy Knipp had six points and six rebounds.
Karl-Anthony Towns led Kentucky with 19 points and added nine rebounds. Trey Lyles finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
The Colonels forced 17 turnovers and gave the ball away only 12 times. UK shot 57 percent for the game, but made just 3-of-13 from behind the arc (23 percent).
The top ranked Wildcats (9-0) jumped out to an 11-2 lead before the Colonels got back in the game with the help of Richardson. The junior newcomer scored EKU’s next eight points and the 8-4 Eastern run closed the gap to five, 15-10. Richardson got it started with a three-pointer and finished it off with a trey at the 11:37 mark.
However, Kentucky closed out the rest of the half with a 26-4 run to pull away. Senior Deverin Muff scored Eastern Kentucky’s final points of the half with a dunk off an offensive rebound with 7:13 to go before intermission.
Knipp’s three-pointer from the left corner and driving lay-up to start the second half shaved five quick points off the lead. Two free throws from Ja’Mill Powell capped the 7-0 run to start the second stanza.
Kentucky answered with another run, this time out-scoring the visitors 15-4 to put the game away. Back-to-back buckets by Marcus Lee finished off the run and gave the home squad a 31-point lead, 56-25, with 12:57 remaining.