THURSDAY'S SCORES
Morehead State 70, @Southeast Missouri 57
Eastern Kentucky 66, @UT Martin 58
Murray State 83, @Tennessee Tech 67
@Jacksonville State 71, Austin Peay 59
MOREHEAD STATE 70, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 57
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AP) - Karam Mashour scored 15 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to lead Morehead State to a 70-57 victory over Southeast Missouri on Thursday night.
Morehead State led 50-39 with less than 10 minutes to play before SE Missouri's Antonius Cleveland forced a steal and scored, capping a 14-6 surge to pull the Redhawks within 56-53 with 3:29 left. Corban Collins answered with a 3, Kareem Storey scored and the Eagles made 9 of 12 free throws down the stretch to seal it.
Storey finished with 13 points, six assists and five steals. Brent Arrington scored 12 points with five steals, and Billy Reader chipped in 12 points and pulled down 11 boards for Morehead State (6-11, 1-1 Ohio Valley), which outrebounded Southeast Missouri 44-35.
Isiah Jones scored 20 points to lead Southeast Missouri (7-9, 1-2), which made just 10 of 24 attempts for 41.7 percent from the free throw line.
EASTERN KENTUCKY 66, UT MARTIN 58
MARTIN, Tenn. - Senior Eric Stutz became the 13th player in school history to record 1,000 points and 500 rebounds as the Eastern Kentucky University’s men’s basketball team overcame an eight-point second half deficit to beat the University of Tennessee-Martin, 66-58, on Thursday.
The Colonels (9-5, 1-0 OVC) trailed by eight with 12:32 left in the game and were down seven with 9:36 showing on the clock. After a three-pointer by Marshun Newell gave the Skyhawks (8-6, 0-1 OVC) a five-point advantage, 54-49, EKU scored seven straight to take the lead.
Denzel Richardson scored the first five and Corey Walden’s lay-up with 4:32 left to play gave the visitors a 56-54 lead. UT Martin tied it at 56-56 and 58-58 before Eastern Kentucky scored the final eight points of the game.
Tennessee-Martin missed the front end of four 1-and-1 free throw opportunities in the final four and a half minutes and didn’t score after a lay-up by Deville Smith with 3:30 left to play.
A Walden lay-up gave Eastern the lead for good, 60-58. The Colonels converted 6-of-8 at the free throw line after that.
Walden finished with a game-best 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting. He also grabbed five rebounds, dished out five assists and had two steals. Richardson registered his second career double-double, finishing with 14 points and 11 rebounds to go along with four assists.
Stutz finished with 13 points and six rebounds. Recorded his 1,000th career point on a lay-up with 3:12 left in the first half.
Javier Martinez led UTM with 17 points and eight rebounds. He was 6-for-6 from the field and 5-for-6 from the free throw line.
After shooting 36 percent in the first half, including 3-of-18 from behind the three-point arc, Eastern knocked down 53 percent of its second half shots. The Colonels went 22-for-27 at the free throw line, out-scoring the Skyhawks by 11 at the stripe.
MURRAY STATE 83, TENNESSEE TECH 67
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Cameron Payne scored 24 points with five assists and Murray State cruised past Tennessee Tech 83-67 on Thursday.
Murray State (12-4, 2-0 Ohio Valley) led by two midway through the first half before going on a 12-5 run, including Jeffery Moss' 3-pointer, and led 45-32 at the break.
Moss and Payne drilled back-to-back 3-pointers at the start of the second to bump the Racers' lead to 19 and they never looked back.
Jarvis Williams had 16 points, going 8 of 14 from the line, and gathered nine rebounds and Moss ended with 10 points and five helpers. Murray State had seven steals and turned the ball over just five times. Justin Seymour contributed 13 points off the bench.
Josiah Moore paced Tennessee Tech (8-8, 0-3) with 16 points and eight rebounds. Dwan Caldwell added 13 points for the Golden Eagles.
JACKSONVILLE STATE 71, AUSTIN PEAY 59
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - The Jacksonville State men's basketball team made the most of its return home on Thursday night, jumping on Austin Peay and riding an early run to a 71-59 Ohio Valley Conference win.
After dropping all five games in a five-game road trip over the holidays, the Gamecocks (8-9, 1-2 OVC) returned to Pete Mathews Coliseum for the first time since Dec. 16 and took advantage of their home court. They scored the game's first eight points and led the Governors (5-10, 0-1 OVC) by at least five the rest of the way to win their fourth in a row over APSU and improve to 8-0 at home this season.
Senior D.J. Felder had 18 points and nine rebounds, while fellow senior Darion Rackley scored 26 points off of the bench to lead the Gamecocks to their best shooting night in five games.
Felder and senior Avery Moore keyed the early run, one that saw a pair of Moore jumpers follow a Jamal Hunter putback and then Felder rattle off 12 in a row for Jacksonville State to help the Gamecocks open an 11-point lead at 18-7 with 13:34 remaining in the half.
Rackley added 10 points from that point until the half, where the Gamecocks took a 41-28 lead into the locker room.
Rackley scored 16 in the second half, including a 3-pointer that stretched JSU's lead to 18 at 50-32 with 14:30 left in the game. Junior Dontay Jackson followed that with a layup to make it a 20-point game, JSU's largest lead of the night, with just under 14 minutes on the clock.
The Govs went on a 17-2 a run from that point to cut their deficit to five, but a Rackley dunk off an inbounds lob from Jackson stopped the bleeding with 5:48 to play and lifted the Gamecocks down the stretch.
Jackson dished a career-high seven assists, while true freshman Malcolm Drumwright had four in his second career start for the Gamecocks. Hunter had six rebounds, four blocks and a career-best four steals in the post.
Chris Horton led APSU with a double-double of 19 points and 13 rebounds, the only Governor in double figures in either category.