THURSDAY'S SCORES
@Middle Tennessee 83,
Belmont 62
@Tennessee State 89, Lipscomb 86
Morehead State, @Eastern Washington (cancelled)
BELMONT 83, MIDDLE TENNESSEE 62
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Belmont University men's basketball dropped an 83-62 decision at Middle Tennessee Thursday night.
The Bruins entered having won seven of the last eight games in the series, but the host Blue Raiders seized command with a 13-4 run to close the first half and lead 46-35 at halftime.
Belmont, playing its sixth road game against a Top 100 opponent thus far, simply could not find its trademark three-point shooting touch, going 9-for-30 from long distance.
Craig Bradshaw led Belmont (7-5) with 16 points, while Evan Bradds had his 11th career double-double of 10 points and 13 rebounds.
Perrin Buford led Middle Tennessee (7-2) with 20 points.
It marks the largest margin against Belmont since a setback at VCU last December without Bradshaw.
TENNESSEE STATE 89, LIPSCOMB 86
NASHVILLE - Tahjere McCall scored a career-high 31 points, including 25 in the second half, to lift the Tennessee State men’s basketball team to an 89-86 victory over crosstown foe Lipscomb on Thursday night at the Gentry Center. The Tigers overcame a 14-point first-half deficit to earn their sixth-consecutive win.
TSU (8-2) was down by 10 at halftime and trailed for most of the second half until McCall’s three with 1:33 left put the Tigers up for good at 82-80. The home side would hold on down the stretch and knocked down five free throws in the final 1:17 in the victory over the Bisons (4-10).
Offensively, Keron DeShilds and Marcus Roper scored 16 points apiece, and Wayne Martin added nine points and a game-high 16 rebounds for the Tigers. On the other end, J.C. Hampton led four Bisons in double figures with 25 points.
The Tigers found themselves in an early 14-4 hole after four minutes, but fought back with a 10-0 run with seven of the points coming from Darreon Reddick.
Lipscomb went on to take its largest lead of the game of 14 points when Hampton capped an 8-0 run with a three-pointer with 4:16 to go in the half for a 35-21 Lipscomb lead.
TSU was able to close the gap to 10 points before halftime with the Bisons clinging to a 43-33 lead through 20 minutes.
Out of the intermission, McCall took over, scoring 16 points in a row for TSU at one point. The Tigers battled back and tied the game on back-to-back explosive plays. Xavier Richards collected a defensive rebound and drove the length of the court for a coast-to-coast layup as part of a three-point play to cut the TSU’s deficit to two at 62-60. After a stop on the other end, DeShields fed Demontez Loman for a thunderous breakaway dunk to knot the game at 62-62 with 9:26 left.
McCall’s jumper with 8:53 on the clock put the score at 64-63, giving the Tigers their first lead since the opening minutes. Over the next four minutes, the Bisons regained a six-point edge at 75-69.
The Tigers were able to claw back to take the lead on McCall’s three to put TSU up for good.
TSU shot 48.3 percent from the field and finished with a 36-30 rebounding edge.