THURSDAY'S SCORES
SIUE 62, @Jacksonville State 57
@Tennessee Tech 81, Eastern Illinois 74
@Southeast Missouri 81, Belmont 74
SIUE 63, JACKSONVILLE STATE 57
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - SIUE scored the final nine points against Jacksonville State Thursday and earned its first victory of the Ohio Valley Conference regular season with a 62-57 road victory at Pete Mathews Coliseum.
SIUE, the preseason favorite in the Ohio Valley Conference, was down by four points with 2:23 left to play and rallied past the Gamecocks with sharp defense and timely free throw shooting. The Cougars improved to 6-8 overall and 1-0 in the OVC.
All nine of SIUE's points in the final two minutes of the contest came from the free throw line. SIUE's defense held Jacksonville State to a 0-for-3 performance from the field and three turnovers in the final two minutes.
Butts, the OVC Preseason Player of the Year, made a splash in her conference season debut with 26 points. She shot 7 of 18 from the field and matched her career high with 11 made free throws. She added three assists and two steals.
The final two minutes of the game mirrored much of what happened during the second period.
SIUE rallied from 10 points down with 2:28 to play in the second period, cutting the lead to one point by the halftime buzzer.
With Jacksonville State leading 28-18 in the second period, Butts hit a pair of jumpers followed by a layup from Donshel Beck. Sidney Smith's second of three three-pointers for the game with 14 seconds left in the second period pulled the Cougars to within one point at 28-27.
Jacksonville State, now 5-8 overall and 0-1 in the OVC, missed two shots and made two turnovers in the final two minutes before halftime, going into the locker room without scoring.
SIUE turned Jacksonville State's 22 turnovers into 23 points off those turnovers. The Cougars shot 42 percent for the game.
Buscher credited her guards for setting the tone.
Briana Benson led the Gamecocks with 15 points while Rayven Pearson added 12.
TENNESSEE TECH 81, EASTERN ILLINOIS 74
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - The new year will open with the Tennessee Tech women’s basketball team residing in the win column after the Golden Eagles opened Ohio Valley Conference play with a 81-74 victory Thursday afternoon in Eblen Center.
Tech (5-9/1-0 OVC) overcame an ice-cold opening that included 10 Golden Eagle turnovers and a 13-point deficit in the first quarter. The Golden Eagles fought their way back into the contest during the second quarter, heading to halftime within three points, 44-41.
The Golden Eagles made up two points in the third quarter to head to the final period down by one, then held an eight-point advantage in the final quarter to claim the seven-point win.
Senior Samaria Howard paced Tech with 22 points and junior Hannah Goolsby added 14 points and five assists, but it was the pick-me-up play off the bench byYaktavia Hickson and Mariah Dean that lifted coach Jim Davis’ team to the victory.
Hickson had 19 points, four assists and three rebounds. She was 5-of-7 shooting from the field including 2-for-3 from long range, and knocked down a perfect 7-for-7 at the free throw line. Dean, who missed the first 10 games after undergoing preseason foot surgery, dumped in 15 points on 6-for-7 shooting, and added seven rebounds and three blocked shots.
The Golden Eagles connected on an impressive 55.3 percent from the field, hitting 26-for-47, including half of their 10 3-point tries. Tech was 24-of-29 at the free throw line for 82.8 percent, and held a 29-24 edge in rebounds.
Eastern Illinois (1-12/0-1 OVC) also shot the ball well, hitting 46.4 percent overall (26-for-56), and 40 percent (6-of-15) from downtown. The Panthers were 16-for-21 at the charity stripe for 76.2 percent.
A couple of other impressive numbers from the contest are listed in the assists column. EIU had 18 assists and Tech dished up 17.
The Panthers had five players in double digits in scoring, led by Grace Lennox, who also had seven assists and three steals. Phylicia Johnson was 5-for-10 and added 14 points, while Shakita Cox netted 13 points on 5-for-7 shooting. Halle Stull and Alece Shumpert scored 10 apiece for EIU. Erica Brown scored eight and led the Panthers on the glass with nine rebounds.
The largest difference in the game came with 4:05 to play in the opening quarter when Lennox hit a jumper to put the Panthers on top, 19-6. Hickson scored five down the stretch to make it a 24-15 lead after one period.
A 3-pointer by Goolsby got Tech’s second quarter comeback underway, with plenty of damage from Hickson and Dean as the Golden Eagles eventually pulled to within three at the break on a three-point play by Lindsey Jennings.
Tech tied things three times and actually took a slim lead in the third, before ending the period on the short end of a 57-56 tally.
Baskets by Brown and Cox, and two free throws by Lennox pushed EIU on top 63-59 early in the fourth, and Tech continued to battle from behind until Howard twined together a three-point play with 5:20 to play that lifted the GoldenEagles into a 67-65 lead.
The Golden Eagles were able to hold onto their edge by hitting 10-for-10 at the free throw line, along with a couple of jumpers from Howard, over the finalfive minutes.
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 81, BELMONT 74
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Southeast Missouri women's basketball (8-6, 1-0 OVC) defeated Belmont University (8-6, 0-1 OVC) Thursday in its Ohio Valley Conference opener, 81-74.
With the win, Southeast recorded its first win in an OVC opener since the 2006-07 season and defeated Belmont for the first time since they joined the OVC.
Bri Mitchell recorded a new career-high 23 points in Thursday's victory. Mitchell hit eight field goals and was 7-of-8 from the foul line.
The Redhawks started the game with a 5-0 lead on the Bruins but Belmont used back-to-back 3-pointers by Darby Maggard to take a 6-5 lead on Southeast.
Belmont found a three-point lead with six minutes to play in the first but Southeast finished the frame on a seven-point run to lead 17-12 after the first quarter. The quarter ended with a fall-away jumper by Mitchell at the buzzer to widen the Redhawk lead to five.
A layup by Corneisha Henderson gave the Redhawks a seven-point lead to start the second quarter, 19-12.
Belmont battled to retake the lead by four, 30-26, with 3:49 to play.
The Redhawks remained within striking distance and found a lead with 30 seconds left in the quarter. The period ended with Southeast up by two, 36-34.
Mitchell led the squad with 16 first-half points. Erin Bollmann was close behind with nine points in the half.
Southeast was a perfect 8-for-8 from the free-throw line in the half and shot an efficient 44.8% (13-for-29).
Southeast maintained a lead much of the third quarter until about three and a half minutes to play. Back-to-back 3-point buckets by Maggard gave the Bruins their last lead of the game, 52-50.
The Redhawks ended the third period on an 11-point run to lead 61-52 going to the fourth and final frame.
Southeast's largest lead of 16 points came on a 3-pointer by Hannah Noe with 4:29 to play.
The Bruins hit a trio of 3-pointers in the last four minutes to stay close to Southeast. Belmont ended the game hitting five of their final five field goals.
The Redhawks were able to fend off the Bruins long enough to pick up their first conference victory of the season, 81-74.
Imani Johnson earned her second-straight double-digit point game with 15 points. Johnson extended her free-throw streak to 29 straight makes but saw it come to an end in the fourth quarter.
Noe hit four 3-pointers en route to 12 points in the game. Bollmann earned her third-straight double-digit point game with 11.
Henderson finished with a new season/career best nine points and three steals.
Deja Jones saw her four-game double-digit point streak snapped after putting up only three points; however, she finished the game as Southeast's rebounding leader with eight in the contest.
Connor King tied a career-best four blocks in the game.
The Redhawks shot 53.1% (17-of-32) in the second half to finish the game shooting 49.2% from the field.
Belmont had five players with double-figure point performances. Sally McCabe led the Bruins with 17 points and nine rebounds.
As a team, Belmont hit 11 3-pointers.
Belmont entered the game outrebounding their opponents by 10 rebounds a game. The Redhawks were able to rebound right with the conference leading Bruins as each team pulled down 38 boards.