SATURDAY'S SCORES
@Morehead State 87, Jacksonville State 55
@Belmont 88, Tennessee State 62
Murray State 73, @UT Martin 67
@Southeast Missouri 89, Austin Peay 65
@Eastern Kentucky 70, Tennessee Tech 67
MOREHEAD STATE 89, JACKSONVILLE STATE 65
MOREHEAD, Ky. - The Morehead State men's basketball team posted advantages of 46-4 in paint points, 23-3 in fast-break points, 30-5 in bench points, 55-33 in rebounds and 22-3 in offensive boards en route to a 87-55 rout of Jacksonville State on Saturday evening at Johnson Arena.
The Eagles, who enter the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament with eight wins in 11 games, improve to 15-16 overall, 10-6 in league action and 7-6 at home. The Gamecocks, who finish the campaign losing seven of their last 10, close out 12-19 overall, 5-11 in OVC play and 1-16 on the road.
Saturday was Senior Day as Jalen Courtney, Chad Donley, Karam Mashour, Billy Reader, Kareem Storey and Angelo Warner were honored prior to the contest. Warner is the only fourth-year player at MSU, while Mashour, Reader and Storey are closing out their second seasons on the active roster.\
Mashour led Morehead State with 15 points, eight rebounds and three steals, while Reader recorded 13 points and nine rebounds. Warner registered 12 points, five assists and three steals, while Arrington collected 11 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, three steals and three blocked shots.
Warner, who eclipsed 1,500 career points, is up to 21 double-figure scoring performances this season and 81 in his career. Arrington has collected 19 double-figure scoring efforts this year and 38 at Morehead State, while Mashour owns 17 double-figure scoring games on the campaign.
Arrington also set a career high for rebounds and season high for assists.
Morehead State's rebounding led to a 16-3 edge in second-chance points. The Eagles are +118 in total rebounds, +85 in offensive boards and +42 in second-chance points over their last 17 contests. MSU has only been outrebounded once during the stretch and six times in 31 affairs this year.
Morehead State tallied 24 assists, 15 steals and just seven turnovers. Jacksonville State came up with just 12 helpers and six thefts while committing 21 miscues. MSU rolled up season highs of 82 field-goal attempts and 28 three-point tries. JSU was limited to 33 percent (17-of-51) overall.
The Eagles made 6-of-7 from the field early in the second half and busted the game open with a 15-0 run during the same stretch. Morehead State led for more than 32 minutes on the night. MSU's largest lead of 34 points came in the final minute of the contest.
Senior Avery Moore paced JSU with a game-high 19 points. Classmate Jamal Hunter added nine blocked shots. The Gamecocks managed 11 rejections.
BELMONT 88, TENNESSEE STATE 62
NASHVILLE - Belmont University men’s basketball made 15 three-point field goals en route to an 88-62 victory over Tennessee State Saturday afternoon.
The Bruins (19-10, 11-5 OVC) earned a share of the OVC East Division championship with Eastern Kentucky.
Belmont handed out 19 assists on 20 made field goals in the first half, shooting 61 percent from the floor in building a 50-28 halftime lead.
Sophomore Taylor Barnette made three shots from behind the arc in the first 3:16 of the second half as Belmont led by as many as 28.
13 different Bruins scored.
Craig Bradshaw, who was named Capital One Academic All-America Thursday, led Belmont with 23 points.
Darreon Reddick led Tennessee State (5-26, 2-14 OVC) with 13 points.
Belmont has won 30 consecutive conference home games dating back to 2012, and is 24-0 in Ohio Valley Conference home games.
MURRAY STATE 73, UT MARTIN 67
MARTIN, Tenn. - The Murray State Racers became the fifth team in 67 seasons of Ohio Valley Conference men’s basketball to go undefeated in league play when they came away with a 73-67 win Saturday over the UT Martin Skyhawks.
The win at Skyhawk Arena in Martin, Tennessee, was played in front of a packed house as the Racers (26-4) kept the nation’s second-longest winning streak alive at 24.
MSU went 16-0 in the OVC, the first undefeated squad since Austin Peay in the 2003-04 season.
Cameron Payne scored 31 points to go with eight rebounds and six assists, while Jarvis Williams had his 24th career double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
Trailing 34-31 at half, the Racers started the second half on a 22-8 run for a 53-42 lead. Wayne Langston made a steal and Williams finished a fast break at the 12:35 mark. A thundering dunk from Jonathan Fairell and a 3-pointer from Payne preceded the big play. UTM dug in on their home floor and cut MSU’s lead to 64-62 with 3:16 remaining, but the Racers hit 6-of-8 from the free throw line to seal the win.
The first half saw the Racers take a 17-9 lead at the 13:57 mark when Payne scored two of his 15 points in the half. UTM hit the Racers with an 11-0 run and led 20-17 at 9:26. MSU came back with a 7-0 run where Payne scored five points as the Racers led the Skyhawks 24-20 with 7:21 left. UTM led 34-31 at the half.
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 89, AUSTIN PEAY 65
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Jarekious Bradley scored a game-high 28 points and went over 1,000 in his career, as Southeast Missouri (13-16, 7-9) ended its regular-season with a convincing 89-65 win over Austin Peay (8-22, 3-13) Saturday night at the Show Me Center.
Bradley, one of six seniors honored before the game, scored 19 points in the second half en route to his seventh 20-point effort this season. He officially went over 1,000 career points on a jumper with 7:56 left to play.
The Redhawks were in control the entire way and never let up.
Tied, 15-15, with 11:08 remaining in the first half, Southeast used a 14-3 run to build a double-digit lead. Josh Langford came off the bench to score four points in that stretch, while Marcus Wallace and Antonius Cleveland each buried a three-pointer to help push the Redhawks lead to 29-18 at the 7:16.
Southeast later headed into the locker with a 41-27 advantage, its fifth-straight halftime lead.
The Redhawks continued to pour it on the second half and led by as many as 29 when walk-on Caleb Woods knocked down a three to make it 89-60 with less than two minutes to go. Woods sunk three on back-to-back possessions to help polish off Southeast's largest win in conference play this year.
Bradley shot 11-of-18 from the field, 4-of-7 from three-point range and 2-of-2 at the free throw line in 29 minutes off the bench. He also grabbed seven rebounds in the 48th double-digit scoring game of his career.
Isiah Jones followed with 16 points, while Cleveland and Wallace added 10 apiece. Nino Johnson also gathered two blocks, and as a result, tied Murray State's Cuthbert Victor (2000-04) for 10th on the OVC's all-time career blocks list. Johnson now has 180 swats.
Southeast shot 43.7 percent (31-of-71) from the field and outrebounded APSU, 46-30. The Redhawks held a commanding 20-9 advantage on the offensive glass. In addition, Southeast drained a season-high 14 threes, shooting 50 percent (14-of-28) from beyond the arc.
Chris Horton led the Governors with 20 points and Chris Freeman followed with a double-double 13 points and 11 rebounds.
EASTERN KENTUCKY 70, TENNESSEE TECH 67
RICHMOND, Ky. - Behind a career-high 35 points from Corey Walden, Eastern Kentucky clinched first place in the Ohio Valley Conference East Division and the No. 2 seed in next week’s league tournament with a 70-67 victory over Tennessee Tech on Saturday.
With the game tied 38-38 and 53-53, Walden stepped up with big baskets. The first time he was fouled on a three-point attempt from the right corner and hit all three free throws. With the game knotted at 53-53 and 6:05 showing on the clock, the senior drove to the basket, converted the lay-up, was fouled and made his ensuing free throw.
Walden connected on 11 of his 14 attempts from the field and with five steals tied the EKU career record for thefts. Walden has matched Jamie Ross (1988-92) with 221 career steals.
Charles Jackson’s two free throws got the Golden Eagles to within 57-55, but Eric Stutz had the answer. The senior drained a three-pointer from the right wing for a 5-point Colonel lead.
Javon McKay’s three-pointer cut the TTU deficit to one, 66-65, with 50 seconds left to play. Once again, Walden had the answer. He laid it in off a pass to the hoop from Stutz to stretch the margin back to three with 23 seconds to play. Walden capped the game by rebounding Aleksa Jugovic’s game-tying three-point attempt with 5.5 seconds left and scoring his final two points at the free throw line.
Stutz contributed 17 points and five assists. Jackson finished with 15 points and 17 rebounds for Tennessee Tech. Torrance Rowe had 16 points and five assists for the visitors.
The Golden Eagles went 7-for-15 from three-point range in the first half, but made just 3-of-9 in the second and shot 39 percent from the field for the game. The Colonels shot 51 percent from the field.