THURSDAY'S SCORES
@UT Martin 72, Tennessee State 56
Morehead State 69, @Tennessee Tech 59
Austin Peay 80, @SIUE 75
Eastern Kentucky 76, @Jacksonville State 54
@Eastern Illinois 85, Murray State 74
UT MARTIN 72, TENNESSEE STATE 56
MARTIN, Tenn. - The University of Tennessee at Martin men’s basketball team pulled away in the second half to post its eighth consecutive Ohio Valley Conference victory with a 72-56 triumph over Tennessee State on Senior Night.
With the win, UT Martin improves to 18-12 on the season with a 10-5 league record and clinched the West Division title and No. 2 overall seed for the OVC Tournament after Murray State lost at Eastern Illinois.
Following a pregame Senior Night ceremony honoring Skyhawk seniors Alex Anderson, Terrence Durham, Twymond Howard and Myles Taylor, UT Martin put on one of its best second-half performances of the season. Howard scored a game-high 19 points to lead UT Martin while Myles Taylor compiled 15 points and a game-high seven rebounds. The Skyhawks also received a big lift from the backcourt duo of Jacolby Mobley and Jalen Variste, who each scored 10 points off the bench.
Tennessee State (19-9, 10-5 OVC) placed one scorer in double-figures, as Tahjere McCall scored 16 points to go along with a game-high four assists. The Tigers led by as many as eight points in the first half but were 0-for-10 from three-point range in the game’s final 20 minutes.
Howard knocked down a pair of free throws on the game’s opening possession but Tennessee State responded with a 7-0 run. A Mobley three-pointer from the left wing pulled the Skyhawks within a single point at 13-12 but Marcus Roper hit a pair of three-pointers to help the Tigers take an eight-point lead with 11 minutes to go in the first half.
Taylor then got UT Martin back in the game with thunderous dunks on back-to-back trips down the floor. A left wing trifecta from Variste capped off a 7-0 Skyhawk run and trimmed UT Martin’s deficit to 23-22.
A leaner in the paint by Variste evened the score at 27-all before the Skyhawks broke through for a six-point advantage following back-to-back Howard three-pointers. McCall then closed out the half with four straight points to provide UT Martin with a 33-31 lead at the break.
Howard’s 12 points led all scorers as the Skyhawks connected on 60 percent (12-for-20) of their first-half field goal attempts. Tennessee State was paced by McCall’s 10 points as the Tigers shot 48.1 percent (13-for-27) from the floor in the game’s opening 20 minutes.
UT Martin accounted for the first 10 points of the second half, as Taylor tossed in five points during the run. That resulted in the first double-digit lead of the evening for the Skyhawks. Mobley would soon add five straight points to push UT Martin’s lead out to 48-35 with 13:27 left to play.
After the Tigers got back within single-digits, Anderson sank a pair of treys during a quick 7-0 Skyhawk surge that built up a 55-39 UT Martin lead. A little over two minutes later, Howard converted a tough old-fashioned three-point play to expand the Skyhawk advantage out to 58-41 with 7:08 remaining.
Tennessee State got within 12 points with 5:39 left to play but that would ultimately be as close as the Tigers would get. The Skyhawks answered right back with six unanswered points to lead by 18 points at the 3:40 mark – their biggest lead of the night.
MOREHEAD STATE 69, TENNESSEE TECH 59
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - Senior forward Lyonell Gaines led the way with a season-high 15 points as Morehead State men's basketball handed Tennessee Tech their first home loss of the season with a 69-59 victory on Thursday night.
With the win, the Eagles extended their winning streak to a season-high five games and improved their record to 17-11 overall and 10-5 in the OVC. TTU falls to 18-10 and 10-5 in league play.
The Eagles jumped out early to a 20-7 lead courtesy of a 15-foot jumper by DeJuan Marrero. But, TTU responded by knocking down 10 of 11 free throws en route to a 21-4 run that gave the Golden Eagles a 28-24 lead with 6:31 to go in the half.
Morehead State then clamped down defensively and limited Tech to just three points the rest of the half and closed with a 13-3 run to give them a 37-31 halftime lead.
Morehead State would not relinquish the lead as Gaines helped engineer a 13-6 run to start the second half to open a 50-37 lead.
The Golden Eagles managed to trim the lead to four at 63-59 with 2:33 to go, but Morehead State scored the last six points of the game to seal the victory.
The Morehead State defense held TTU to 35 percent shooting and to just 59 points, their second lowest point total of the season. MSU barely won the rebounding battle, 41-38, but outscored the Golden Eagles in the paint, 40-16. The Eagles finished with 16 offensive rebounds and 17 second chance points.
Gaines knocked down his first seven shots and finished 7-of-8 from the floor. He finished with a team-high 15 points, which eclipsed his previous high of the season, 12 points at Indiana. He also led the Eagles in rebounds with eight, which also set a season-high.
Senior guard Brent Arrington added 12 points, seven assists, five rebounds, while senior forward Anthony Elechi had 11 points and six rebounds despite playing just 18 minutes due to foul trouble. Marrero had 10 points and four rebounds in just 15 minutes.
Torrance Rowe led TTU with 21 points, but was limited to just 5-of-21 shooting. He was 9-of-9 from the free throw line.
AUSTIN PEAY 80, SIUE 75
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - Leave it to the freshmen to keep alive the Austin Peay State University seniors’ hopes for a possible Ohio Valley Conference tournament berth.
Freshmen scored the final seven points—all at the free-throw line—as Austin Peay defeated SIU Edwardsville, 80-75, Thursday night, in Ohio Valley Conference basketball action. The victory left the Governors with a 13-17 overall record but 6-9 in the OVC. It is the same league mark that Eastern Kentucky owns after hammering Jacksonville State, 76-54, to end the Gamecocks dim tourney hopes.
With the Colonels owning a tiebreaker over APSU by virtue of their win in the two teams’ head-to-head matchup, the Govs need an Eastern Kentucky loss, Saturday, at Tennessee Tech while APSU must win against Southeast Missouri for seniors Chris Horton and Khalil Davis along with the rest of the Govs to gain the final OVC tourney berth. And it was freshmen Jared Savage and Zach Glotta, in particular, stepping to the forefront in the closing minute of the game.
Leading by one, 73-72, with 1:16 left, Savage, who made his first career start at forward, was fouled along the right baseline attempting a three pointer. He calmly stepped to the line and made all three free throws to push the lead to four. After Jake Newton, who made five three pointers on the night, another freshman Chris Porter-Bunton grabbed the rebound and got it to his former Warren County Central teammate, Savage, who was fouled. Savage again drained both free throws to give APSU a 78-72 advantage with 28 seconds left.
After SIUE cut the deficit to five with a Carlos Anderson free throw, the Cougars maintained control after gaining the rebound on the missed second free throw. But Anderson missed this time from long range and the ball was knocked out of bounds with 15 seconds left with APSU holding a 78-73 lead. Glotta was fouled on the inbounds play and he, like Savage, stepped to the line and drained both attempts—his only two points—to put the game away, 80-73.
Savage finished with 11 points (6-of-7 at free-throw line), his fifth double-figure contest this season. Porter-Bunton ended with nine tough points, mostly inside, before fouling out.
Sophomore Josh Robinson, starting his first game at point guard this season, led all scorers with 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Davis ended with 18, 11 in the final half as his drives to the basket helped keep SIUE at bay. Horton ended with 15 points and nine rebounds, narrowly missing his 22nd double-double this season.
Newton, playing his final game as a Cougar, led SIUE with 17 points while C.J. Carr added 12.
The Govs shot 50 percent (25 of 50) from the floor, including 60 percent (15 of 25) in the final half. The Govs, who struggled to a 10-of-24 free-throw performance against Murray State last Saturday, ended at 25-of-33 (76 percent).
The contest saw APSU get out to 15-2 lead to open the game only to watch the Cougars, with Chris Horton sitting on the bench with two fouls for the final 9:02 of the half, claw back to take a 29-27 lead with 1:33 left in the half. But the Govs scored the final four points of the half, the final two on Davis free throws with 0.8 seconds left.
SIUE took as much as a three-point early second-half lead but the Govs went on a 10-0 run and never trailed again.
EASTERN KENTUCKY 76, JACKSONVILLE STATE 54
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - The Eastern Kentucky University men’s basketball team delivered its best defensive performance of the year on Thursday night, holding host Jacksonville State to 27 percent shooting from the floor in a 76-54 win over the Gamecocks at Pete Mathews Coliseum.
The win keeps the Colonels (15-15, 6-9 OVC) in a tie for eighth place with Austin Peay (13-17, 6-9 OVC), which beat SIUE, 80-75, on Thursday. EKU owns the tiebreaker over APSU. The top-eight teams advance to the OVC Tournament next week.
It was the lowest point total allowed (54) and the lowest opponent field goal percentage forced (27 percent / 15-of-55) by EKU this season.
The Colonels also out-rebounded the Gamecocks, 48-27, for their best rebounding margin of the year.
Junior JaVontae Hawkins led a balanced EKU scoring effort with 14 points. Freshman Nick Mayo contributed 13 points, while sophomore Paul Jackson added 10 points.
Senior Jarelle Reischel had seven points and a team-best seven rebounds and four assists. In all, 11 Colonels scored in the runaway victory.
The Colonels shot 51 percent (29-of-57) from the field and 50 percent (8-of-16) from behind the arc.
The game was tied, 25-25, with just over two minutes to play in the first half; however, the Colonels closed the half on a 7-0 run, as a three-pointer at the buzzer by Mayo sent Eastern into the locker room at the break up 32-25.
JSU (8-22, 4-11 OVC) stayed within striking distance early in the second half, until EKU went on a 14-2 run to go up by 20, 59-39, following a step-back three-pointer by Jackson with 9:30 remaining in the game.
The Colonels led by double digits the rest of the way.
Greg Tucker led the Gamecocks with 15 points. He was the only JSU player to reach double figures.
EASTERN ILLINOIS 85, MURRAY STATE 74
CHARLESTON, Ill. - Eastern Illinois had five players score in double figures led by senior Trae Anderson with 22 as the Panthers ended their regular season with a 85-74 win over Murray State on Thursday night in Lantz Arena.
EIU improved to 13-16 overall, 9-7 in the OVC. The Panthers will play as either the six or seven seed in next week’s Ohio Valley Conference Tournament opening Wednesday night in Nashville. Murray State fell to 15-13 overall, 9-6 in the OVC.
EIU honored seniors Anderson, Luke Norman and Luke Piotrowski prior to the game as EIU posted winning records in the OVC in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the 1999-2000 and 2000-01 seasons.
While EIU had balanced scoring all night DeMarcus Croaker was a one man show for the Racers to open the game. Croaker scored Murray State’s first 17 points opening the game 6-of-7 from the floor. He would end the night with 26 points.
Croaker’s 17th point gave MSU a 17-16 lead with 11:04 to play in the first half. EIU went on an 11-2 run to take a 27-19 lead. Demetrius McReynolds had the final shot in the run as he finished with 16 points and nine rebounds, just missing his fifth double-double this season.
A 3-pointer by Cornell Johnston pushed the lead to nine with 4:33 to play and EIU led 44-32 at the half on a jumper by Aboubacar Diallo as time expired.
In the second half EIU was able to hold off the Racers with Murray State’s closest run coming with 9:58 to play on a pair of Bryce Jones free throws that ended a 6-0 MSU run. MSU cut EIU’s lead to four points at 60-56. Jones flirted with a triple-double in the game finishing with 14 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.
Following Jones free throws, EIU quickly moved the lead back to double figures with buckets by Anderson and Patrick Muldoon. The Panthers biggest lead of the game was 16 points when Joe Kuligoski knocked down a pair of free throws for EIU giving them a 78-62 lead with 2:52 to play.
EIU shot 58 percent on the night with Casey Teson and Muldoon both finishing with 13 points. Johnston had 11 points and nine assists.
Jeffery Moss was the final MSU player in double figures with 12 points.