WEDNESDAY'S SCORES
Bradley 75,
@Southeast Missouri 67
@UT Martin 84, Blue Mountain College 76
BRADLEY 75, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 67
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Southeast Missouri (6-6) fell victim to a big first-half run and never recovered in a 75-67 loss to Bradley (10-2) Wednesday afternoon at the Show Me Center.
SEMO jumped out to an early 9-2 lead before Elijah Childs made three 3-pointers in a 1:10 stretch to grab BU a 17-14 advantage.
After Ledarrius Brewer made two free throws to tie the game at 22-22 with a little over eight minutes remaining in the first half, the Braves answered with a 17-4 run to take a 39-26 lead with 56 seconds left. Darrel Brown's jumper capped the big surge, which saw BU drain three more treys. BU later led, 41-29, at the half.
Down, 47-34, with 16:18 to go in the second half, SEMO put together a 13-3 run and managed to pull to within three when Brewer knocked down a 3-pointer to make it 50-47 at the 10:28 mark. That was as close as the Redhawks would get.
Luuk van Bree responded with a 3-pointer of his own on the Braves ensuing possession. SEMO then made it a two-possession game when Daniel Simmons made a layup to cut BU's lead to 57-51 with a little over seven minutes left. The Braves would eventually widen their lead to 13 points on three occasions in the final five minutes en route to their win.
Brown led four BU players in double figures with 18 points. Childs and van Bree followed with 15 and 14 points off the bench, respectively. Nate Kennell added 12. The Braves shot 47.2 percent from the field and made 53.3 percent (16-of-30) of their shots in the first half. BU also made 9-of-18 three-pointers.
Denzel Mahoney paved the way for SEMO with 17 points, including 10 at the free throw line. Brewer followed with 13 and Ray Kowalski contributed 10. The Redhawks were just 9-of-25 from 3-point range and shot under 40 percent (38.2) from the field for the game.
UT MARTIN 84, BLUE MOUNTAIN COLLEGE 76
MARTIN, Tenn. - Four University of Tennessee at Martin starters scored in double-figures this evening as the Skyhawk men’s basketball team outlasted Blue Mountain College, 84-76, at the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center.
UT Martin (4-8) led by as many as 17 points tonight but was ahead by just four points with 2:37 remaining. The Skyhawks then made the winning plays down the stretch, scoring on three of their next four possessions on their way to the victory.
Fatodd Lewis accounted for his fourth double-double of the season for UT Martin, delivering 25 points and 11 rebounds to go along with a game-high five assists and career-best six steals. Matthew Butler (20 points), Terrence Parker (career-high 13 points) and Darius Thompson (12 points) also helped steady a Skyhawk offense that generated a distinct 56-16 advantage in points in the paint.
Blue Mountain College (4-6) was led by Harrison Fancher’s 25 points. The Toppers also received big scoring nights out of Jaylon Bardley (21 points), Quan Cothron (11 points) and Dominic Hudson (11 points) as the NAIA opponent out of Blue Mountain, Miss. canned 14 three-pointers but committed 22 turnovers.
Parker scored the first points of the game on a fast break layup at the 18:40 mark. Less than two minutes later, a Butler trey put the Skyhawks on top by a 7-5 margin. However, the Toppers dialed up seven of the next nine points of the contest to claim a 12-9 lead.
A brief 6-0 UT Martin spurt resulted in a 20-18 Skyhawk lead with just under 11 minutes to go before the halftime break. Blue Mountain College came back to take a three-point advantage midway through the first half but that would ultimately be the last lead the visitors would hold.
Lewis secured the last five points during a 7-0 Skyhawk run that put UT Martin on top by a 27-23 margin. The Skyhawks added another 10-0 run in the waning stages of the first half before settling for a 49-39 lead at the half.
UT Martin connected on 52.6 percent (20-for-38) of its field goal attempts in the first half, led by Lewis (17 points) and Butler (11). Fancher had 18 points to lead all scorers at the intermission as the Toppers sank 10 trifectas in the opening 20 minutes.
Thompson poured in the first five Skyhawk points of the second half but Blue Mountain whittled its deficit to just five points (56-51) with 14:51 left to play.
Parker responded with back-to-back buckets and UT Martin turned up the heat defensively, holding the Toppers scoreless for a stretch of 6:36. The defensive intensity allowed the Skyhawks to build up a 17-point lead after a Butler jumper in the paint made the score 71-54 with eight minutes to go.
The Toppers had one last run in them, as they scored 13 unanswered points in a 3:09 span to creep within four points with 2:37 on the clock. Butler (three-pointer), Lewis (mid-range jumper) and Jailen Gill (dunk) then followed with big buckets to help UT Martin avoid the upset. Kahari Beaufort calmly sank a pair of clutch free throws with 15 seconds left to seal the victory.