WEDNESDAY'S SCORES
Austin Peay 83, @Eastern Kentucky 81 (OT)
@Jacksonville State 74, Southeast Missouri 62
UT Martin 75, @Tennessee Tech 46
AUSTIN PEAY 83, EASTERN KENTUCKY 81 (OT)
RICHMOND, Ky. (AP) - John Murry scored a career-high 27 points and Kenny Jones grabbed a career-best 14 rebounds and scored eight of his 23 points in overtime to help Austin Peay beat Eastern Kentucky 83-81 on Wednesday for coach Dave Loos' 499th win.
Austin Peay's Chris Porter-Bunton hit a jumper and Jones dunked on their next possession for a 79-78 lead. Jones scored again with 35 seconds left for a three-point lead and, after EKU missed a 3-pointer, Jared Savage made two free throws with 14 seconds to go for an 82-78 lead. EKU missed its fourth straight 3 and Savage added another free throw before the Colonels finally made a 3 at the buzzer.
Zach Glotta scored 12 points and Porter-Bunt and Savage had 10 apiece for the Governors (8-16, 4-6 Ohio Valley), who ended a two-game skid.
Austin Peay led 36-31 at halftime and Glotta's 3-pointer tied it at 71 at the end of regulation.
Asante Gist scored 24 with six 3-pointers and Nick Mayo added 19 with seven assists for Eastern Kentucky (10-15, 3-7), which saw its two-game win streak end.
JACKSONVILLE STATE 74, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 62
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - The Jacksonville State men's basketball team topped the OVC West's first-place Southeast Missouri 74-62 on Wednesday to snap a two-game skid. Senior Erik Durham scored a team-high 22 points while sophomore Christian Cunningham pitched in a double-double.
The Gamecocks (14-11, 6-4) had four players score in double-digit points. Senior Greg Tucker had 16 points and freshman Jacara Cross had 12 to go along with Durham's 22 and Cunningham's 10.
SEMO (11-14, 6-4 OVC) also had four in double-digits, led by Denzel Mahoney's 18-point effort. The Redhawks were red-hot from beyond the arc, going 11-of-24 from long range. Mahoney was responsible for a team-high four treys.
Jacksonville State took a 38-32 lead into the half. Tucker scored his first 10 points before the intermission, while Cunningham came up short of a double-double before the break by just four rebounds and four points.
The first period saw six lead changes, and a four-point SEMO lead, but the Gamecocks found a 7-2 run that helped them reach a 12-point plateau. While the Redhawks whittled the advantage down to six points before the horn, Cross blocked two big shots and scored a basket with less than five minutes to go to keep the momentum in the home team's favor.
Cunningham's double-double was completed with 11 rebounds, and Durham's 22-point performance is his second +20-point effort this season. The Gamecocks have had at least one player score 20 points or more in their last three of four games.
UT MARTIN 75, TENNESSEE TECH 46
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - Javier Martinez set the tone early as the University of Tennessee at Martin men’s basketball team dominated from start to finish in a 75-46 dismantling of Ohio Valley Conference rival Tennessee Tech this evening.
A senior forward out of St. Croix, Virgin Islands, Martinez was responsible for the program’s first-ever game of at least 20 points and 20 rebounds at the Division-I level (since 1992). He scored a game-high 22 points to go along with a career-best 21 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season. The 6-7, 210-pounder joins Tennessee State’s Wayne Martin and current Denver Nuggets star and Morehead State alum Kenneth Faried as the only OVC players to record a 20-20 game in the last seven years.
The 29-point margin of victory is the program’s largest OVC road win in school history, eclipsing the previous record of 27 points (a 100-73 win at Tennessee State on Feb. 7, 2009). The 46 points were UT Martin’s second-lowest scoring output allowed against a Division-I opponent, narrowly missing out on the program record of 43 points in a 61-43 road win at Samford on Jan. 24, 2008.
Jacolby Mobley scored 15 points, Matthew Butler added 12 points and Kedar Edwards secured 11 points and a game-high six assists for the Skyhawks (16-9, 6-4 OVC), who shot 51.7 percent (30-of-58) from the floor. Dante Bailey tied a career-high with nine points while Chandler Rowe stuffed the statsheet with six points, four rebounds, three assists, three steals and a block for a UT Martin squad that led for 38:42 of clock time.
Tennessee Tech (9-16, 5-5 OVC) was held to 31.1 percent shooting (19-of-61) for the game, including a 5-of-32 effort from beyond the three-point arc. Kajon Mack was the only Golden Eagle to reach double-figures in the scoring column with 12 points.
After Tennessee Tech scored the first bucket of the game, Butler provided four straight points while Martinez was responsible for six consecutive points to close out a 10-0 Skyhawk run. A Mobley three-pointer at the 14-minute mark gave UT Martin its first double-digit lead (15-4) of the night.
Edwards dropped in back-to-back layups to push the Skyhawk lead out to 21-4. The Golden Eagles got back within 11 points at the 7:46 mark. A four-point play by Mobley – the third straight game in which the 6-0 senior has accomplished that feat – expanded UT Martin’s advantage to 34-15 before an old-fashioned three-point play by Bailey made the score 37-17 with less than four minutes to go before the halftime break.
Two Mobley layups and a Bailey three-pointer from the left wing in the final two minutes provided UT Martin with a 44-22 halftime lead. Martinez had a game-high 14 points and eight rebounds while Mobley poured in 11 first-half points.
The Skyhawks began the second half on a 10-2 run, as a layup by Martinez with 16:17 to go made the score 54-24.
Bailey found the bottom of the net on a three-point attempt at the 11:11 mark, doubling up Tennessee Tech at 62-31. The Golden Eagles came back with a 9-1 run but would not get any closer than 23 points the rest of the way.
Rowe buried a three-pointer on UT Martin’s ensuing possession as the Skyhawk lead grew to as many as 32 points when Martinez sank an eight-foot jumper from the left baseline with 1:40 remaining.