SATURDAY'S SCORES
@Eastern Kentucky 75, Tennessee Tech 71
Jacksonville State 70, @Morehead State 61
Austin Peay 88, @Southeast Missouri 79
@Belmont 68, Tennessee State 63
@UT Martin 83, Murray State 76
SIUE 78, Eastern Illinois 59
EASTERN KENTUCKY 75, TENNESSEE TECH 71
RICHMOND, Ky. - Senior Isaac McGlone was honored before the Eastern Kentucky men’s basketball’s team’s 75-71 win over Tennessee Tech on Saturday, but it was sophomore Nick Mayo who was honored after it.
Mayo poured in a career-high 31 points in EKU’s season finale to become the 35th Colonel to score 1,000 points in his career. He is the first EKU player ever to reach the 1,000-point plateau as a sophomore.
Mayo entered the game needing six points to hit the century mark. He scored his sixth point before the first media timeout, and that was sign of things to come. The 6-9 forward from Oakland, Maine went 12-of-18 from the floor and 3-of-5 from deep. His game-clinching free throw with three seconds on the clock gave him a new career-high of 31 points. He also grabbed nine rebounds, dished out two assists and came up with two steals.
Freshman point guard Asante Gist, meanwhile, finished with 22 points, five assists and only one turnover in the win.
McGlone – EKU’s lone senior – was honored as part of Senior Day activities before the game. He finished with only three points, but also had three steals, two assists and held TTU’s leading scorer, Aleksa Jugovic, to only five points. Most importantly, in his final game, he finished with his 72nd win as a Colonel.
EKU (12-19, 5-11 OVC) led by as many as 10 points in the first half, 36-26, when freshman Marlon Adams converted a layup with 1:26 on the clock. However, Tech closed the half on a 5-0 run to cut the Colonels’ lead at halftime to five, 39-35.
Eastern opened the second half on a 7-0 run and grabbed an 11-point advantage when McGlone buried his lone triple of the game to make it 46-35 just over two minutes into the second stanza.
The Colonels took their largest lead of the game, 68-56, when junior Zach Charles completed a three-point play with 2:21 remaining. However, the Golden Eagles were not finished. Tech pulled back to within three, 74-71, when Mason Ramsey buried a three-pointer with seven seconds on the clock.
EKU was able to get the ensuing inbounds to Mayo, who was fouled with three ticks left. He sank one of two free throws to ice the game and give him a career-high 31 points.
Charles just missed a double-double for Eastern, scoring nine points and grabbing nine rebounds.
EKU nearly shot 50 percent (27-of-55) from the floor and won the turnover battle, 16-11.
TTU (12-19, 8-8 OVC) was led by Ramsey, who finished with 16 points.
JACKSONVILLE STATE 70, MOREHEAD STATE 61
MOREHEAD, Ky. - Four Gamecocks scored in double-digits Saturday as the Jacksonville State men's basketball team closed out the regular season with a 70-61 win over Morehead State on the road.
Senior Greg Tucker led JSU with 17 points, while Norbertas Giga and Erik Durham each registered 15 points. Malcolm Drumwright followed up with 14 points, including a perfect 7-for-7 day at the free-throw line.
Jacksonville State held the lead for more than 27 minutes of the contest, but Morehead State remained on its heels up until the final minute. The Eagles jumped on a five-point run to begin the second half to tie the game 29-29.
Following a couple of early ties to begin the final period, the Gamecocks extended their buffer to as many as seven points, but Morehead hit another run to pull within two with less than two minutes to play. Momentum shifted in JSU's favor when Drumwright drained a three-pointer as the play clock expired at the 47-second mark. The Eagles were forced to foul following the trey that put the Gamecocks up 66-61. Drumwright and Tucker answered both fouls by hitting all four of their free throws. Drumwright scored 12 of his 14 points in the closing period.
The Gamecocks took a four-point advantage to the locker room at the break, leading 29-25. Tucker had an outstanding half, going 3-for-6 from the field and hitting two three-pointers for 11 points. Giga found himself more than halfway to a double-double with five points and six rebounds.
AUSTIN PEAY 88, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 79
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - The conclusion to the 2016-17 season came earlier Austin Peay State University men's basketball team would've liked it to, but the Governors closed out strong in an 88-79 victory against Southeast Missouri that Austin Peay controlled for much of the contest.
A thunderous Jared Savage dunk got the Govs going early and Austin Peay would lead for much of the first half thanks largely to John Murry (17 points) and nine apiece from Savage and Kenny Jones. However, a 13-point Austin Peay lead with 3:59 to go shrank to a single point at the break following a 17-5 Southeast Missouri run.
Southeast Missouri would take an early lead in the second half, but a 19-8 Austin Peay propelled Austin Peay to an eight-point lead with less than 13 minutes remaining. Southeast Missouri would tie it up and briefly take the lead on an Antonius Cleveland jumper with 6:17 remaining, but the Govs would close out the game on a 17-7 tear highlighted by seven points from Murry and clutch three-pointers on back-to-back possessions by Savage and Josh Robinson. Those threes would take it from a one-possession game to an eight-point APSU lead at the 3:47 mark—Southeast Missouri would not get within a possession the rest of the way.
On a day that saw Austin Peay outrebounded by five and go minus-six in turnover ratio, the Governors were able to hold Southeast Missouri—who came into the contest hitting 49.0 percent from the floor in league play—to 37.5 percent; although Trey Kellum, Antonius Cleveland and Denzel Mahoney each scored 20 for the Redhawks, the other six players to see the court for Southeast Missouri combined to go 9-for-34 (23.5 percent) from the field.
BELMONT 68, TENNESSEE STATE 63
NASHVILLE - Behind a game-high 22 points from senior All-America candidate Evan Bradds, Belmont University men's basketball defeated Tennessee State, 68-63, Saturday night.
Bradds established a Curb Event Center single-game record with a perfect 10-for-10 performance from the field, appropriate for the player who led in the nation in field goal percentage each of the last two seasons in his final home game.
The Bruins staved off a spirited effort from the visiting Tigers before a near capacity crowd for Belmont Homecoming and Senior Day.
With Bradds in early foul trouble, Belmont's offense went 7-for-22 from the field with nine turnovers in the first half. But the Belmont defense kept the team well-positioned, trailing 27-26 at halftime.
Behind a flurry of 3-pointers from junior Amanze Egekeze (Lake in the Hills, Ill.) and senior Taylor Barnette, Belmont built a 43-35 lead with 11:25 remaining.
Tennessee answered with an 11-2 run, and took a 46-45 lead on a basket from Ken'Darrius Hamilton. Junior Austin Luke sank a clutch 3-pointer with 1:14 left to give Belmont a 62-56 lead. Tennessee State got within 64-63 with 23 seconds to go, but Luke and Bradds sealed the game from the free throw line.
Bradds led four Bruins in double figures with 22 points. Egekeze had 15 points, Barnette 13, and Luke 11.
Wayne Martin led Tennessee State (17-12, 8-8 OVC) with 20 points.
UT MARTIN 83, MURRAY STATE 76
MARTIN, Tenn. - The University of Tennessee at Martin men’s basketball team did not trail at any point this evening as the Skyhawks clinched their second straight Ohio Valley Conference West division championship with an 83-76 victory over Murray State.
Tonight’s win, combined with a Southeast Missouri loss to Austin Peay, sealed the outright OVC West title and No. 2 seed with a double bye into the semifinals of next week’s OVC Basketball Championships. UT Martin also earned its third consecutive 20-win campaign and broke a record for most wins (61) in any three-year span in school history.
UT Martin (20-11, 10-6 OVC) was led by Jacolby Mobley’s game-high 33 points, as the senior nailed five 3-pointers and made 14 free throws. Javier Martinez corralled his 11th double-double of the season with 19 points (on 9-of-10 shooting) and 12 rebounds while Matthew Butler (18 points) rounded out the double-digit scorers for the Skyhawks. Chandler Rowe played big with 10 rebounds, three blocks, two assists and two steals while Kedar Edwards compiled eight points, six assists, five rebounds and three steals for UT Martin.
Murray State (14-16, 8-8 OVC) was led by Jonathan Stark’s 23 points while Jalen Dupree posted a double-double of 20 points and 11 rebounds off the bench. Bryce Jones added 13 points for the Racers, who shot just 20.6 percent (7-of-34) from beyond the three-point arc.
It was an emotional atmosphere from the start, as the five Skyhawk seniors were honored in a pregame ceremony in conjunction with Senior Night. UT Martin jumped out to a 12-2 lead at the 15:26 mark, aided by a pair of Mobley trifectas.
Murray State got back within seven points thanks to consecutive three-pointers by Stark. However, the Skyhawks reeled off 12 unanswered points over the next 4:41, claiming a 31-12 advantage with a little under nine minutes to play in the opening half.
Mobley scored seven straight points for UT Martin as the Skyhawks took a 42-20 lead with 3:57 to go before the break. The senior out of Starkville, Miss. would drain a deep three-pointer from the right wing with two seconds to go before halftime to make the score 50-26 in favor of UT Martin.
The Skyhawks shot 60 percent (18-of-30) in the first half as Mobley’s 23 points led all scorers at the break. Stark accumulated 11 points to guide the Racers, who shot 29 percent (9-for-31) from the floor.
Murray State scored the first five points of the second half but two straight layups by Martinez helped UT Martin keep a sizeable lead (54-34) with 17:24 to go. Another Martinez layup at the 11:19 mark made the score 66-46 in favor of the Skyhawks.
The Racers then got back in the game, using a 17-2 run over a span of 5:52 to get all the way within one point (75-74) with just under two minutes remaining. Mobley calmly knocked down a pair of free throws with 1:31 remaining before a defensive stand led to two Butler free throws and a 79-74 Skyhawk lead.
Over the final 40 seconds, Butler would knock down two more clutch free throws while Martinez and Mobley added another free throw apiece to wrap up UT Martin’s win.
SIUE 78, EASTERN ILLINOIS 59
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - SIUE seniors Josh White and Burak Eslik teamed for 42 points in guiding SIUE men's basketball past Eastern Illinois 78-59 before 1,805 fans at the Vadalabene Center.
SIUE snapped a 15-game losing streak and finished the season 6-24 overall and 1-15 in the OVC. It was the Cougars' first victory since Dec. 28 and they thoroughly savored it.
White poured in a career-high 20 points his final game to enjoy the Cougars' lopsided win. Devin Thornton, another senior, tossed in 12 points, while junior Jalen Henry contributed 13 points and six rebounds. Redshirt-junior Glen Pierre Jr. also played his final game for SIUE.
The Cougars shot in front early, grabbing a 23-18 lead, thanks mainly to Eslik's nine points. Eslik tallied 13 first-half points as SIUE led 37-29 at the break.
EIU, 14-15 overall and 6-10 in the OVC, crept to within 39-35 early in the second half, but SIUE wouldn't let the Panthers get any closer. The Cougars forged in front 53-43 midway through the second half and stretched their advantage to 68-53 with three minutes to go. Muusa Dama led the Panthers with 18 points and 12 rebounds, yet it was enough.