THURSDAY'S SCORES
SIUE 62, @Eastern Kentucky 60
@Belmont 78, Tennessee Tech 59
Southeast Missouri 85, @Murray State 74
Jacksonville State 75, @Tennessee State 56
@Morehead State 89, Eastern Illinois 81
SIUE 62, EASTERN KENTUCKY 60
RICMOND, Ky. - Freshman Zaria Whitlock took an inbounds pass and hit a driving 10-footer with four seconds left as SIUE women's basketball defeated Eastern Kentucky 62-60 Thursday at McBrayer Arena.
It was the only shot attempt of the game for Whitlock, who was knocked over by her teammates in celebration at midcourt after the game. The Cougars matched their best-ever start to Ohio Valley Conference play at 3-0 with the victory and improved to 6-8 overall.
Donshel Beck led the Cougars with 23 points followed by 14 from Gwen Adams and 10 from Lauren White.
SIUE won what turned out to be a back and forth game with 10 lead changes and nine tie scores.
The Cougars led after one period by seven points 22-15, their biggest lead of the contest. Eastern Kentucky, which fell to 4-8 overall and 1-2 in the OVC, picked up a double-double of 26 points and 11 rebounds from junior transfer A'Queen Hayes.
EKU would cut the SIUE lead to 32-30 by halftime and then stepped up in the third period. Hayes scored eight and teammate Bria Bass added seven as the Colonels outscored the Cougars 19-8 in the period and grabbed their biggest lead of the game at nine.
The Cougars pulled to within two points (51-49) the 6:01 mark of the game on a tip-in by Beck. Offensive rebounding played a part late, especially on that possession. Beck's bucket was SIUE's fourth field goal attempt on that possession.
White put SIUE ahead 56-55 with 3:12 to play on a layup off a perfect bounce pass from Adams.
EKU didn't back off, regaining a three-point lead after a pair of free throws by Bass with 1:41 left.
Adams scored SIUE's next four points on a layup with 1:26 to play and a pair of free throws with 27.5 seconds left. That put the Cougars ahead 60-59.
Hayes drew a foul of 13 seconds left. She made her first free throw attempt to tie the game but rimmed out on the second.
SIUE forced the ball down to its offensive end only to have the ball swiped out of bounds by an EKU player. That led to Alston taking the ball out of bounds on the baseline. Whitlock found herself open and used her momentum to move toward the basket, hitting the jumper with four ticks left.
BELMONT 78, TENNESSEE TECH 59
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Belmont women's basketball got out to a fast start that would prove to be enough to hold off Tennessee Tech Thursday night inside the Curb Event Center. A season-best 23 points and six blocks from senior center Sally McCabe (Mt. Juliet, Tenn.) helped the Bruins rout the Golden Eagles, 78-59.
BU moves to 13-3 on the season and 3-0 in OVC play to mark its 28th consecutive conference win, the second longest streak in the nation. Aside from McCabe, three additional Bruins recorded double-digit performances as well. Junior Darby Maggard (Larwill, Ind.) poured in 17 points, while Maddie Wright (Chattanooga, Tenn.) and Jenny Roy (Brentwood, Tenn.) followed close behind with 14 and 12 points, respectively. For the fourth game in a row, Roy spearheaded Belmont's assists with seven. Collectively, the squad shot 51 percent from the field and outrebounded the Golden Eagles, 32-30.
TTU (3-11, 0-3) looked to Mackenzie Coleman (17 points), Jordan Brock (16 points) and Yaktavia Hickson (11 points) to power its offensive production. Coleman finished the night with a double-double also collecting 11 boards. The team went 22-for-54 from the field with eight threes.
Belmont took control of the game out of the gates, holding Tennessee Tech to just seven points in the first quarter. The Bruins propelled themselves to a 13-3 run in the first four minutes of the game with McCabe accounting for eight. They refused to let up, tallying 17 points in a span where the Golden Eagles could only find the bottom of the net once. McCabe finished the first quarter with eight points, while Maggard put up seven as BU took a 27-7 advantage into the second stanza.
McCabe opened the second quarter with her second swat of the game at the 8:54 mark, moving her to second all-time in the Ohio Valley Conference record book with 224 career blocks. The Bruins continued their high paced tempo, scoring seven unanswered points in the opening three minutes. Maggard pushed their lead to 13 points, 38-15, with her third trey of the evening in the latter half of the frame before TTU started to find a rhythm. The Golden Eagles drained back-to-back shots from three-point range to end a two-minute scoring drought. However, their efforts came a little too late as Belmont led, 42-23, at the break.
Tennessee Tech held the edge in the third frame, outscoring the Bruins 18-16, but the Bruins advantage proved to be too much. McCabe was responsible for Belmont's first six points of the quarter. TTU spurted out to a 9-2 run in the opening minutes, but a three-pointer from Wright temporarily cooled the Golden Eagles offense. They continued to try and claw their way back into the game, but a two-minute scoreless span to end the stanza halted TTU's hopes of finding its way back in the game as BU was ahead, 58-41.
The final quarter capped off Belmont's fourth consecutive victory with the help of seven points from Roy. The Brentwood, Tenn. native hit one from afar and sunk a pair of layups to become the fourth Bruin to trigger a double-digit performance. Moments later McCabe sunk her fourth free throw to register her season-best 23rd point with 6:23 remaining in the game. From then on BU went 6-for-8 from the field to secure a 78-59 victory over Tennessee Tech.
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 85, MURRAY STATE 74
MURRAY, Ky. - Southeast Missouri women's basketball defeated the Murray State Racers 85-74 on Thursday evening.
Both teams came out in the opening period shooting the ball very well, each shooting exactly 50 percent from the field. Deja Jones had a quick five points in the quarter for the Redhawks.
At end of the first period, SEMO trailed 17-15.
The hot offense for both squads looked even stronger in the second, with each team scoring over 20 points in the quarter. A two minute scoring drought by Southeast let Murray extend their lead to nine late in the quarter, but SEMO answered the run in the final two minutes and cut the lead to three at halftime.
After two, the Redhawks trailed the Racers 39-36.
Southeast started the third quarter on a 4-0 run to take the quick lead. Both teams then traded buckets back and forth until around three minutes left in the third quarter.
Late in the period, Southeast caught fire on offense. SEMO pulled ahead after an 8-0 run, highlighted by four straight buckets from Ashton Luttrull. Luttrull had 14 points in the quarter.
Southeast led 67-53 at the end of the third period.
The offensive rhythm continued for the Redhawks in the fourth quarter, their lead stretching to 20 at one point early in the period.
Murray State went on a run late in the quarter, even cutting the lead to just 6 points with two minutes remaining. However, the Redhawks lead proved to be too much as they went to win by 11.
Luttrull ended the game with 23 points, tying a career high. 16 of those points came in the second half.
Bria Bethea led the Racers with 18 points in the loss and also had three steals. Jasmine Borders and Leah Richardson scored 14 each. The 14 points are a career-best for Richardson as she hit four 3-pointers and also had three steals. Ke’Shunan James added 12 points and 10 boards for her sixth double-double of the year.
LaTrese Saine had a perfect game on the offensive end; shooting 6-6 from the field and 2-2 from the free throw line.
Tesia Thompson's strong play continued as she chipped in 13 points off the bench for Southeast.
JACKSONVILLE STATE 75, TENNESSEE STATE 56
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Jacksonville State women's basketball team defeated Tennessee State on the road Thursday evening inside the Gentry Center to improve to 3-0 in Ohio Valley Conference play for the first time in program history since joining the league prior to the 2003-04 season.
Jax State's last 3-0 conference start came in its final season in the Atlantic Sun Conference during the 2002-03 season, where the Gamecocks began the year 5-0.
For the second consecutive game, the Gamecocks (9-5, 3-0 OVC) saw four players reach double-digits in the scoring column, led by sophomore Morgan Towell's career-high 17. Seniors Ki-Ki Patterson and Tyler Phelion joined freshman Taylor Hawks all with 10 points apiece. Rayven Pearson had just six points, but hauled in 10 boards for her sixth-straight game of 10-or-more rebounds.
The Gamecocks' league-best scoring defense held TSU to just 1-for-13 shooting in the opening period, but the Tigers made their way to the charity stripe where they went 8-for-8 to keep it tight in the first. Phelion made a layup as the first quarter came to a close to give JSU a 15-10.
Towells and Leah Strain began the second with back-to-back threes to hand JSU a 21-10 advantage and spark a 21-point quarter for the Gamecocks. JSU would lead by as many as 17 in the period, 33-16, before heading to the half up 36-22.
JSU hit 11 three-pointers on the night, the second most in a game this season. Freshman Kiana Johnson's triple early in the third propelled the Gamecocks toa 20-point advantage, 44-24. The Lady Tigers were able to cut the deficit back to 13 by the end of the third with the help of Tia Wooten who would lead TSU with 28 points.
With 6:37 remaining in the final period, TSU was building momentum back within seven, before Towells drained her final three of the contest to push the margin back to 10. Down the stretch, JSU made its free throws to fend off any late Tiger rally. JSU was 16-27 on the night at the line.
After taking the lead on its opening possession of the game, Jax State led for more than 39 minutes of the contest as the Gamecocks snapped a three-game road skid.
Tia Wooten recorded a double-double with 28 points and 11 rebounds to lead Tennessee State.