THURSDAY'S SCORES
@Murray State 84, Austin Peay 63
Southeast Missouri 78, @Morehead State 62
Eastern Illinois 78, @SIUE 74
UT Martin 70, @Eastern Kentucky 69
@Tennessee State 64, Belmont 56
@Jacksonville State 82, Tennessee Tech 65
MURRAY STATE 84, AUSTIN PEAY 63
MURRAY, Ky. - The Murray State Racers moved into a tie for first place in the Ohio Valley Conference after an 84-63 victory over the Austin Peay Governors Thursday at the CFSB Center in Murray, Ky.
The Racers (19-5) have won six in a row and are 11-2 in the OVC. They moved into a share of first place with Belmont who was upset at Tennessee State.
Jonathan Stark led the way with 27 points on 12-of-18 from the field, while Terrell Miller, Jr., played big with 19 points and hit all three of his 3-point attempts. Ja Morant came close to his second triple-double this season with 11 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds. Byron Hawkins scored 14 points off the bench to pace the Racers to their seventh-straight home win.
MSU led from wire-to-wire and got off to a 10-2 start to the game. The Racers put together back-to-back 3-pointers from Miller and Stark to lead by 14 points with 1:44 before half. APSU trimmed it to 38-28 at the halftime intermission.
The Govs cut the Racer lead to four when it was 42-38 with 14:00 left to play, before Morant scored six-straight points to get the lead back to nine at 48-39. That was as close as Austin Peay would get. MSU pushed it back to a 16-point lead with 5:11 left on a Miller 3-pointer. MSU’s largest lead was with 1:25 left when it was 81-62.
In one of their best shooting performances of the season, the Racers used a 72 percent second half to outscore the Govs 46-35 as they hit 11-of-29 from the field and 7-of-9 from the 3-point line.
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 78, MOREHEAD STATE 62
MOREHEAD, Ky. - Freshman Justin Carpenter scored 20 points and sophomore Denzel Mahoney added 15 points to go over 1,000 in his career leading Southeast Missouri (11-15, 5-8) to a 78-62 win over Morehead State (6-18, 2-11) Thursday night at Johnson Arena.
SEMO, which trailed by one at halftime, opened the second stanza with a 12-2 run to take a nine-point lead in the first 3:42. The Redhawks used three layups, a dunk by Ledarrius Brewer and a 3-pointer by Jonathan Dalton to key the surge which put SEMO ahead, 47-38, with 16:18 left to play.
Mahoney's 3-pointer, which gave SEMO its first double-digit lead at 50-40, officially put him over 1,000 career points with 14:51 remaining. Another basket by Mahoney, this time a layup, gave the Redhawks a 10-point lead once again.
SEMO used an 11-0 run fueled by six points from Carpenter to put the game out of reach. Brewer's 3-pointer capped the stretch giving the Redhawks a 74-59 lead with 3:48 on the clock. SEMO outscored the Eagles 13-1 over a period of 4:38.
Daniel Simmons made two free throws and made a layup to grab the Redhawks a 16-point lead twice to bury MSU for good.
SEMO held a slight 17-15 advantage midway through the first half until MSU responded with a 12-0 run to build a 27-17 lead at the 6:09 mark.
A layup by Brewer regained a 35-32 lead for the Redhawks with 28 seconds to go before Jordan Walker made a basket in the final seconds to give MSU a halftime lead.
Carpenter made 8-of-10 field goals and 4-of-8 free throws to lead four SEMO starters in double figures. Mahoney followed with 4-of-8 from the field and a perfect 5-of-5 at the free throw line. Simmons added 12 points and nine rebounds, while Brewer chipped in 12 points.
Mahoney became the second player under head coach Rick Ray to score 1,000 points at Southeast. Mahoney will also become the fifth different Redhawk to score over 1,000 career points since 2012-13.
SEMO shot 52.8 percent (28-of-53) from the field and 57.1 percent (16-of-28) in the second half alone.
Walker led the Eagles with 17 points.
SEMO swept MSU in a season for the first time since 2006-07.
EASTERN ILLINOIS 78, SIUE 74
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - Eastern Illinois made six crucial free throws in the final 16 seconds as the Panthers escaped with a 78-74 win at SIUE on Thursday night.
EIU improved to 9-15 overall, 5-8 in the OVC. SIUE fell to 8-16 overall, 4-9 overall.
EIU was held without a field goal for the final 2:52 as Mack Smith scored the final Panthers field goal putting EIU up 68-55. EIU ended the game shooting 57 percent from the floor going 28-of-49 from the floor.
SIUE chipped away at the EIU lead with Daniel Kinchen scoring nine of 11 points for the Cougars as they cut a double-digit EIU lead down to four points with 1:13 remaining on Kinchen’s bucket. He finished with 21 points leading SIUE in scoring. Kinchen’s bucket with 29 seconds left to made it 72-68.
After EIU missed a pair of free throws, Jalen Henry converted free throws for SIUE to make it a two-point game with 19 seconds remaining.
Montell Goodwin, DeVantae’ Price and Mussa Dama all made free throws in the final 16 seconds as EIU held on for the win. The Panthers were 13-of-16 from the foul line in the second half and 15-of-19 for the game.
Trailing 22-19 with 5:07 to play in the first half following a 3-pointer by Kinchen, Eastern Illinois answered with a quick barrage of its own 3-pointers as EIU went on an 11-0 run.
Smith tied the game at 22-22 before Goodwin sank back-to-back 3-pointers. Goodwin then dropped in a running lay-up with 2:17 to play in the first to make it 30-22. Goodwin added another lay-up with 35 seconds left in the half as he scored 13 of his 21 points in the first half.
EIU shot 56 percent in the first half as they held a 32-26 lead. St. Louis native Ray Crossland scored seven of the Panthers first eight points. He finished the game with 17.
After connecting from 3-point range in the first half, the Panthers went down low in the second half with Dama scoring 15 of his 17 points in the second half. Dama added three blocks in the game as he moved into third on the Panthers career list with 87 blocks.
EIU had its biggest lead of the game at 16 points with 7:23 to play in the game. Smith was the Panthers fourth double figure scorer with 12 points as the freshman now has seven straight double figure games. Price finished with nine points off the bench.
Henry finished with 18 points while Kennan Simmons posted a double-double with ten points and ten rebounds.
UT MARTIN 70, EASTERN KENTUCKY 69
RICHMOND, Ky. - Senior guard Matthew Butler was the hero for the University of Tennessee at Martin men’s basketball team tonight, as his three-pointer from the deep right corner was the go-ahead bucket in a 70-69 Ohio Valley Conference road win at Eastern Kentucky.
The Skyhawks (9-17, 4-9 OVC) overcame a nine-point deficit in the contest to break through for a 62-55 advantage with 7:18 to go. Eastern Kentucky then got back in the game with some late momentum, snapping a 67-67 tie with a dunk with 10 seconds to go before Butler lifted UT Martin to its third straight victory in McBrayer Arena.
Butler brought the ball up the floor and drove baseline on the left side, finding an open Delfincko Bogan on the right wing. Bogan pumpfaked a three-point attempt to draw a Colonel defender before swinging the ball to an open Butler in the corner, who calmly hoisted the game-winning trey that found nothing but net with 1.4 seconds left.
Coming off the bench for the first time in his two-year Skyhawk career, Butler finished with 11 points and a game-high seven assists.
UT Martin was led in scoring by Bogan, who dialed up 19 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Mike Fofana sparked the Skyhawk comeback with a career-best 15 points to go along with six rebounds in 29 minutes off the bench while the trio of Fatodd Lewis (team-high eight rebounds), Dominique Williams (seven points, seven rebounds) and Terrence Parker (seven rebounds over the final 16 minutes of the game) helped UT Martin outrebound host Eastern Kentucky by a 34-28 margin.
Nick Mayo scored a career-high 36 points for the Colonels (8-18, 2-11 OVC), who also received 12 points off the bench from Dujuanta Weaver. Eastern Kentucky made 14 three-pointers in the contest but could not stop a Skyhawk offense that hit 54.7 percent (29-of-53) of their shot attempts.
Williams generated the first points of the contest with a stickback off an offensive rebound at the 18:19 mark. Mayo followed with a trio of three-pointers in the span of 56 seconds to suddenly tilt the score in favor of the Colonels.
Mayo scored on an acrobatic alley-oop layup to push Eastern Kentucky’s lead out to 13-4 before Bogan piled up five consecutive points to pull the Skyhawks within four points with 13:21 remaining in the first half.
Another Mayo trifecta nudged the Colonels ahead by seven points but a 9-2 UT Martin run evened the score at 18-all coming out of the under-8-minute media timeout. A Fofana leaner – his sixth point in a little over five-minute span – kept the score knotted at the 7:17 mark.
The Skyhawks trailed by just one point a little under three minutes later until Dillon Avare made two 3-pointers in the span of 21 seconds to make the score 33-26 in favor of Eastern Kentucky. Jailen Gill provided a thunderous dunk and Butler canned a three-pointer from the left side before the Colonels took a 36-31 halftime lead.
Bogan’s seven points paced seven different UT Martin scorers in the opening 20 minutes. Meanwhile, Mayo’s big first half included 23 points on 8-of-10 shooting (5-of-6 from three-point range) for Eastern Kentucky.
Mayo began the second-half scoring with a right wing three-pointer but Bogan answered 11 seconds later with a trey of his own, igniting a 10-2 Skyhawk run. The surge was wrapped up by an alley-oop dunk by Gill that evened the score at 41-41 with 16:43 to play.
After Eastern Kentucky claimed the next five points, Fofana took over the game. The sophomore out of Memphis, Tenn. recorded eight consecutive points for UT Martin over a 2:44 stretch to fuel the Skyhawk comeback.
Bogan sank a runner at the 12:29 mark to give UT Martin its first advantage since the opening basket of the contest. Bogan added a fast break layup and Fofana knocked down a free throw to put the Skyhawks on top by a 54-50 margin.
An old-fashioned three-point play by Darius Thompson with 7:18 left to play provided UT Martin with its biggest lead of the evening at 62-55.
The Colonels came right back with a 6-0 run to trim the Skyhawk lead to 62-61 with three minutes to go. Following a UT Martin missed shot, Lewis came up with a huge play – jumping in the passing lane underneath the Skyhawk basket for an easy layup to make the score 64-61. Bogan followed that with a fadeaway jumper from the right side to extend UT Martin’s lead to five points with 1:47 to go.
Eastern Kentucky converted a pair of three-pointers over the next 62 seconds – the last of which was a Mayo trey from the right wing that resulted in a 67-66 Skyhawk deficit. Thompson was fouled on a drive on the other end and made one of two free throws for the fourth tie of the game.
DeAndre Dishman found space for a dunk with 10 seconds to go to hand the Colonels a brief 69-67 lead with 10 seconds left. Butler then converted the clutch three-pointer to send UT Martin home a winner.
TENNESSEE STATE 64, BELMONT 56
NASHVILLE - Fueled by a double-double from Christian Mekowulu, the Tennessee State men’s basketball team earned a 64-56 victory over first-place Belmont on Thursday night at the Gentry Center in Ohio Valley Conference play. Mekowulu led the way with 18 points and 11 rebounds for TSU, which has won five games in a row.
TSU (13-11, 8-5 OVC) has now won two of the last four meetings with Belmont (19-7, 11-2 OVC).
Mekowulu, who picked up his eighth career double-double, led four Tigers in double figures with Delano Spencer (14), Kamar McKnight (13) and Armani Chaney (12) also reaching double digits.
TSU trailed with four minutes to play before embarking on a 9-0 run to close the game to earn the home victory.
JACKSONVILLE STATE 82, TENNESSEE TECH 65
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. (AP) - Jason Burnell had career-highs of 22 points and 12 rebounds, and Marlon Hunter added 17 points as Jacksonville State beat Tennessee Tech 82-65 on Thursday night.
The win broke a tie in the Ohio Valley Conference standings between the two teams and sent the Gamecocks (18-8, 9-4) into a tie for third with Austin Peay, which lost to Murray State.
The Golden Eagles (16-10, 8-5) raced out to an early lead with an 18-5 run. A Hunter jumper then sparked a 35-9 JSU run to close the first half, during which Hunter scored 13 of his 17 points. The Gamecocks led 40-27 at the half.
In the second half Jamall Gregory scored all 12 of his points to help JSU in push its lead to 26.
JSU controlled the interior in almost every aspect, holding advantages in total rebounds (47 to 34), points in the paint (36 to 24), and blocked shots (10 to 1).