SATURDAY'S SCORES
@Eastern Illinois 85, Austin Peay 83
@Belmont 92, Tennessee State 74
@Morehead State 85, UT Martin 77
@Eastern Kentucky 85, Southeast Missouri 83
Murray State 82, @SIUE 72
@Jacksonville State 65, Tennessee Tech 48
EASTERN ILLINOIS 85, AUSTIN PEAY 83
CHARLESTON, Ill. - Shareef Smith hit a 15 foot jumper with four seconds left as Eastern Illinois knocked off Ohio Valley Conference co-leader Austin Peay, 85-83, on Saturday afternoon at Lantz Arena.
EIU improved to 11-8 overall, 4-2 in the OVC. APSU fell to 13-6 overall, 5-1 in the OVC.
Smith's jumper capped what had been a monumental comeback for the Panthers who trailed by 14 points with just under ten minutes to play in the half. Smith scored the final ten points of the game for EIU with all 12 of his points coming in the second half.
EIU led 43-37 at the half after connecting for 57 percent from the field and 7-of-10 from 3-point range in the first half. Josiah Wallace scored 16 of his game high 27 points in the opening half. The Governors were able to keep within striking distance as they knocked down six 3-pointers with a pair coming from Isaiah Hart.
EIU pushed their lead to nine points to open the second half on a 3-pointer by Wallace. Austin Peay would answer with a small run to trim the lead to two points on a dunk by Jabari McGhee with 16:56 to play in the game.
The Governors were not done there as they rattled off a 14-0 run to take a 62-55 lead with 13:21 to play on a 3-pointer by Terry Taylor. The lead would eventually grow to 70-56 as APSU had an extended 22-1 run in which they hit 9-of-10 shots for the floor.
Mack Smith would stop the bleeding for the Panthers with a three-point play at the 9:24 mark. Smith's 3-pointer with 6:20 to play cut the Governors margin to three and Kashawn Charles capped an EIU 14-2 run with a 3-pointer with 5:57 to play that knotted the game at 72-72.
The two teams would trade the lead five times and have five ties in the final five minutes of the game setting the stage for the Shareef Smith game winner.
Mack Smith was the third Panther in double figures in the game as he had 18 points. EIU shot 55 percent from the floor and 10-of-16 (63 percent) from 3-point range. The Panthers also won the battle on the glass with a 39-24 margin. Cam Burrell pulled down eight rebounds while JaQualis Matlock added seven.
Chris Porter-Bunton had 24 points to lead APSU going 3-of-3 from 3-point range. Taylor added 16 points while McGhee had 16 points and eight rebounds. APSU finished the night 13-of-23 from 3-point range.
BELMONT 92, TENNESSEE STATE 74
NASHVILLE - Behind 25 points from senior All-America candidate Dylan Windler, Belmont University men's basketball defeated Tennessee State, 92-74, Saturday.
Windler went 9-for-12 from the field and 7-for-8 from 3-point distance as Belmont shot a season-high 64 percent from the field - including 17-for-23 after halftime.
Freshman Nick Muszynski added 23 points, six rebounds, five assists and four blocked shots. The Bruins (13-4, 4-2 OVC) led wire-to-wire, and freshman Grayson Murphy capped a 17-7 run late in the first half as Belmont led 43-31 at halftime. Senior Kevin McClain added 16 points.
Michael Littlejohn led Tennessee State (5-13, 2-4 OVC) with 19 points.
The game was a homecoming for Tennessee State head coach Brian Collins, who played for Belmont from 2002-06 and led the Bruins to the 2006 NCAA Tournament.
Belmont has won 113 of its last 122 home games.
MOREHEAD STATE 85, UT MARTIN 77
MOREHEAD, Ky. - The Morehead State men's basketball Eagles catapulted themselves to a victory via a season-high in field goal shooting, downing the UT Martin Skyhawks 85-77 Saturday evening at Johnson Arena.
The Eagles are now winners of their last three games, heading into next week's slate at 7-12 overall and 3-3 in Ohio Valley Conference action. With the loss, UT Martin regresses to 5-12, 0-6 in the league on the year.
Morehead State found the cup early and often, surpassing its best mark for field goal percentage. MSU tallied 31-of-52 from the floor, which accounts for a 59.6 percent efficiency. The previous superlative came back on Nov. 30 at home against Ohio-Chillicothe (.582).
One mantra that has driven the Eagles to their winning streak would have to be, "sharing is caring." The home squad dished out 24 assists on their 31 shots made, the former tying a season high also set back on Nov. 30.
Notching another season (and career) best was senior point guard A.J. Hicks. The floor general from Norcross, Ga., tied his career high in assists that he set two nights' previous, tabbing 11 assists for the second contest in a row. Hicks also produced one of his most efficient nights, only surrendering two turnovers.
Nine Eagles found the scoring column in tonight's matchup. MSU was led by senior forward Lamontray Harris, who poured in 20 points on a 9-of-10 effort. Not too far behind was junior Jordan Walker with 19 of his own. Rounding out the double figure performances were sophomores James Baker and De'Von Cooper, with 12 and 10 points, respectively.
Morehead State was met with stiff resistance on offense, as the visitors went blow-for-blow shooting the rock. The Eagles took a nine-point lead going into halftime, and stretched their lead to as high as 19 with 13:34 remaining. From there, UT Martin connected on nine of its next 11 shots, outscoring MSU 27-13 until the 6:03 stamp.
Both teams saw impressive shooting splits, with the visitors logging 32-of-58 (.552), 8-of-19 (.421) from behind the arc, and 71 percent at the free throw line. Not to be outdone were the Eagles, who went 9-for-20 (.450) from long range and hit 14 charity tosses compared to the Skyhawks' seven.
EASTERN KENTUCKY 85, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 83
RICHMOND, Ky. - Sophomore Jacquess Hobbs' coast-to-coast buzzer beater lifted the Eastern Kentucky University men's basketball team to a thrilling 85-83 win over OVC foe Southeast Missouri on Saturady night at McBrayer Arena.
EKU (9-10, 2-4 OVC) led by 11, 77-66, with 3:30 to play. However, SEMO (6-13, 1-5 OVC) rallied down the stretch and tied the game, 83-83, on a three-point play by Alex Caldwell with eight seconds on the clock. With senior star Nick Mayo fouled out, the Colonels inbounded the ball to Hobbs, who went the length of the floor and hit the game-winning floater as time expired.
Mayo finished with 24 points, eight rebounds and four assists to lead the Colonels to their second consecutive conference victory. Freshman Jomaru Brown came off the bench to tally 17 points and seven rebounds in the win. Fellow freshman Tre King posted 10 points, four boards and three assists.
The night began as an ode to Mayo. The senior became the first EKU player and only the 18th OVC player ever to record 2,000 career points. He entered the game needing only three points to reach the double century mark, and it took him just one minute and five seconds to get it. He sank his very first shot of the game, a three-pointer from the top of the key.
Mayo's hot start led EKU to an early 20-13 lead, but SEMO responded with a 7-0 run and knotted it up at 20-20 on a layup by Skyler Hogan at the 9:27 mark of the first half.
EKU stretched its lead back out to 11 when Mayo drained a jumper with eight ticks remaining in the half. SEMO converted a layup at the buzzer to make it a nine-point lead at halftime, 41-32.
The Redhawks came out of the locker room hot, opening the second half on a 7-0 run and trimming the lead to just two, 42-40, on a three-pointer by Ledarrius Brewer.
Five straight points by King – a layup and a three-pointer – helped quell the rally. The Colonels then seemed to take control of the game, taking their largest lead of the night – 73-61 – on a lay-in by Brown with 5:47 left.
The Redhawks, however, rallied in the waning minutes, before Hobbs' heroics sent them home with a loss.
EKU out-rebounded SEMO, 36-29, on the night. However, the Redhawks won the turnover battle, 15-12.
The Colonels shot it well, going 27-of-54 from the field (50 percent) and 9-of-22 (41 percent) from deep.
Hogan paced Southeast Missouri with 20 points in the game.
MURRAY STATE 82, SIUE 72
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - The winning streak is seven for the Murray State Racers after they held off a determined effort from the SIUE Cougars 82-72 Saturday at the Vadalabene Center in Edwardsville, Illinois.
With Ja Morant scoring 40 points and dishing out 11 assists, he also set the OVC single-game consecutive made free throw record on 21-of-21 and kept the Racers undefeated in the Ohio Valley Conference at 6-0. MSU (15-2) has won their last 17 league regular season games and their last 10 away from home.
Morant became the ninth Racer to score 40 points when he hit for 40, with 21 points from the free throw line, while hitting 8-of-17 from the field and dishing out 11 assists for his 11th double-double this season. Shaq Buchanan scored 14 points and Darnell Cowart scored 11 points off the bench.
The win was the hardest to get in the four-game OVC swing that started last week at UT Martin and then Southeast Missouri and into this week with a game Eastern Illinois. Seven minutes into the game, SIUE led by nine points when the score was 23-14. Morant got the Racers back into the lead with three-straight 3-pointers and four free throws to make it 28-27 Racers with 6:23 before half.
At the intermission, MSU led the Cougars 40-38. In the second half, SIUE tied it 46-46 only 2:15 into the final stanza and trailed by a point (57-56) with 10:43 remaining. The Racers finally put the game away on a pair of Brion Sanchious free throws with 53 seconds left. MSU got the separation they needed when they held the Cougars to only one field goal in the final four minutes in the game.
JACKSONVILLE STATE 65, TENNESSEE TECH 48
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - The Jacksonville State men's basketball team improved to 6-0 in conference play for just the second time in program history with its 65-48 win over Tennessee Tech Saturday night at Pete Mathews Coliseum.
Ray Harper's Gamecocks tied Mark Turgeon's 1999-00 team for the best conference start in the program's Division I history, and also matched the school's longest winning streak of the D-1 era at seven in a row with the Saturday victory.
With Austin Peay's 85-83 loss to Eastern Kentucky and Murray State's 82-72 win over SIUE, the Gamecocks and Racers remain the only two unbeatens in the Ohio Valley Conference.
After going down eight, Tennessee Tech got rolling with a 7-0 run halfway through the first period. The Golden Eagles pulled within two points of Jacksonville State's lead, 18-16, with the help of a couple of layups along with a 3-pointer from freshman forward Garrett Golday.
With the advantage in jeopardy, Jacksonville State answered with an 11-point run that kept TTU scoreless for more than five minutes. From the 7:54 mark until halftime, the Gamecocks outscored the Golden Eagles 23-14.
Senior forward Christian Cunningham scored eight points off the bench to pace JSU's offensive effort through the first 20 minutes, leading to a 34-21 lead at the half. Ty Hudson tallied a second-best six while Jamall Gregory, Jacara Cross, Jason Burnell, Marlon Hunter and Detrick Mostella scored four each.
Cross and Cunningham were impassible for the TTU offense in the half, rejecting a combined five would-be baskets. Cross swatted three shots while Cunningham had two. Six in the half by the Gamecocks tied the season's best mark for rejections against a Division I opponent.
Jacksonville State struggled in the second half to the Golden Eagles but was able to overcome a Tennessee Tech spark that dwindled a 20-point lead to just seven points with 7:20 left in the game.
JSU led 41-21 early in the closing period. A seven-point run to begin the half was highlighted by a 3-pointer from Gregory forced TTU head coach Steve Payne to call a timeout less than two minutes in.
Following the called timeout, Payne's Eagles outscored Jacksonville State 21-8 for the next 11 minutes. Four of JSU's 16 turnovers came during the stretch, pushing the Gamecocks' turnover total to its highest in nine games.
The under-eight media timeout came just in time for Harper, allowing the coach to make a couple of subs and slow TTU's momentum.
Burnell scored six of his 14 points for the remainder of the game. Hudson pitched in two and Gregory added a massive dunk that rocked Pete Mathews Coliseum. The Gamecocks finished the game on a 14-6 run.
Burnell finished the night with his eighth double-double of the season. Along with his 14 points, the senior tallied 14 rebounds and was 8-for-8 from the free-throw line.
Center Micaiah Henry finished with 11 points for Tennessee Tech. Forward Courtney Alexander led the Golden Eagles with seven boards.