TUESDAY'S SCORES
@Eastern Kentucky 129, Ohio University Chillicothe 43
@Tennessee State 79, Lipscomb 78
Valparaiso 89,
@SIUE 76
@Eastern Illinois 98, Chicago State 34
@Jacksonville State 125, Brescia 55
Wright State 85,
@Tennessee Tech 80 (OT)
@#25 Tennessee 82,
Murray State 63
EASTERN KENTUCKY 129, OHIO CHILLICOTHE 43
RICHMOND, Ky. - Eight Colonels scored in double figures as the Eastern Kentucky University men’s basketball team rolled past Ohio Chillicothe, 129-43, on Tuesday night at McBrayer Arena.
Sophomore Jomaru Brown led all scorers in the game with 22 points. He added four assists, three rebounds and three steals.
Senior Ty Taylor knocked down six three-pointers to finish with 20 points, to go along with five assists, five steals and three boards.
Making his first start as a Colonel, junior Russhard Cruickshank poured in 15 points on 5-of-11 shooting from deep. He also led Eastern with six assists and six steals.
Sophomore Tre King (14), senior Lachlan Anderson (13), freshman Tariq Balogun (13), junior Cameron Carmical (10) and freshman Michael Moreno (10) all tallied double figures on the night, as well.
Moreno finished with his first career double-double, pulling down 13 rebounds (six of them offensive).
Hayden Mink paced OUC with 12 points in the game.
EKU (2-1) forced Ohio Chillicothe into 37 turnovers and converted those turnovers into 57 points.
The Colonels shot 40 percent from deep (18-of-45) and 85 percent (17-of-20) from the stripe.
TENNESSEE STATE 79, LIPSCOMB 78
NASHVILLE - One of the smoothest last-second mid-range jumpers you’ve ever seen lifted the Tennessee State men’s basketball team to a 79-78 win over Lipscomb Tuesday night in a packed Gentry Center.
The admiral Michael Littlejohn scored a career-high 23 points versus the Bisons, including the jumper in the paint for TSU’s second home win of the season – leaving the Tigers undefeated moving into the Battle of Jefferson Street set for Monday.
TSU’s offense was punctuated by West Virginia transfer Wesley Harris who went 6-for-11 from the floor, adding a three-pointer. Jy’lan Washington, who had 11 points on the night, worked the paint for trips to the free-throw line, where he shot 3-for-4.
Down 44-40 at the half, the Tigers’ walked on the court with a determination to outscore, outrebound and outplay the Bisons for the second period.
KJ Johnson, the Bisons’ leading scorer played a tough second half, scoring 14 points off the bench for LU. The Tennessee freshman hit a career-high 16 points, keeping the Bisons’ in the running, as TSU took a 13 point lead with 13 minutes left of play.
Down one with seven seconds on the clock, Johnson pulled up for a jumper to take the lead over Big Blue, 78-77. Littlejohn crossed the half-court line, dribbled through traffic and pulled up for a quick and smooth jumper as the Tiger fans celebrated the victory against crosstown foe, Lipscomb, 79-78.
VALPARAISO 89, SIUE 76
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - SIUE showed its strong side in the first half Tuesday against Valparaiso at the First Community Arena at the Vadalabene Center.
Then the visiting Crusaders went to work in the second half in reversing a deficit, posting an 89-76 victory and improving to 2-1. SIUE dropped to 1-2.
The Cougars made 20 of 34 first-half shots and enjoyed a 14-0 spree at one point to grab a 46-44 halftime lead. The Crusaders considered themselves fortunate they were within striking distance of them at the break.
Offensively, too. Sophomore Javon Freeman-Liberty trigged the Crusaders' comeback by scoring 18 of his career-best 30 points in the second half. The 6-foot, 3-inch sophomore guard, nephew of former University of Illinois star Marcus Liberty, also snared a game-best 13 rebounds.
The Cougars had their own share of standouts. Guard Tyresse Williford led the way with 17 points, seven assists and five rebounds. Brandon Jackson contributed 17 points and six rebounds. Cam Williams netted 13 points, Zeke Moore popped in 11 points and Mike Adewunmi collected a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
SIUE's shooting sagged a bit early in the second half when the Cougars made just 4 of 17 shots and saw Valpo surge ahead 69-54 with less than 10 minutes to play. Overall, SIUE hit on 32 of 68 shots, was 4-for-18 from 3-point range, made 8 of 16 free throws and got outrebounded 44-36. Yet the Cougars fought back and slice the deficit to single digits late in the game.
Valpo's Nick Robinson (19 points) and Mileek McMillen (15 points) complemented Freeman-Liberty's production and 6-7 freshman Donovan Clay of Alton had five points in his first start.
EASTERN ILLINOIS 98, CHICAGO STATE 34
CHARLESTON, Ill. - Eastern Illinois won its fourth straight home opener as the Panthers jumped out early to put away Chicago State, 98-34, on Tuesday night at Lantz Arena.
EIU improved to 1-2 on the season after opening last week on the road at No. 12 Texas Tech and Wisconsin. Chicago State fell to 1-2 on the year.
EIU led 4-3 after the first two minutes of action before putting together a 25-0 run over the next six and a half minutes. In the run Mack Smith knocked down three 3-pointers while Deang Deang added a couple of baskets. Those two were part of a group of five EIU players that finished in double figures during the win. Smith had 13 points, all in the first half. Deang had 21 points going 7-of-10 from the field.
Andrew Lewis broke the scoring run by the Panthers with a pair of free throws with 11:33 to play in the first half. Lewis was nearly all of the Cougars offense in the first half scoring ten of their 16 points as EIU led 56-16 at the intermission.
EIU’s defense stepped up on the evening forcing 26 CSU turnovers which were converted into 30 points. Marvin Johnson, George Dixon and Josiah Wallace all collected three steals as EIU finished with 12 as a team. The Panthers limited Chicago State to 23 percent shooting for the night on 11-of-47 from the field.
Jordan Skipper-Brown posted a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Dixon just missed his second double-double of the season with 15 points and nine rebounds. Dixon did pass out a team high five assists as EIU finished with 28 as a team. Johnson was the final Panther in double figures with 14 points.
Lewis ended the game with a team-high 14 points for Chicago State. Xavier Johnson, the number eight scorer in the NCAA entering the game, was held to just four points on 2-of-12 shooting.
JACKSONVILLE STATE 125, BRESCIA 55
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - The Jacksonville State men's basketball team eclipsed its single-game scoring record with a 125-55 win over Brescia in its home opener at Pete Mathews Coliseum Tuesday night.
The previous high for most points scored in a Division I game was 112 against Shorter College on Nov. 23, 2004. The 125 points were the most points scored in a Division I home game by the Gamecocks, as well.
The 70-point margin of victory by Jacksonville State was the third-largest in school history behind 86 (149-63, against John Marshall in 1963-64) and 74 (117-43, against Gadsden Tech in 1950-51).
Brescia jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first minute of play, but that would be the only lead the Bearcats saw all night. The Gamecocks took control soon after, playing a near-flawless first half.
After committing 19 turnovers in the season opener at SMU, Harper said the team had to come back and fix its mistakes. Tuesday, the Gamecocks turned the ball over just eight times against the Bearcats - none in the first half.
JSU led Brescia 65-34 after the first 20 minutes of play. Junior Kayne Henry hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer on the run to extend the Gamecock lead to 31 just before the teams went to the locker rooms.
After Elias Harden (19) and Henry (19) both went to the break having scored double-digits, the quartet of Maros Zeliznak (12), Ty Hudson (12), Juwan Perdue (19) and Martin Roub (18) added second-half offense to round out the group of double-digit scorers for the Gamecocks.
All 12 Jacksonville State players to take the court scored at least two points en route to making 46 field goals, which set a Gamecock Division I record. The JSU bench accounted for 72 points.
WRIGHT STATE 85, TENNESSEE TECH 80 (OT)
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - It was an instant classic in the Hooper Eblen Center Tuesday evening, as the Tennessee Tech men's basketball team battled back-and-forth with visiting Wright State in an affair that needed an extra period to decide the outcome.
The Raiders (3-0) pulled out the win over the Golden Eagles (1-2), edging the purple and gold by a final score of 85-80 in overtime, but the young Tech squad showed tremendous fight against the Horizon League's preseason favorite. Neither team took a lead into double figures in a contest that saw a whopping 19 lead changes.
It was the Golden Eagles with the advantage at the break, overcoming an eight-point deficit to take a 31-27 halftime lead. In the second half, neither side could break away by more than four points, which Wright State did with 3:21 to play in the game.
Freshman Keishawn Davidson connected on a pair of free throws with three minutes to go, trimming the deficit to two. Forty seconds later, the rookie point guard pulled up from the elbow and drained the game-tying jumper just outside the paint, knotting things up at 75-75.
Neither team mustered a bucket over the final 2:25 in regulation. Raider guard Cole Gentry tried a last-second jumper, but it clanged off the rim and the clock expired before the ball bounced out of bounds.
Wright State jumped out to a five-point lead halfway through the extra period, but senior guard Darius Allen slashed the visitor lead to two with a huge bucket from beyond the arc. A Raider free throw pushed the deficit back to three, but Davidson cut through the paint and turned in a layup with 1:50 to play to make it a one-point game.
It proved the closest Tech would come in the overtime period, with Wright State sinking a jumper with 13 seconds to play to produce the final score of 85-80.
Allen led the Golden Eagles in scoring with a career-high 18 points on 7-for-13 shooting while Davidson added 14 points and seven assists while playing a whopping 43 minutes. Also in double figures for Tech were sophomores Jr. Clay (12 points) and Hunter Vick (10 points). Amadou Sylla led the squad with nine rebounds while also scoring eight points.
Freshmen Tujautae Williams and Reece Wilkinson both enjoyed success off the bench, with Wilkinson contributing eight points and Williams notching six points and eight boards.
One of the keys to the contest was the battle on the boards. Wright State used its impressive length and size to out-rebound the Golden Eagles, 50-32. Tech showed improvement in the turnover department, making just 13 as compared to the 15 turned in by the Raiders.
#25 TENNESSEE 82, MURRAY STATE 63
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The Murray State Racers held the lead until 10:44 remaining before falling to the Tennessee Volunteers 82-63 Tuesday at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville.
The Racers (1-1) got 17 points and six assists from Tevin Brown, while Jaiveon Eaves scored 13 points and KJ Williams added 10 points. Anthony Smith grabbed seven rebounds.
Leading 44-35 at the half, the Racers held the lead until the 10:36 mark. In the final 10-plus minutes of the game, MSU just went cold and hit only 4-of-14 from the field. The Vols got hot and outscored the Racers 23-4 to the finish.
The optimism Murray State enjoyed in the first half was well earned, as MSU hit 15-of-30 from the field for 50 percent and hit 57 percent from the 3-point line on 8-of-14.
DaQuan Smith’s 3-pointer with 10:50 in the first half gave the Racers an 8-0 run for a 18-13 lead. The Racers went ahead by 10 points on Smith’s layup with 4:10 to go. MSU’s largest lead of the day came with 1:58 in the half when Eaves scored for a 12-point lead.
The Racers held their own on the boards and trailed UT only 35-34 in the rebound stat. For the game, the Racers shot 41 percent from the field on 23-of-56, while the Vols shot 50 percent on 29-of-58.