MONDAY'S SCORES
@Belmont 90, High Point 51
@South Dakota 71,
SIUE 56
@Eastern Illinois 114, Indiana Northwest 61
@Tennessee State 99, Fisk 65
BELMONT 90, HIGH POINT 51
NASHVILLE - Behind balanced scoring and strong team defense, Belmont University men's basketball defeated High Point, 90-51, Monday night from the Curb Event Center.
Belmont had 10 players score in the opening 20 minutes while limiting High Point to six first half field goals.
A 3-pointer from sophomore Adam Kunkel made the score 41-12 with 4:18 left in the first half. Belmont led 48-18 at halftime.
Following Saturday's impressive victory at Boston College, the Bruins made 13 3-point field goals, outscored High Point 44-24 in the paint, and outrebounded the Panthers 47-33.
Kunkel and sophomore Nick Muszynski each scored 14 points. Junior Nick Hopkins added 13. Freshman EJ Bellinger had nine points and four rebounds.
Belmont forced 19 High Point turnovers.
John-Michael Wright led High Point (0-4) with 11 points.
SOUTH DAKOTA 71, SIUE 56
VERMILLION, S.D. - Three SIUE players scored in double figures but it wasn't enough to overcome a second-half surge from South Dakota as the Coyotes pulled away for a 71-56 win Monday night.
SIUE dropped to 2-3 on the season and 1-2 on the road. South Dakota remained unbeaten at 5-0.
The Cougars stayed tight in the first half, even taking a 14-10 lead with 12:48 to play in the period on a pair of free throws by Mike Adewunmi. South Dakota pushed its lead to seven on several occasions and led 32-27 at halftime.
SIUE closed the lead to two (37-35) on a jumper from Zeke Moore with 16:48 left, but the Coyotes quickly extended it with an 8-0 run to lead 45-35 with 11:32 to play. A 3-pointer from Adewunmi at 9:35 got the Cougars within five (47-42) but they never got any closer.
The Coyotes got a pair of 3-pointers in less than a minute from Brandon Armstrong, the second coming with 2:44 left, to stretch the lead to 14 points.
USD connected on 24-51 (47.1 percent) of its shots. The nation's best 3-point shooting team coming into the game, South Dakota managed just 5-17 shots from long range Monday.
Tyler Peterson led South Dakota with a game-high 15 points. Tyler Hagedorn scored 13 points and hauled in 14 rebounds.
Zeke Moore also scored 15 points to lead SIUE. Adewunmi scored 13 points and grabbed six rebounds. Brandon Jackson scored 12 points. The Cougars were 21-56 (37.5 percent) from the field.
South Dakota outrebounded SIUE 36-28. Both teams scored 30 points in the paint.
EASTERN ILLINOIS 114, INDIANA NORTHWEST 61
CHARLESTON, Ill. - Eastern Illinois jumped out to a 12-2 lead on Monday evening and the Panthers never looked back as they rolled to their second straight home win with a 114-61 win over Indiana Northwest at Lantz Arena.
EIU improved to 2-2 on the season while IU Northwest is 3-2. The 114 points are the seventh most in school history and the most scored in a game by the Panthers since Jan. 30, 1988 against Northern Iowa (126-121 loss in 4 overtimes).
Mack Smith drained a couple of early 3-pointers as he scored a team-high 17 points knocking down 3-of-5 from 3-point range and 6-of-9 from the field. Smith was one of seven Panthers in double figures as EIU had balanced scoring in a blowout win for the second straight game.
George Dixon and Marvin Johnson both added 16 points with Dixon just missing a double-double with nine rebounds. EIU pulled out to a 56-31 halftime lead after shooting 51 percent from the floor.
The Panthers warmed up even more in the second half shooting 62 percent as they were 56 percent from the floor on the evening. Jordan Skipper-Brown had ten of his 15 points in the first-half.
Josiah Wallace, Dondre Duffus and Kashawn Charles came on in the second half to each finish in double figures.
In addition to another solid offensive night, the Panthers defense once again turned up the pressure forcing double figure steals for the second straight game. Deang Deang had five steals as EIU finished with 14 as a team. EIU scored 29 points off of RedHawks turnovers. Deang also added a team-high eight assists.
Indiana Northwest had two players finish in double figures as Chris Robinson came off the bench to score 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting. Jason Peace added 16 as the RedHawks shot 34 percent for the night including 4-of-21 from 3-point range for 19 percent.
TENNESSEE STATE 99, FISK 65
NASHVILLE (AP) - Emmanuel Egbuta scored 15 points with 11 rebounds off the bench to lead Tennessee State to a 99-65 win over NAIA-member Fisk University on Monday night.
Wesley Harris had 15 points for Tennessee State (3-1). Carlos Marshall Jr. added 13 points with 10 rebounds and six assists. Michael Littlejohn scored 13 points.
Brandon Odell had 15 points for the Bulldogs and Dozier Thomas scored 13 points.