TUESDAY'S SCORES
@Eastern Kentucky 99, Alice Lloyd 63
The Citadel 74,
@Southeast Missouri 69
@Murray State 79, Southern Illinois 66
@Northern Iowa 87,
UT Martin 67
EASTERN KENTUCKY 99, ALICE LLOYD 63
RICHMOND, Ky. - Eastern Kentucky University’s men’s basketball team made 15 three-pointers on its way to a 99-63 victory over visiting Alice Lloyd College on Tuesday at McBrayer Arena.
Seven of the 10 Colonels who played in the game scored in double figures and five different players made at least one 3-pointer. Ty Taylor had a team-best 18 points to go along with eight rebounds and five assists. He made 3-of-10 from long range.
EKU (3-2) travels to Washington D.C. this weekend for two games in the Battle for the Capital. The Colonels will play Florida International on Friday at 3:30 p.m. Eastern faces Cleveland State at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.
The Colonels scored the first three points of the game and never trailed. After the Eagles closed to within two, 8-6, early in the game, EKU rolled off 12 unanswered and led by double figures the rest of the way. Cameron Carmical got the run started with a 3-pointer from the right corner. Lachlan Anderson capped it with six straight points on a dunk and free throw followed by a three from the left wing that put Eastern in front 20-6.
A 10-0 spurt later in the first half, polished off with a 3-pointer from Russhard Cruikshank, put the Colonels on top by 25, 38-13. EKU led by 27, 49-22, at the break.
Eastern Kentucky made eight first half 3-pointers and went 9-for-12 at the free throw line. Alice Lloyd shot 18 percent from the field (7-for-38) in the first half and turned the ball over 12 times.
The Colonels scored the first 10 points of the second half to move in front by 37, 59-22. Cruikshank started the half with a 3-pointer from the left wing and capped the run with a trey from the right wing.
Anderson finished with 16 points while hitting on 1-of-2 from 3-point range. Tre King had a career-best 15 points. Cruickshank went 4-for-7 from behind the arc and totaled 14 points. Michael Moreno had 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field, including 3-for-6 from deep. Carmical contributed a career-high 12 points on 4-of-10 shooting, all from 3-point range.
Blake Smith led Alice Lloyd (4-4) with 20 points. Will Philpot pulled down 15 rebounds and scored 10 points for the Eagles.
THE CITADEL 74, SOUTHEAST MISSSOURI 69
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Freshman DQ Nicholas scored a game-high 24 points, but Southeast Missouri (1-2) came up short in a 74-69 loss to The Citadel (1-3) Tuesday night at the Show Me Center.
Nicholas made a layup to get SEMO within one (71-69) with 19 seconds left to play. After Kaelon Harris split a pair of free throws, the Redhawks had possession down three when Nicholas turned the ball over seven seconds later. Harris then made two more free throws to secure the win for the Bulldogs.
Nicholas scored 17 of his points in the second half, where the Redhawks outscored The Citadel, 37-34, after trailing, 40-32, at the half.
SEMO, however went 0-of-7 from 3-point range in the game's final 20 minutes and wound up shooting just 19 percent (4-of-21) for the game. Meanwhile, The Citadel scored 33 of its points from beyond the arc on 11-of-25 attempts, including 4-of-6 in the second half.
SEMO and The Citadel, which met for the second time on the back end of a home-and-home series, battled to three ties and five lead changes.
Skyler Hogan's layup made it a 25-23 game with 6:02 remaining in the first half, but the Bulldogs answered with a 15-6 run to take a 40-29 lead.
A layup by Kaiden Rice gave The Citadel its biggest lead at 57-44 with just under 14 minutes left in the second half. SEMO then managed to get within two twice in the final 1:07 before taking its second loss of the season.
Nicholas shot 9-of-16 from the field and hit a near-perfect 5-of-6 free throws, while grabbing six rebounds in 29 minutes.
Hogan followed with 11 points and five boards. Nicholas (6) and Hogan (3) combined for nine of the Redhawks 19 turnovers.
Harris had a double-double 20 points and 12 rebounds to pave the way for The Citadel. Rice also added 20 points and made a game-high four 3-pointers.
MURRAY STATE 79, SOUTHERN ILLINOIS 66
MURRAY, Ky. - The Murray State Racers blitzed the Southern Illinois Salukis with a late run to earn a 79-66 victory Tuesday for their ninth straight home win at the CFSB Center in Murray, Kentucky.
The win gave the Racers their third straight over SIU, the first such run since wins in 1982, 1984 and 1985.
With the game tied 47-47 with 13:03 remaining, the Racers outscored SIU 32-19 the rest of the way to improve to 3-1, while SIU fell to 2-4.
MSU's balanced attack was led by 18 points from Tevin Brown on 3-of-4 from the 3-point line. Anthony Smith hit 8-of-8 from the free throw line to finish with 14 points, while Chico Carter, Jr., added 13 points with 11 in the second half. KJ Williams had his second double-double this season with 13 points and 10 rebounds and Darnell Cowart scored 12 points to help the Racers to a 30-12 advantage over SIU in bench points.
The Racers and Salukis each hit 22 field goals for the game. However, the difference came at the free throw line where the Racers made more (30) and SIU attempted (24). MSU had its best game of the season from the line on 30-of-39 for 77 percent, while SIU hit 63 percent on 15-of-24.
With a big edge in the rebound stat at 42-30, the Racers were afforded plenty of chances to get easy points on fast breaks. MSU outscored SIU in this area of the game 21-4.
NORTHERN IOWA 87, UT MARTIN 67
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa - The University of Tennessee at Martin men’s basketball team placed four scorers in double figures this evening but the Skyhawks surrendered 16 three-pointers in an 87-67 setback at Northern Iowa.
Parker Stewart registered 22 points for UT Martin, who shot 82.4 percent (14-of-17) from the free throw line tonight. Both Derek Hawthorne, Jr., (18 points, eight rebounds) and Quintin Dove (12 points, nine rebounds) narrowly missed out on double-doubles while Craig Randall II accounted for 11 points. The Skyhawks (2-3) only trailed by six points with 12:44 left to play before the Panthers put the game out of reach.
Northern Iowa (5-0) connected on 47.1 percent of its three-point tries, knocking down 16 of 34 attempts from beyond the arc. Trae Berhow was responsible for eight treys on his way to a game-high 36 points while AJ Green (14 points), Isaiah Brown (11 points) and Austin Phyfe (11 points, 11 rebounds) also put forth big performances.
Randall had the hot hand early as he followed a Hawthorne layup with a pair of deep trifectas to give UT Martin an 8-3 lead just 91 seconds into the contest. The Panthers responded with a 13-0 run before Randall unreeled another five quick points – capped off by another triple that trimmed the Skyhawk deficit to two (23-21) a little over midway through the first half. Hawthorne then accounted for 10 consecutive UT Martin points but Northern Iowa managed to take a 44-37 halftime advantage.
Hawthorne’s 14 points in 14 minutes led all scorers at the break. Berhow and Green each scored a dozen points apiece as the Skyhawks won the rebounding (14-13) and turnover (five to seven) battles in the opening 20 minutes.
The Panthers extended their lead to double figures at the 18:27 mark of the second half but Stewart soon took over – burying back-to-back three-pointers on his way to eight straight UT Martin points. His layup with 12:44 left to play pulled the Skyhawks within six points at 59-53 but Northern Iowa followed with 10 unanswered points. Dove and Stewart splashed treys within two minutes of each other to try and ignite UT Martin but ultimately the Skyhawks could not dig themselves out of the hole.