SATURDAY'S SCORES
Bethune-Cookman 66,
Eastern Illinois 63 (San Antonio, Texas)
Northern Illinois 68,
@SIUE 64
Cleveland State 65,
Eastern Kentucky 51 (Washington, D.C.)
@Saint Louis 60,
Belmont 55
@Austin Peay 81, Southeastern Louisiana 60
@Purdue 81,
Jacksonville State 49
BETHUNE-COOKMAN 66, EASTERN ILLINOIS 63
SAN ANTONIO, Texas - Bethune-Cookman used a crucial 5-0 run in the final four minutes of the game as the Wildcats beat Eastern Illinois, 66-63, in the second game of the Incarnate Word MTE Tournament.
EIU fell to 3-3. Bethune-Cookman improved to 4-2.
Josiah Wallace gave the Panthers a 56-55 lead with 4:44 left in the game as he sank a pair of free throws. Wallace was one of three EIU players in double figures in the game finishing with ten.
Cletrell Pope had a put-back basket for BCU on the next possession to put the Wildcats up 57-56 with 4:09 to play as BCU used a 5-0 run to go up 61-56 with 1:38 remaining. Pope had a double-double with ten points and ten rebounds to finish as one of five BCU players in double figures.
Deang Deang would bring EIU to within one point at 64-63 with 15 seconds left as he drained a 3-pointer. Isaiah Bailey would sink a pair of free throws to ice the game for Bethune-Cookman. Bailey had 12 points going 6-of-6 from the free throw line.
Mack Smith led EIU with 13 points knocking down three 3-pointers. Deang finished with 11 points.
Wali Parks and Houston Smith each had 14 points to lead Bethune-Cookman as the Wildcats shot 50 percent from the field. BCU held a 38-27 rebound advantage
NORTHERN ILLINOIS 68, SIUE 64
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - SIUE pushed Northern Illinois to the wire, but the Huskies prevailed 68-64 in a see-saw men's basketball game Saturday at the First Community Arena in the Vadalabene Center.
Eugene German of NIU proved to be a difference maker by scoring five points in the final 10.2 seconds as the Huskies won their fifth consecutive game. NIU improved to 5-2, while SIUE fell to 2-4.
German, the top scorer with 23 points, converted a 4-point play with 10.2 seconds to give NIU a 64-63 lead. The 6-foot senior guard also sank a foul shot with 2.5 seconds remaining to round out the scoring. Teammate Lacey James added 10 points and nine rebounds. Darius Beane had 12 points.
Both teams had ample opportunities in the second half. The game was tied eight times and neither team had larger than a four-point advantage in the final 20 minutes.
The Cougars forged in front 63-61 on Tyresse Williford's layup with 24.1 seconds to play. Williford, who led SIUE in scoring with 18 points, had connected on a 3-point shot with 1:17 to go to knot things at 61-61. The 5-10 senior guard also registered eight assists.
Teammates Zeke Moore (15 points -- tying a career high --and six assists) and Mike Adewunmi (14 points and nine rebounds) also made vital contributions.
SIUE made 25 of 52 shots, including 4 of 15 from 3-point range. The Cougars hit on 10 of 13 free throws, but the Huskies outrebounded them 37-26. NIU is ranked ninth in the nation for rebounding.
NIU held a precarious halftime 34-32 lead, even though the Huskies led by as many as nine points midway through the half. SIUE remained within striking distance of the Huskies even though the Cougars went more than five minutes without scoring and saw NIU go on a 13-0 spree. Nevertheless, the Cougars made 13 of 26 shots before the break.
CLEVELAND STATE 65, EASTERN KENTUCKY 51
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Eastern Kentucky University men’s basketball team dropped its Battle for the Capital finale to Cleveland State, 65-51, on Saturday afternoon at the Entertainment and Sports Arena.
Jomaru Brown led the Colonels with 15 points on the day. Senior Ty Taylor chipped in 11. Junior Darius Hicks finished with six points and team-high 15 rebounds. That matches the most rebounds by a Colonel in a single game since at least the 2003-04 season.
After Cleveland State ran out to an early 9-3 lead, EKU used a 9-0 run to grab a 12-9 advantage when Jomaru Brown drained a jumper at the 12:45 mark of the first half.
The Colonels claimed their largest lead of the first half when senior Ty Taylor converted a second-chance jumper in the paint to make it 26-18 with 5:25 remaining.
Cleveland State, however, closed out the half on a 12-3 run, as a bucket by Jeremy Sanchez with just over 30 seconds on the clock gave the Vikings a 30-29 advantage at the break.
CSU carried that momentum into the second half, outscoring Eastern 16-5 over the first eight minutes of the half. A layup by Hugo Ferreira gave the Vikings an 11-point lead, 45-34, with just over 12 minutes to play.
Eastern cut the deficit to nine, 56-47, on a Ty Taylor jumper with 2:22 left; however, Cleveland State responded with a pair of free throws on the opposite end and led by double digits the rest of the way.
EKU won the turnover battle, 21-14; however, the Colonels shot only 25 percent from the field (13-of-51) on the day.
Tre Gomillion paced CSU with a 15-point, 16-rebound double-double.
SAINT LOUIS 60, BELMONT 55
ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Belmont University men's basketball dropped a 60-55 decision at Saint Louis Saturday.
Belmont battled uncharacteristically poor shooting, but nevertheless led 27-26 at halftime and 55-51 with 4:38 left. But the Billikens would ride the play of All-Atlantic 10 forward Hasahn French to score the final nine points of the game. French impacted the game on both ends of the floor, with 21 points, 24 rebounds and seven blocked shots.
A career 35 percent free throw shooter, French made three consecutive free throws in the final 2:14 of the game to give Saint Louis a lead they would not relinquish.
Belmont had multiple chances to tie in the final moments, including a 3-point attempt from graduate student Tyler Scanlon with three seconds left.
Sophomore Grayson Murphy led Belmont with 17 points and nine rebounds.
Belmont limited Saint Louis to 36 percent shooting and forced 14 turnovers.
AUSTIN PEAY 81, SOUTHEASTERN LOUISIANA 60
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - It was a victorious day indeed at Austin Peay. Inside the Dunn Center, Austin Peay State University men's basketball team roared back to defeat Southeastern Louisiana, 81-60, giving up just 12 second-half points in standout defensive performance.
It was a slow start indeed for the Govs, who were trailing by 10 at the midway point of the first half when Nick Caldwell and Laquan Butler hit back-to-back threes to make it 30-20, Lions. To that point, the Govs were just 6-of-18 from the floor and in need of a serious spark on the offensive end.
By the 8:43 mark, the Lions' lead had swelled to 14 points, and that's when Terry Taylor began to take over. From that moment until the end of the half, the Govs cut nine points off the Southeastern Louisiana lead, with Taylor scoring 10 points during the 20-11 run.
The first 10 minutes of the second half were a war of attrition, as both teams battled for the upper hand. But a quick 8-0 run gave Austin Peay its first lead since early in the first half, punctuated by a Taylor floater for the lead. A Brandon Gonzalez jumper finally appeared to stop the tide for Southeastern Louisiana, setting up a second-half showdown.
Or… not. Because after Gonzalez's jumper with 8:37 to play, the Lions never scored again.
Over the final 8:37 in the game, the Govs mounted a 22-0 run to take a tight game and turn it into something resembling a blowout. The Lions missed 18 straight shots to close the game, while the Govs got another 11 points out of Taylor during this stretch to put the game away.
Taylor finished with a game-high 37 points and 16 rebounds, one of the more monstrous performances in a career full of them. Freshman Jordyn Adams scored 16 points, while Reginald Gee added a dozen off the bench.
PURDUE 81, JACKSONVILLE STATE 49
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Jacksonville State men's basketball team came up empty-handed in its Saturday game at Purdue, losing 81-49 to the Big Ten foe at Mackey Arena.
The Boilermakers (3-2), who are receiving votes in both the USA Today Coaches Poll and the Associated Press Poll, overpowered the Gamecocks (1-3) to hand them their third loss to a high-major-or-better program of the season.
For the third time in four games, sophomore De'Torrion Ware was JSU's scoring leader, tallying 13 points in the road contest.
JSU limited its turnovers to single digits for the second time this year, committing just eight the entire game, but the Purdue defense held the visiting offense to 27.1 percent shooting en route to the 32-point victory.
Maros Zeliznak put the Gamecocks on the board with a free throw and Ty Hudson hit a basket soon after to put JSU up 3-2 in the early goings, but Purdue answered with 14 straight points. The Boilermakers held Jacksonville State scoreless for longer than six minutes, pushing ahead and taking a 16-3 lead with 12:44 remaining in the half.
Kayne Henry broke the scoreless streak with a 3-pointer – his first of two – while Derrick Cook and Ware each tallied a couple of baskets before the break. Meanwhile, Purdue hit a four-minute, 15-point run that saw its lead grow to 27.
A Ware 3-pointer just before the half put the Gamecocks in the 20s and served as the fifth JSU basket of the game. The Boilermakers led 40-13 when the teams retreated to the locker rooms.
Following his trey before the break, Ware tallied eight points in the second period. The guard was 2-for-5 from the field and hit four of four free-throw attempts, outdone by only Derek St. Hilaire, who scored all nine of his points in the closing half.
St. Hilaire, who made his first career start Saturday, was 3-for-6 from the floor with a pair of 3-pointers.
On the Purdue side of the scorebook, the Boilermakers were led by starting center Matt Haarms, who totaled 17 points on six baskets. The big man was a perfect 5-for-5 from the charity stripe.