FRIDAY'S SCORES
Jacksonville State 71, Chicago State 62 (Niceville, Fla.)
@Santa Clara 87,
Southeast Missouri 75
@UC Riverside 69,
SIUE 51
Tennessee State 81, North Florida 73 (Las Vegas, Nev.)
JACKSONVILLE STATE 71, CHICAGO STATE 62
NICEVILLE, Fla. - Head coach Ray Harper claimed his 500th career win Friday, leading the Jacksonville State men's basketball team to a 71-62 victory over Chicago State in the semifinals of the Emerald Coast Classic.
The Gamecocks (2-3) leaned on big second-half performances from senior Jacara Cross and junior Derek St. Hilaire in the late minutes to hand Harper the historic win over the Cougars (3-5).
St. Hilaire scored a career-high 22 points, while Cross came up just two points shy of tying his career-best mark with 13 in the Sunshine State matchup.
After leading 36-32 at the half, Jacksonville State saw its lead erased with a 3-pointer from Chicago State's Xavier Johnson with 11:36 to play. The Cougar point guard's shot gave the designated home team its first lead of the afternoon.
The score was tied twice after the go-ahead trey, but that's when St. Hilaire and Cross led the Gamecocks on a charge that saw JSU push its lead to as much as eight in just three minutes.
St. Hilaire began the rally with an alley-oop pass to Cross, only to swipe the ball from CSU big Solomon Hunt seconds later and feed Cross a pass on the move for a one-handed jam.
The duo combined to score all but three of the Gamecocks' last 26 points as St. Hilaire led with 17 in the last 10 minutes.
De'Torrion Ware contributed a half-best 12 points through the first 20 minutes, hitting four of five field-goal attempts. Three of the sophomore's baskets came from beyond the arc while he was 1-for-1 from the free-throw line.
Ware's 12, accompanied by eight points from Elias Harden, gave the Gamecocks a narrow four-point lead at the break in a half where points were hard to come by. JSU was held to 42 percent shooting in the period, and Chicago State fared only slightly better by hitting 11 of 22 shot attempts.
SANTA CLARA 87, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 75
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Alex Caldwell scored 16 points to lead five players in double figures, but Southeast Missouri (2-4) dropped an 87-75 decision to Santa Clara (7-1) Friday at the Cable Car Classic.
SEMO never led in the game against the tournament host Broncos.
Although SEMO edged SC, 45-44, in the second half, the Redhawks couldn't get any closer than six points during the contest.
Isaiah Gable scored on a layup to cut the Broncos lead to 53-47 with just under 12 minutes left to play. Skyler Hogan then made a pair of free throws less than a minute later to pull SEMO within six again.
After that, SC's lead dipped below double-digits twice the rest of the way.
SC jumped out to a 13-2 lead in the first 5:12 of the contest. Kashawn Justice knocked down a 3-pointer off a turnover to cap the early surge for the Broncos.
SEMO pulled two within seven three times, but SC answered with a 3-pointer on two of those occasions.
The Redhawks went scoreless for the final 2:33 of the first half as SC took a 43-30 lead at the intermission.
The Broncos shot 51.7 percent (15-of-29) and got 13 points from Trey Wertz in the first half. Wertz only missed one field goal in the game's first 20 minutes.
SC outscored SEMO, 36-12, from 3-point range as the Redhawks finished with no more than four made threes for the fourth time this season.
Caldwell shot 6-of-11 from the field and made a perfect 4-of-4 free throws to lead SEMO. Hogan followed with 12 points, while DQ Nicholas added 11 and Gable and Nygal Russell each chipped in 10.
Trey Wertz led all scorers with a game-high 24 points and DJ Mitchell dropped in 20 to top the Broncos. Former Redhawk Tahj Eaddy finished with 12 points as SC shot 55.4 percent (31-of-56) for the game.
UC RIVERSIDE 69, SIUE 51
RIVERSIDE, Calif. - SIUE men's basketball dropped a 69-51 decision Friday at UC Riverside.
The Cougars dropped their fourth consecutive game and fell to 2-6. UC Riverside improved to 6-2.
UC Riverside connected on 26-51 shots (51 percent) for the game and out rebounded SIUE 33-20.
The Cougars played neck and neck with the Highlanders for the first half of the first period, even twice building a three-point lead. Iziah James knocked down a three-pointer at 11:59 to put the Cougars up 12-9. A Brandon Jackson jumper at 10:53 made it 14-11 SIUE.
Riverside's Dragan Elkaz drained a pair of three-pointers to put the Highlanders up 21-14 at 8:32 forcing SIUE into a timeout.
UC Riverside built a 10-point lead before a pair of free throws from James with four seconds left in the half cut the lead to 35-27 at the break.
SIUE never led in the second half, only pulling as close as six points (38-32) after a Kenyon Duling three-pointer with 17:45 to play. The Highlanders outrebounded the Cougars 17-8 in the second half alone.
SIUE turned the ball over just 11 times, but UC Riverside turned those miscues into 20 points.
James led SIUE with a career-best 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting. He was 2-4 from long range, added two assists and a steal while committing just a single turnover. James played nearly 30 minutes despite not starting. He was forced to take over for Ty Williford, who left the game early in the second half after taking a fall on a foul.
Zeke Moore added 10 points. Duling scored nine points on three three-pointers.
Elkaz and Khy Kabellis led Riverside with 11 points each. Dominick Pickett scored nine points.
TENNESSEE STATE 81, NORTH FLORIDA 73
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Carlos Marshall Jr. had 13 points and six rebounds as Tennessee State beat North Florida 81-73 in the Las Vegas Holiday Invitational on Friday.
Emmanuel Egbuta had 13 points for Tennessee State (5-3). Wesley Harris added 13 points and eight rebounds. Jy'lan Washington had 12 points and three blocks for Tennessee State.
Carter Hendricksen scored a career-high 22 points for the Ospreys (5-4). Ivan Gandia-Rosa added 22 points and nine assists. Garrett Sams had 16 points.
After trailing by as many as 14 points in the second half, the Ospreys drew within five at 69-64 with 4:15 remaining in the second half but a 3-pointer by Gandia-Rosa and another by Hendricksen would be their only points the remainder of the game.