TUESDAY'S SCORES
@Morehead State 90, Samford 86 (2OT)
@Eastern Kentucky 79, Chattanooga 68
@Tennessee State 106, Alabama A&M 66
@#12 Texas Tech 85,
Eastern Illinois 60
@UT Martin 106, St. Louis College of Pharmacy 48
@SMU 74,
Jacksonville State 65
@Western Kentucky 76,
Tennessee Tech 64
@SIUE 61, Quincy 52
@Austin Peay 110, Oakland City 67
MOREHEAD STATE 90, SAMFORD 86 (2OT)
MOREHEAD, Ky. - Morehead State men's basketball picked up a gut-check victory in the first game out in the 2019-20 season as the Eagles outlasted visiting Samford 90-86 in double overtime at Johnson Arena Tuesday.
The Eagles, who have now won four of the last five season openers, played the Bulldogs (former OVC foes) to an overtime battle for the second straight season.
Senior guard Jordan Walker scored a game-high 25 points, including two free throws with 0.5 seconds left to send the game to overtime.
EASTERN KENTUCKY 79, CHATTANOOGA 68
RICHMOND, Ky. - A 15-0 run to start the second half sent the Eastern Kentucky University’s men’s basketball team to a 79-68 season-opening victory over Chattanooga on Tuesday at McBrayer Arena.
The Colonels (1-0) trailed by five at the break, 38-33. Newcomer Darius Hicks scored the first four points of the second half to draw Eastern within one. After that, Houston King exploded for nine points in three and a half minutes. His trey at the 18:56 mark put the home squad in front 40-38, and EKU never trailed again. King made two more three-pointers, the second with 15:33 left in the game pushed it to a 10-point margin, 48-38, and capped the 15-0 run.
The Mocs (0-1) got within six, 54-48, on a lay-up by A.J. Caldwell with 10:58 to go, but the visitors never got any closer.
King finished with a career-best 19 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field. He made 4-of-5 from behind the arc and went 3-for-5 at the free throw line. In his first official game as a Colonel, Hicks turned in a double-double performance, finishing with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Jomaru Brown contributed 14 points.
Eastern Kentucky shot 60 percent (15-for-25) in the second half and 52 percent for the game. UTC made just 32 percent of its shots from the field. The Colonels held a 40-34 advantage in rebounding.
TENNESSEE STATE 106, ALABAMA A&M 66
NASHVILLE - There was no better way to start year two for head coach Brian “Penny” Collins than to defeat fellow HBCU, Alabama A&M 106-66, in front of 5,638 Tiger fans Tuesday night in Gentry Center.
Collins’ high-caliber team soared through an offensively dominate first half, outscoring the Bulldogs 64-29 thanks to sharp-shooters in newcomers Carlos Marshall, Wesley Harris, and Jy’lan Washington, while Shakem Johnson fought for points in the post.
Returning to the floor after the break, AAMU took to the board, scoring 37 points, led by TJ Parhman, who closed the night with 14 points, seven rebounds, leading his team in both categories.
The Tigers capitalized off of 14 turnovers with 32 points, pulled down seven offensive rebounds allowing for 12 second-chance points, and threw down six crowd-pumping dunks, to fuel the energy on the court, lifting TSU to its first win of the season in its home opener.
#12 TEXAS TECH 85, EASTERN ILLINOIS 60
LUBBOCK, Texas - On a night where No. 12 Texas Tech unveiled its Final Four banner from last season it was a new cast of characters that helped lead the Red Raiders to a 85-60 win over Eastern Illinois on Tuesday night.
TTU jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first half as the Red Raiders took advantage of three first half runs to build a 46-31 lead at the half.
Following the TTU opening run, EIU would close the gap to 20-17 as Mack Smith knocked down a 3-pointer with 11:34 to play in the half. Smith would finish with two 3-pointers and eight points as he extended his NCAA leading streak of consecutive games with a made 3-pointer to 50.
Texas Tech responded with some outside baskets of its own as freshman Jahmi'us Ramsey had a 3-pointer to spark a 10-3 run by TTU. Ramsey had 13 first-half points as he was one of four TTU players in double figures with 19 points.
TTU added a late 10-0 run in the first half as they shot 55 percent from the floor in the opening half and 56 percent for the game. The Red Raiders were 8-of-14 from 3-point range on the evening.
In the second half defense was the key for TTU as they held EIU around 30 percent shooting most of the half. The Panthers would get some late baskets by George Dixon and Shareef Smith to finish the game shooting 40 percent from the floor.
Dixon had a memorable debut for EIU as he posted a double-double with 15 points and ten rebounds. Deang Deang would add nine points of the bench for the Panthers.
TJ Holyfield had 15 points for TTU with Davide Moretti adding 13 and Terrence Shannon 11.
UT MARTIN 106, ST. LOUIS COLLEGE OF PHARMACY 48
MARTIN, Tenn. - The University of Tennessee at Martin led wire to wire this evening as the Skyhawks rolled St. Louis College of Pharmacy by a 106-48 margin in the 2019-20 men’s basketball opener at the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center.
UT Martin never trailed in the contest, forcing 31 turnovers and holding the Eutectics to 29 percent shooting (18-of-62) from the floor. The Skyhawks outscored St. Louis College of Pharmacy 56-18 in the paint and also held a 33-6 advantage on fast break points.
Quintin Dove powered UT Martin to the win with game-highs of 24 points (on 10-of-15 shooting) and nine rebounds. Craig Randall II produced a stat line of 19 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals while Derek Hawthorne, Jr. tallied 16 points and eight rebounds in just 18 minutes off the bench. Newcomers Miles Thomas (12) and Ja’Darius Harris (11) also scored in double figures for a Skyhawk squad that connected on 56.3 percent (40-for-71) of their field goal tries.
Defensively, freshman Eric Rustin swatted eight shots while Parker Stewart swiped a game-high four steals for UT Martin, who improved to 7-0 in season-openers held at home since transitioning to Division I in 1992.
St. Louis College of Pharmacy was led by Jordan Anderson’s 11 points. Anthony Vallejo grabbed a team-high eight rebounds but the Eutectics lost the battle on the glass (43-38).
UT Martin scored the first eight points of the game, needing just 1:04 to accomplish that feat. The Eutectics went on an 8-2 run to close to within two points but that was ultimately as close they would get the rest of the way. A 19-1 Skyhawk run over a span of 5:38 rocketed UT Martin’s advantage out to 33-12 with just under nine minutes to go in the first half. A fast break jumper by Thomas with 28 seconds left before the halftime break provided the Skyhawks’ 50-24 lead at the intermission.
Dove’s 16 points led all scorers in the first half while Anderson scored seven points to lead the Eutectics, who committed 18 turnovers in the opening 20 minutes.
A fast break layup from Dove at the 17:42 mark extended UT Martin’s lead out to 30 points at 56-26. Randall scored eight of the Skyhawks’ first 17 points in the second stanza before Hawthorne dialed up eight of UT Martin’s 11 points during one stretch. A thunderous dunk by Harris – the Skyhawks’ 10th of the night – made the score 89-44 as UT Martin led by as many as 58 late in the contest.
SMU 74, JACKSONVILLE STATE 65
DALLAS - The Jacksonville State men's basketball team fell 74-65 to SMU in its season opener Tuesday night at Moody Coliseum despite a strong second-half showing.
The Gamecocks played the Mustangs neck-and-neck in a tight second half, 43-41, after falling behind by as much as 18 in the period, but early turnovers and lack of offensive boards plagued JSU throughout the night.
Senior Jacara Cross and sophomore De'Torrion Ware each tallied 13 points to pace the offense, while junior transfer Kayne Henry impressed with 10 points and eight rebounds in his first game as a Gamecock.
A total of 10 Gamecocks saw the court in the first half. Five saw their first action in a JSU uniform, including Henry, Martin Roub, Derrick Cook and starters Marek Welsch and Elias Harden.
Despite some early miscues, the Gamecocks trailed the Mustangs just 31-24 at the break. The JSU bench outscored the Mustangs' bench 15-6 with Roub accounting for six. The transfer showed his range with two 3-pointers, while Ware complimented the junior's six with five points of his own.
Junior Derek St. Hilaire hit a layup just before the horn to make it a seven-point game at the horn.
The second half did not start as planned for the Gamecocks. SMU went on a 10-0 tear to open up the new period and put the visitors down by 17 in less than three minutes. Henry banked in a layup to bring a stop to the Mustang attack and later hit a one-handed slam to put the exclamation point on a 7-0 JSU run.
Henry's dunk cut the SMU lead back to eight, 58-50, with 4:54 left to play, but that would be as close as the Gamecocks got in the dwindling minutes. The Mustangs went on to outscore JSU 16-15 in the final five minutes.
WESTERN KENTUCKY 76, TENNESSEE TECH 64
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - The Tennessee Tech men's basketball team officially kicked off the John Pelphrey era Tuesday evening, squaring off with former, long-time, Ohio Valley Conference foe Western Kentucky for the first time in over 15 years.
The Hilltoppers (1-0), who were selected to win Conference USA in the preseason coaches poll, defeated the Golden Eagles at E.A. Diddle Arena, 76-64, but the Golden Eagles refused to go down without a fight, making a run at the contest late in the second half.
Trailing by as many as 21 with just over 16 minutes to play, the purple and gold clawed its way to within 11 with 10 minutes on the clock. Western Kentucky jumped back out to a 17-point lead with just under seven minutes left in the contest, but Tech went on a 14-to-6 run over the next four-and-a-half minutes to trim the deficit to just nine.
The Golden Eagles had a couple of late looks from beyond the arc, but time just eventually ran out on the visitors from Cookeville.
It was a slow start offensively for Tech, as the youthful bunch wrapped up the first half of the contest shooting just 33.3 percent from the field and 14.3 percent from 3-point range. At the break, the Hilltoppers led 36-23. Things began to click over the final 20 minutes, however, as Tech closed the game shooting 54.8 percent from the floor and 50 percent from deep.
Both defenses were in full force throughout the contest, with Tech making 19 turnovers and Western Kentucky committing 16. Each team racked up eight steals on the night as well. The rebound battle wen to the home squad, albeit by just a couple of boards, 32-30. The Golden Eagles actually outscored WKU in the second half, 41-40.
True freshman point guard Keishawn Davidson, who starred for Tech in their exhibition contest against Bryan College, again led his team on the offensive end of the floor, accounting for a team-high 18 points and six assists. The rookie made zero turnovers while playing a team-high 33 minutes.
Sophomore forward Amadou Sylla sank six of his seven shots in his debut, totaling 13 points and four boards. Fellow sophomore Hunter Vick also accounted for double digits on the scoreboard, contributing 11 points and five rebounds. Darius Allen led Tech with six boards.
SIUE 61, QUINCY 52
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - SIUE made its men's basketball season opener a successful one Tuesday at the First Community Arena in the Vadalabene Center.
Cam Williams made certain of that. The Cougars' sophomore scored a team-best 17 points to guide SIUE past Quincy, 61-52. He tallied 11 of the Cougars' 27 points in the second half to provide first-year Head Coach Brian Barone with a memorable first victory.
The Cougars also used a stout defense to build a 16-point lead in the first half and they owned a 34-22 lead at the break. Quincy battled back in the second half and closed to within 52-50 with 4:27 remaining. Yet the Cougars outscored the Hawks 9-2 down the stretch, with Williams, a 6-foot, 2-inch sophomore from St. Louis, sinking four key free throws.
Williams' highlight reel also included a four-point play to help the Cougars open a 34-18 advantage – their largest lead – late in the first half. He also contributed a steal and subsequent slam dunk with six minutes remaining to give SIUE a 52-45 lead.
A stifling defense kept SIUE in control of things the first half. Quincy made only one shot in the first 10 minutes and just five – all 3-pointers—in the first 20 minutes. Overall, the Hawks made only 15 of 45 shots, or just 33 percent. They were 9-for-29 on 3-pointers.
Mike Adewunmi added to the Cougars' cause by contributing 11 points and seven rebounds. Anselm Uzuegbunem pitched in seven points and five rebounds. Tyresse Williford had five assists.
The Cougars made 23 of 59 shots, including 5 of 16 from 3-point range. They also converted 10 of 15 free throws and outrebounded Quincy 38-34. The Hawks' Jonah Smith logged 18 points to lead all scorers. Smith connected on a pair of free throws to get cut SIUE's lead to 52-50 before the Cougars took command of things in the final three minutes.
AUSTIN PEAY 110, OAKLAND CITY 67
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Terry Taylor scored 21 points as Austin Peay easily beat Oakland City 110-67 on Tuesday night.
Jordyn Adams added 20 points for the Governors in a season opener. Adams also had six rebounds.
Sita Conteh had 17 points and nine rebounds for Austin Peay. Antwuan Butler added 13 points.
Tyler Toopes had 21 points for the Mighty Oaks. He also had seven turnovers. Nathaniel Schmittler added 14 points and 12 rebounds.