SATURDAY'S SCORES
Austin Peay 67, @Alabama A&M 61
@Belmont 68, Middle Tennessee 57
Southeast Missouri 70, @Ole Miss 53
AUSTIN PEAY 67, ALABAMA A&M 61
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - Kelen Kenol came out aggressive in her season's first start, propelling Austin Peay State University women's basketball to a 67-61 victory on the road in a hostile environment, Saturday, against Alabama A&M. Kenol finished the day with a career-high 15 points, three rebounds, two steals, and a block.
The Governors come out red hot. A corner three by Kasey Kidwell and a couple forced turnovers got the Govs a quick 9-0 lead, and forced Alabama A&M to call a timeout just two minutes into the contest. The Bulldogs could not answer after the timeout, as the Govs extend their lead to 13.
Fouls filled the first quarter as both teams combined for 12, which helped the Bulldogs cut the lead to 9 at the end of the first quarter. The Cincinnati, Ohio, native Arielle Gonzalez-Varner made her presence known early, with 6 points and six rebounds on 3-of-4 shooting in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Austin Peay struggled in the first five minutes going 2-11 from the field. On the opposite end, Alabama A&M went 5-of-10 from the field and cut the lead to three before the media timeout.
As the first half drew to a close, both teams seemed gassed, while the intensity increased in T.M. Elmore Gymnasium. Key buckets from Gonzalez-Varner and Kenol, who both finished the first half with a team-high eight points, allowed the Governors to take a four point lead into the break.
Austin Peay simply forgot about their second quarter struggles, coming out 4-of-4 from the field and extending their lead to 10 within the first 2:15 of the second half. Over time, both teams became stagnant on offense, going three minutes without a bucket following the media timeout.
Fouls continued to pile up for both teams, with the Bulldogs getting to the free throw line six times in the last five minutes of the third quarter. The Governors still led by six, 53-47, after the end of the third quarter, despite only shooting 38.5 percent from the field.
The Govs defense was phenomenal to start the fourth quarter, forcing the Bulldogs to shoot 1-of-7 from the field before the final media timeout. On the other hand, the Govs offense couldn’t get it going either, shooting 2-of-6 from the field during the same stretch. The ability to get to the basket and draw fouls was huge for the Governors this afternoon. But missed free throws down the stretch gave the Bulldogs an opportunity to keep it close, before the Governors closed out a 67-61 win on the road to improve to 6-2 on the season.
The Governors will play in their first tournament since the 2016-17 season. They will travel to Miami, Florida, to compete in the Florida International Classic, with their first contest being a 7 p.m., Dec. 19, matchup against Binghamton. Austin Peay and Binghamton have met once before, with the Governors coming out on top, 71-67, in 2012. On the second day of the tournament the Govs will play Florida International or Grambling, depending on the results of the first day.
BELMONT 68, MIDDLE TENNESSEE 57
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A combined 45 points from seniors lifted the Belmont Bruins over the Middle Tennessee Lady Raiders, 68-57, at the Curb Event Center Saturday afternoon. The Bruins recorded their 150th win inside the walls of the Curb.
Belmont (5-5), who shot a season-high 52 percent from the floor, was propelled by 21 points and eight rebounds from Ellie Harmeyer. Harmeyer, was aided in scoring by fellow seniors Maura Muensterman (12 points) and Maddie Wright (12 points).
Harmeyer also jumped to ninth all-time in program history for career points in the NCAA era (1,188).
Sophomore Jamilyn Kinney dished out a career-high nine assists to give the Bruins their second-straight victory over Middle Tennessee in the last two seasons. Overall, Belmont led the mid-week tilt for 38 minutes and racked up a season-best 19 assists.
Sophomore transfer Anastasia Hayes led the Lady Raiders (6-4) with 18 points and six assists in the loss, as freshman Courtney Whitson was the only other Middle Tennessee player with double-digit points.
A 3-pointer from Wright 15 seconds in kicked off a 6-0 run for the Bruins to start the game. The Lady Raiders stormed back to cut their deficit to one point, but Muensterman stroked one from downtown to give Belmont a 9-5 lead through four minutes. After allowing Middle Tennessee back within a point, Harmeyer knocked down a 3-point shot at the 4:05 mark to fend off the in-state foes once again. A pair of free throws from freshman Kiki Britzmann capped off the Bruin first quarter, as they took a 18-15 lead after 10 minutes.
Belmont was held scoreless for the first three minutes of the second quarter, until Muensterman broke the silence with her second 3-pointer of the day to regain a 21-20 advantage. The Bruins went on to score five consecutive points, as two quick layups from Harmeyer earned the team a five-point lead with two minutes remaining in the half. Neither team scored in the final minute of the quarter, as Belmont held a 32-29 advantage at the halftime break.
The Bruins shot just shy of 50 percent from the field in the first half, while the seniors and Britzmann meshed for all of the squad's 32 points. Kinney logged five assists through 20 minutes of play, as Harmeyer and sophomore Conley Chinn each had four rebounds.
Chinn scored each of Belmont's first seven points of the second half with a pair of post finishes and a 3-pointer to jump out to a 39-31 lead. Middle Tennessee hit a shot from beyond-the-arc to cut the margin to six points. Belmont responded with a 6-0 run to take a 45-33 lead with three minutes left in the third quarter. Sophomore Maddie Cook hit a pair of shots with one minute remaining to give the Bruins a 51-41 advantage through three quarters. Belmont hit 60.9 percent of their shots in the third quarter, its highest field goal percentage in a quarter this year.
Kinney sliced through traffic to record her first points of the night and jumpstart the Bruins' scoring in the final quarter. However, the Lady Raiders responded with a five-point swing to cut down the Belmont lead to 53-48 with 6:36 remaining in the game. The Bruins answered with five points of their own from the duo of Harmeyer and Muensterman. Harmeyer racked up six-straight points for Belmont to hold off Middle Tennessee and take a convincing 64-55 lead with one minute left. The Bruins hit each of their final four shots from the charity stripe to register the 68-57 victory.
Chinn finished with seven rebounds, as she has now corralled five or more rebounds in nine of the first 10 games of the season. Muensterman (4-of-5 from 3-point range) has notched double-figure points and eight 3-pointers her last two games.
Belmont travels to Milwaukee, Wisc. for its final non-conference matchup of the season against Marquette on Saturday, Dec. 21. Tip-off is slated for 2 p.m. at the Al McGuire Center.
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 70, OLE MISS 53
OXFORD, Miss. -– Tesia Thompson scored a game-high 16 points and went over 1,000 in her career as Southeast Missouri (6-2) toppled Southeastern Conference member Ole Miss (5-5), 70-53, Saturday at The Pavilion.
SEMO knocked off a SEC opponent on the road for the first time in program history. The victory was the Redhawks second against a SEC foe and first since they beat Missouri, 90-71, at home on Nov. 24, 1998l.
Thompson led four SEMO starters in double figures and now has 1,012 points in her career. She became the 10th member of the Redhawks 1,000-point club.
The Redhawks led for all but 47 seconds of the game in a dominating effort.
SEMO won each of the first three quarters and took its largest lead (51-25) on Thompson's fastbreak layup with 5:23 remaining in the third period. Thompson officially recorded her 1,000th career point a little over three minutes into the contest.
The Redhawks held a 35-25 advantage at halftime and used a 21-point third quarter to blow the game open.
SEMO outscored Ole Miss, 34-20, in the paint and scored 20 points off 22 Rebel turnovers.
Thompson shot 8-of-19 from the field and pulled down nine rebounds. She also dished out two assists and had a pair of steals.
Carrie Shephard and Taelour Pruitt followed with 14 points each. Shephard buried four 3-pointers bringing her career total to 101 threes made.
Jessie Harshberger contributed 11 points as the Redhawks shot 44.9 percent (31-of-69) from the floor, including a 56.3 percent clip in the third quarter.
Valerie Nesbitt led Ole Miss with 15 points.
SEMO improved to 6-0 when leading at halftime and remained unbeaten in games with Thompson, Shephard, Pruitt, Denisha Gardener and Harshberger as its starters.
The Redhawks are 6-2 to start a season for the first time since 1993-94.
SEMO returns to action when it travels to Western Illinois Tuesday.