MONDAY'S SCORES
Marshall 89,
@Morehead State 62
@Murray State 74, Kennesaw State 38
Eastern Illinois 85, @Western Illinois 47
@Jacksonville State 85, Evansville 59
MARSHALL 89, MOREHEAD STATE 62
MOREHEAD, Ky. - Senior guard Djimon Henson saw a night with multiple season and career highs. But, a blazing hot Thundering Herd offense was ultimately too much to overcome as the Morehead State men's basketball team fell to Marshall, 89-62, Monday night at Johnson Arena.
Henson re-wrote his personal-best ledger, as the Indianapolis native tied his career-high in points, scoring 23 on a season-best 5-for-9 from the floor, and a career high 11-of-14 from the charity stripe.
Joining Morehead State in double-figure scoring was fellow Indy native, senior guard Jordan Walker. The floor maestro chipped in 15 points on 6-for-12 shooting, to go along with a team-best four assists on the evening.
Marshall (4-6) tabbed 8-for-15 (.533) from behind the arc to propel the visitors to a 45-28 halftime advantage. The 'Herd finished the half shooting 45 percent (16-for-35) compared to the Eagles' 40 percent (10-for-25). Marshall also finished the night with a 30-12 advantage in points generated from three-point range.
MURRAY STATE 74, KENNESAW STATE 38
MURRAY, Ky. - The Murray State Racers took the floor for the first time in more than a week and came away with a 74-38 victory over the Kennesaw State Owls. The victory pushed MSU’s home win streak to 10 at the CFSB Center, in Murray, Ky.
DaQuan Smith scored a career-high 21 points on 5-of-9 from the 3-point line and Anthony Smith scored 14 points on 6-of-9 from the field. Demond Robinson scored 12 points and tied with A. Smith as each grabbed seven rebounds.
The Racers came out of the gate with a defensive mindset and they set about the business of shutting down the opponent. After Jaiveon Eaves and Smith hit back-to-back threes, the Racers were up at the start 8-0. KJ Williams scored in the lane and made it a 24-3 Racer lead at the 11:42 mark. The lead went to 35-8 with 7:07 left before half on a basket by Robinson. MSU had a 45-20 lead at the intermission as they shot 50 percent (16-of-32), while holding the Owls to 29 percent (7-of-24). The Racers hit seven 3-pointers in the first half (five from DaQuan Smith) while giving up zero to KSU.
The Racers second half wasn’t spectacular on offense, but it stayed that way on defense. MSU held KSU to 4-of-21 from the field for 19 percent including 2-of-10 from the 3-point line. KSU didn’t hit their first 3-pointer of the game until 8:24 left.
MSU had an excellent game in sharing the ball with 17 assists against only seven turnovers. The Racers forced the Owls into 18 turnovers.
EASTERN ILLINOIS 85, WESTERN ILLINOIS 47
MACOMB, Ill. - – Eastern Illinois put together a dominating second half as the Panthers held on to the Old Railsplitter Axe with a 85-47 win over Western Illinois on Monday night at Western Hall in Macomb.
EIU improved to 7-4 on the season while WIU fell to 2-7.
With early foul trouble to leading scorer George Dixon, it was a combination of different post players that helped Eastern Illinois take a 40-27 halftime lead.
Braxton Shaw came off the bench to score an early five points to go with a rebound and steal. JaQualis Matlock then carried the load in the post with 12 first half points on 5-of-6 shooting. It was Matlock’s first double figure game of the season as he finished the night with 14.
A back-and-forth contest turned in the Panthers favor in the first half following a 9-0 run that extended EIU’s 10-9 lead to double figures. Shaw, Dondre Duffus and Kashawn Charles all scored during the run as EIU had 16 first-half bench points. Charles knocked down a 3-pointer, one of three he had during the game.
EIU’s defense was solid once again in the first half forcing nine WIU turnovers holding the Leathernecks to 37 percent shooting. WIU ended the game with 19 turnovers leading to 22 EIU points while shooting 29 percent for the game.
EIU continued to apply pressure on both ends of the floor in the second half pushing the lead to 20 points at 51-31 with a 10-0 run capped by free throws by Jordan Skipper-Brown. Skipper-Brown finished with ten points in the game, one of three Panthers in double figures.
Shareef Smith extended the run to 15-0 with a 3-pointer before WIU could finally stop the run on free throws by CJ Duff with 13 minutes left in the game.
EIU would eventually blow open the game as the run ended at 26-6 with EIU leading 68-37. When it was all said and done, EIU outscored WIU 45-20 in the second half and the Panthers posted the largest margin of victory in the series that has been played 164 times.
Josiah Wallace was the final EIU player in double figures with 13 points.
Ben Pyle led WIU with 14 points going 4-of-7 from 3-point range.
JACKSONVILLE STATE 85, EVANSVILLE 59
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - The Jacksonville State men's basketball team played its most-complete game of the season Monday night, claiming an 85-59 win over Evansville at Pete Mathews Coliseum.
Senior Jacara Cross scored 16 points, coming up just three points shy of his season-high, while sophomore De'Torrion Ware was a point short of a double-double with nine points and 11 rebounds.
Jacksonville State (3-7) had its highest-scoring half in the first, outscoring Evansville (8-4) 47-23 in the period. The Gamecocks went on a 9-0 run over two minutes near the end of the period – a run that featured a couple of 3-pointers from Derek St. Hilaire.
Ware put on exclamation point on the end of the longest run of the night with a steal and fast-break layup. Kayne Henry added a one-handed tomahawk dunk at the end of the stretch.
JSU was 20-for-36 from the field in the opening period, including seven 3-balls, while the Gamecock defense held the Purple Aces to just 32 percent shooting in the half. The Aces committed six turnovers in the first 20 minutes.
Evansville threatened early in the second, outscoring JSU 10-4 through the first five minutes, but the Gamecocks found their mojo from the first half and pulled even 16-16 moments later to pull their lead back to 24.
Derrick Cook and Ware each tallied seven points, while Cross continued his dominance with a half-best eight points. The senior was 4-for-5 from the field in the period with two rebounds and two assists.
The Purple Aces were led by starting guard Sam Cunliffe, who bucketed 11 points on 4-of-13 shooting. He hit a 3-pointer and was 2-for-2 from the charity stripe.
Gamecock freshman Marek Welsch scored a career-high nine points on 3-of-3 shooting from beyond the arc, while junior transfer Justin Murphy made his Division I debut by checking in for the final three minutes of the game.
The JSU bench accounted for 48 points.