THURSDAY'S SCORES
Eastern Illinois 79, @SIUE 65
@Morehead State 78, Eastern Kentucky 72
Belmont 77, @Tennessee State 66
@UT Martin 81, Southeast Missouri 72
Jacksonville State 67, @Tennessee Tech 57
Murray State 73, @Austin Peay 71
EASTERN ILLINOIS 79, SIUE 65
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - Eastern Illinois used a barrage of first half 3-pointers on Thursday night as the Panthers beat SIUE, 79-65, at the Vadalabene Center.
EIU improved to 14-12 overall, 7-6 in the OVC. SIUE fell to 8-17 overall, 4-9 in the OVC.
SIUE opened the game with a 7-3 run. EIU answered with a 17-0 run and the Panthers never looked back in the contest. Josiah Wallace and Ben Harvey both knocked down 3-pointers during the run as EIU made 11 shots from behind the arc in the first half.
EIU held a 40-26 lead as Mack Smith and Wallace both had 12 first half points for the Panthers.
In the second half EIU cooled off 3-point range taking only six 3-point attempts and knocking one down when Rade Kukobat converted midway through the second half.
EIU would push its lead to as many as 21 points with 15:38 remaining on a bucket by Harvey that put EIU up 50-29. Harvey would finish with 15 points, one of three Panthers in double figures.
SIUE would make an 8-0 run that trimmed into the big Panthers lead cutting the margin to 54-42. The Cougars would cut the Panthers lead to 12 points three times and Daniel Kinchen’s free throws with 1:15 to play brought SIUE as close as it would get in the second half, trailing 74-63.
EIU was able to close out the game converting at the foul line.
Smith led EIU with 18 points. Wallace added 16. JaQualis Matlock had a team high 11 rebounds.
Brandon Jackson led SIUE with 16 points, all in the first half. Jackson pulled down 10 rebounds for a double-double. Jaylen McCoy had 12 points while Kinchen added 11.
MOREHEAD STATE 78, EASTERN KENTUCKY 72
MOREHEAD, Ky. - Well-balanced scoring and controlling the glass were the keys to success for tonight's match-up, and the Morehead State men's basketball Eagles executed on both fronts, defeating Eastern Kentucky 78-72 Thursday evening at Johnson Arena.
MSU logged four players in double figures, while two others came within one basket of 10 points. The Eagles won the rebounding battle, 46-39, and assisted on 15 of their 23 field goals.
The Eagles advance to 6-7 in Ohio Valley Conference action, 10-16 overall on the year. Eastern Kentucky fell back to 4-9 in league action, 11-15 on the 2018-19 slate.
Leading the charge for Morehead State was junior guard Jordan Walker, who paced the home squad with 18 points. With 12 more points in the next contest, Walker will join MSU men's basketball's 1,000-point club.
Sophomore swing-man James Baker was a jack-of-all-trades on this night, as the sophomore from Brandenburg, Ky., went for a double-double (the first of his career), chipping in 14 points and 11 rebounds, along with a career-best six blocked shots.
Bringing in nearly identical stats was senior forward Lamontray Harris, tabbing 13 points and 11 rebounds. With tonight's effort, the four-year star from Louisville secured his ninth double-double of the season and 17th for his career.
Rounding out the Eagles in double figures was sophomore guard De'Von Cooper, pouring in 12 points.
Senior floor general A.J. Hicks surpassed doubles in assists for the third time in the 2018-19 campaign, dishing out 10 of MSU's 15 assists.
Morehead State put forth one of their better defensive efforts on this night, holding the Colonels' offense to a stingy 33 percent, 20 percent from behind the arc.
Eastern Kentucky was led by Nick Mayo, who led his team with 32 points and 11 rebounds.
BELMONT 77, TENNESSEE STATE 66
NASHVILLE - Behind 31 points and 13 rebounds from senior All-America candidate Dylan Windler, Belmont University men's basketball defeated Tennessee State, 77-66, Thursday.
Windler tallied his 31st career double-double (sixth consecutive) and sixth this year with 30 or more points.
Behind the all-court game of freshman Grayson Murphy and strong defense, Belmont raced out to a 25-10 lead midway through the first half.
Strong bench contributions from freshman Adam Kunkel and junior Michael Benkert helped Belmont lead 41-30 at halftime.
Tennessee State took its first lead of the game, 47-46, on a Donte Fitzpatrick-Dorsey jumper with 14:14 remaining.
Belmont battled through foul trouble and an uncharacteristic cold shooting night from 3-point distance, with Murphy and senior Kevin McClain helping Belmont regain the lead. But it was Windler down the stretch, as he scored 17 points in the final 9:31 of regulation. His 3-pointer with 1:26 left gave Belmont a 74-66 lead.
Belmont outrebounded Tennessee State, 40-30, and forced 14 Tiger turnovers.
Fitzpatrick-Dorsey led Tennessee State (8-17, 5-8 OVC) with 19 points.
The Bruins (20-4, 11-2 OVC) equal the 2010-11 season in fastest to 20 wins for the program's NCAA Division I era.
UT MARTIN 81, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 72
MARTIN, Tenn. - The University of Tennessee at Martin men’s basketball team came out on a mission this evening as the Skyhawks never trailed in an 81-72 triumph over Ohio Valley Conference rival Southeast Missouri.
UT Martin jumped out to a 24-2 lead and held a 25-point advantage less than nine minutes into the game. The Skyhawks led for 39:48 of clock time after a season-best 61.2 shooting percentage (30-of-49), which included a 12-for-22 effort from beyond the three-point arc.
Tonight’s win came with heavy hearts as head coach Anthony Stewart and the UT Martin players dedicated the game to the memory of Wyatt Cole, a sophomore rodeo student-athlete who tragically passed away in an automobile accident on Sunday.
Preston Parks scored 17 of his season-high 26 points in the second half tonight, as the junior guard from Greenville, SC shot 8-of-13 from the field (including 5-of-7 from three-point range). He also added six rebounds, five assists and a pair of steals for the Skyhawks, who won its third straight game to improve to 9-15 (4-9 OVC).
Also scoring in double-figures for UT Martin was Delfincko Bogan (17 points on 6-for-9 shooting) and Craig Randall II (16 points, game-high seven assists). Quintin Dove added nine points and Jailen Gill hauled in a game-high eight rebounds for the Skyhawks.
Southeast Missouri (8-18, 3-10 OVC) was led by Gabe McGlothan’s 21 points – all of which came in the second half. Ledarrius Brewer contributed 10 points for the Redhawks, who were held to 29.2 percent shooting (7-for-24) over the first 20 minutes of the contest.
UT Martin scored the first seven points of the game and after a Southeast Missouri bucket at the 18:19 mark, the Skyhawks unspooled the next 17 points of the game. An old-fashioned three-point play by Dove with 11:12 to play made the score 29-4 in favor of UT Martin. The Redhawks wouldn’t get any closer than 16 points the rest of the first half as a Parks trifecta with just under a minute to go provided the Skyhawks with a 43-21 lead at the intermission. Bogan (13 points) and Jonathan Dalton (six points) led their respective squads in the opening half.
Gill stuffed home dunks on back-to-back scoring trips for UT Martin to keep the Skyhawks ahead by 23 points at the first media timeout of the second half. A deep trey from Randall with 7:20 remaining pushed UT Martin on top by a 68-44 margin but Southeast Missouri went on a 16-0 run to get within eight points with under four minutes to go. Parks then dialed up seven of the Skyhawks’ final nine points of the game – all in the final 2:01 – to help UT Martin complete one of its most complete victories of the season.
JACKSONVILLE STATE 67, TENNESSEE TECH 57
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - Senior Jason Burnell collected his 12th double-double of the season while leading the Jacksonville State men's basketball team to a 67-57 win over Tennessee Tech Thursday night at Hooper Eblen Center.
Burnell led the Gamecocks (18-8, 10-3 OVC) in scoring and rebounding with 21 and 12, respectively. He shared his 21st double-digit scoring effort of the year with Marlon Hunter, who registered 20 on nine baskets.
It was Hunter's second 20-point game in a row, following a 27-point performance against Southeast Missouri last Saturday at Cape Girardeau's Show Me Center.
After a 19-point, first-half performance at SEMO, Hunter tallied 12 points in the first period against the Golden Eagles (7-19, 3-10). His 12 points and Burnell's 11 accounted for all but 11 of the Gamecocks points in the first act.
Ty Hudson got JSU off to a hot start with back-to-back 3-pointers within the first two minutes, forcing Tennessee Tech to take a timeout to stop the bleeding. Hunter's second basket of the night extended the Gamecocks' lead to eight at the 17:20 mark.
A four-point run brought Tennessee Tech within four points of the JSU lead, 12-8, but that was as close as the home team would get to a lead before the break.
The Gamecocks took a 34-19 advantage to the half thanks to a stout defensive showing and domination on the boards. Along with holding TTU to 25-percent shooting, JSU out-rebounded the Eagles 34-19. That led to Jacksonville State holding a 12-6 advantage on second-chance points.
Tennessee Tech outscored the Gamecocks 38-33 in the second half to keep the final score's damage to 10, but Jacksonville State led by as much as 22 with 10 minutes to play. Two eight-point runs, including a 15-point half from point guard Junior Clay, whittled JSU's lead to single-digits with a minute left.
Clay paced the Eagles in scoring with 17 points; scoring just two in the first half.
MURRAY STATE 73, AUSTIN PEAY 71
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Ja Morant had 32 points as Murray State narrowly beat Austin Peay 73-71 on Thursday night.
Austin Peay's Steve Harris scored on a buzzer-beating putback that would have sent the game to overtime, but had it waived off after official review.
Morant hit 11 of 13 free throws. He added seven assists and six rebounds.
Tevin Brown had 14 points and seven rebounds for Murray State (20-4, 11-2 Ohio Valley Conference), which won its fourth consecutive game. Darnell Cowart added 12 points and seven rebounds. KJ Williams had nine rebounds for the visiting team.
Terry Taylor had 25 points and eight rebounds for the Governors (18-8, 10-3), whose four-game winning streak ended with the loss. Chris Porter-Bunton added 19 points. Jabari McGhee had 10 points and 10 rebounds.