THURSDAY'S SCORES
@Belmont 99, Eastern Illinois 58
@Murray State 85, UT Martin 75
@Jacksonville State 65, Morehead State 64
SIUE 85, @Tennessee State 84
Eastern Kentucky 67, @Tennessee Tech 66
@Austin Peay 83, Southeast Missouri 70
BELMONT 99, EASTERN ILLINOIS 58
NASHVILLE - Behind balanced scoring and strong team defense, Belmont University men's basketball defeated Eastern Illinois, 99-58, Thursday night.
Belmont head coach earned career victory No. 800, making him one of five active - and 12 all-time - NCAA Division I head coach to reach 800 career victories.
Senior All-America candidate Dylan Windler led four Bruins in double figures with 22 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
Freshman Nick Muszynski capped a 19-0 run late in the first half as Belmont led 53-29 at halftime.
Belmont shot 60 percent (34-for-57) from the field - including 18-for-35 from 3-point distance.
Belmont handed out 25 assists on 34 made field goals and limited Eastern Illinois to 36 percent shooting.
Rade Kukobat led Eastern Illinois (14-14, 7-8 OVC) with 11 points.
Belmont (22-4, 13-2 OVC), which has won 10 consecutive games and remains tied atop the OVC standings, returns to game action Saturday, Feb. 23 vs. Eastern Illinois.
Belmont has won 116 of its last 125 home games.
MURRAY STATE 85, UT MARTIN 75
MURRAY, Ky. - The Murray State Racers pushed their winning streak to six and remained in a first place tie in the Ohio Valley Conference with an 85-75 win Thursday over the UT Martin Skyhawks at the CFSB Center in Murray, Kentucky.
The Racers (22-4) moved to 13-2 in the OVC and host Southeast Missouri State Saturday at 7 p.m.
Ja Morant scored 30 points and dished out nine assists, while Darnell Cowart had a double-double with 22 points and 13 rebounds and Shaq Buchanan gave the Racers 11 points.
The Racers trailed in the first half at the 10:54 mark when the score was 18-13. Morant cut the lead to one with a 3-pointer, but the Racers didn’t take the lead until the 3:29 mark when Cowart scored off his own miss to make it 30-29. The Racers got a bucket in the paint from Morant with 44 seconds left and carried a 36-32 lead into the halftime intermission.
With 10:57 remaining, the MSU lead was one at 54-53 when they pushed to a five-point lead on a pair of Buchanan free throws (60-55) with 9:00 left. Brown and Morant hit back-to-back threes and the Racers finally had some cushion at 63-61 and UTM never got closer than 10 points the rest of the way.
JACKSONVILLE STATE 65, MOREHEAD STATE 64
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - The Jacksonville State men's basketball team earned a thrilling come-from-behind win over Morehead State Thursday at Pete Mathews Coliseum, 65-64, securing its third 20-win season in a row.
The Gamecocks (20-8, 12-3 OVC) have now won 20-or-more games over the last three seasons, setting a new Division I record for the program. The last time a JSU team accomplished the feat was during the 1989-90, 1990-91 and 1991-92 seasons under then-head coach Bill Jones.
Jacksonville State also tied its Division I record for conference wins in a single season with 12.
Both senior forwards Christian Cunningham and Jason Burnell recorded double-doubles against the Eagles (10-18, 6-9 OVC). Burnell paced the Gamecocks with 19 points with 12 rebounds, while Cunningham tallied a game-best 13 rebounds with 13 points.
Jacksonville State trailed nearly the entire second half and did not see a lead until 41 seconds left to play in the game.
Down by six, five consecutive points from Burnell pulled the Gamecocks within one point of the MSU lead with two minutes to go. Ty Hudson then stepped to the line two baskets later to sink two free throws, giving Jacksonville State a 62-61 lead. A third Hudson free throw and two more from Burnell extended the Gamecocks' lead to four with six seconds remaining on the clock.
Morehead State's AJ Hicks hit a near-half-court 3-pointer to cut the game to one, but time expired while the ball was in flight to end the contest before another possession could be had.
Burnell secured his team-leading 13th double-double of the year in the second half, tallying 13 points and 10 boards in the final 20 minutes. Cunningham added seven points and seven rebounds in the period.
The Gamecocks got off to a slow start, trailing 7-2 after the first four minutes of play. Marlon Hunter then went and scored nine of JSU's next 11 points, including a 3-pointer that gave Jacksonville State a one-point lead.
The momentum from Hunter's streak propelled the Gamecocks to a 9-0 run that yielded a four-point lead; the largest of the period for JSU.
The lead was short-lived, however, as the Eagles outscored Jacksonville State 12-4 to finish off the half. Morehead State took a 34-30 lead to the locker room, giving JSU just its fourth deficit at the half against OVC opponents.
Jacksonville State's win after trailing at the break was just its third win in that situation, improving to 3-7 when down at the break.
SIUE 85, TENNESSEE STATE 84
NASHVILLE - Daniel Kinchen's three-pointer with less than a second to play Thursday vaulted SIUE to an 85-84 win at Tennessee State.
With the Cougars trailing 84-82 and seven seconds left, Tyresse Williford brought the ball up the floor, with Kinchen trailing. Williford drove into the free throw line, before passing back to Kinchen for the game-winner.
The win was the first-ever for SIUE at Tennessee State and moved the Cougars to 5-10 in Ohio Valley Conference play. SIUE currently is tied with four other teams for the final two spots in the OVC Tournament. The Cougars are 9-18 overall.
Tennessee State is 8-19 overall. The Tigers also are tied at 5-10.
The Tigers nearly pulled off a monumental comeback. The Cougars led by as many as 17 points in the first half and had a 47-33 lead at halftime. SIUE pushed its lead to as many as 15 in the second half, but TSU refused to go away.
The Tigers used a 9-0 run early in the second half to trim the Cougars lead from 51-36 to 51-45 with 16:43 to play. Tennessee State earned tied the score with 3:09 to play on a dunk by Emmanuel Egbuta.
Armani Chaney's three-pointer gave the Tigers their first lead at 81-80. Tripp Davis made it 82-80 with a free throw with 51 seconds to play.
Brandon Jackson tied the game at 82 with two free throws with 28 seconds left. Donte Fitzpatrick-Dorsey gave TSU the lead, 84-82, with two free throws with just seven seconds to play.
Kinchen finished with a season-high 22 points on 7-of-10 shooting. He 4 for 5 from three-point range and connected on all four free throw attempts.
Jackson matched Kinchen with 22 points. He was 8 for 15 shooting and 6 for 6 at the free throw line. Cameron Williams added 12 points. David McFarland scored nine points which moved him into the SIUE's top 50 in career scoring. He has 623 points and is no. 49 all-time in scoring.
Fitzpatrick-Dorsey led Tennessee State with 23 points. Stokley Chaffee Jr. kicked in a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
EASTERN KENTUCKY 67, TENNESSEE TECH 66
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - A steal by Kelvin Robinson with less than five seconds left in the game helped the Eastern Kentucky University men’s basketball team hold on for a 67-66 win at Tennessee Tech University on Thursday in the Eblen Center.
Clinging to a one-point lead, EKU (12-16, 5-10 OVC) missed two free throws with 35 seconds left in the game. On the other end, the Golden Eagles missed two lay-ups but got the offensive rebound on both. Robinson picked off a pass into the low post with two seconds left in the game.
Robinson was fouled and missed both free throw attempts. A desperation heave from three-quarter court by Tech missed.
Nick Mayo scored Eastern’s first seven points of the second half to stretch a seven-point lead to double digits, 47-36. A Mayo three-pointer from the left wing and a Lachlan Anderson lay-up gave EKU a 13-point lead, 52-39, with 14:16 left in the game.
The Golden Eagles (7-21, 3-12 OVC) didn’t go away. TTU closed the gap to five, 56-51, on two free throws by Jared Sherfield with 9:24 remaining. TTU got within four, 66-62, with Hunter Vick’s free throw at the 2:24 mark. The home team was down just one after two more free throws from Sherfield and a lay-up by Jr Clay with 1:07 left.
Mayo went 6-for-10 from the field and 4-for-4 at the line to score 17 points. He also grabbed seven rebounds and moved past Carl Greenfield (802) into seventh place on Eastern Kentucky’s career rebounds list.
Jomaru Brown finished with 13 points and seven boards. Tre King had his second career double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Sherfield finished with a game-best 19 points for Tennessee Tech.
With a one-point lead and just over six minutes left in the first half, the Colonels used a 15-2 run to create a cushion. Brown had an old-fashioned three-point play and Houston King hit two three-pointers during the run. Trey King’s jumper made it a 14-point game, 40-26, with 2:29 remaining in the opening period.
The Golden Eagles scored the final seven points of the first half and Eastern took a seven-point lead, 40-33, into the locker room at the break. Mayo was limited to two minutes of play in the first half after being called for two quick fouls.
AUSTIN PEAY 83, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 70
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - Austin Peay State University men's basketball team picked up win No. 20 in an 83-70 dispatching of Southeast Missouri in their penultimate home contest to the 2018-19 season thanks to stifling second-half defense and four Govs in double figures.
It wasn't the fastest start the Govs have ever enjoyed. Call it an emotional hangover after Terry Taylor's career day at Morehead State or the effort expended in holding off the Eagles on Saturday; whatever the case, the Govs weren't as sharp as the faithful would've liked them to be in the early going.
Compounding that trouble was a Southeast Missouri (9-19, 4-11 OVC) squad that came out on fire in the first half. The Redhawks hit 10 of their first 13 shots, including 5-of-6 from beyond the arc and established tenuous control in the early going. Against this onslaught, the Govs were helped by forcing nine turnovers over the first 12 minutes of play; despite the decided disadvantage in shooting efficiency, Austin Peay (20-8, 12-3) was able to stay close thanks to volume—the Govs took 10 more shots than the Redhawks over that opening 12 minutes.
Austin Peay tied the game up by doing what it does as good as anyone in the league—getting into the paint and letting its playmakers work. Steve Harris sliced the lane with 8:35 to go to cut it to two, then Taylor passed out of a double-team to a wide-open McGhee, who converted the dunk to tie it up. Not to be left out, Taylor nailed one of his patent-pending rainbow threes to give Austin Peay its first lead in over seven minutes with 6:12 remaining in the half.
The teams spent a few minutes trading buckets and stops until a Zach Glotta three with 2:48 to play kick-started a half-ending 11-3 run for the Govs, punctuated by Antwuan Butler's scooping lay-up with two seconds to play in the half to send Austin Peay into the locker room with a 41-36 lead.
There were 12 combined fouls assessed the entire first half; there were half that many by the first media timeout of the second half as the referees got the game back under control after a chippy end to the opening period. The result was a disjointed opening few minutes to the second half that saw Austin Peay hit just two of its first 13 shots in the half but Southeast Missouri unable to capitalize on the Governors lack of success.
As has so often been the case, it was McGhee—the gregarious enigma who has provided life off the bench—who provided the spark that helped the Govs begin pulling away. With just over 10 minutes remaining, McGhee hauled in a missed Chris Porter-Bunton free-throw and muscled it up and in while drawing the foul. The and-one was good to give the Govs a 59-51 lead; McGhee would eventually finish with 18 points and 19 rebounds, his fourth career double-double and the most rebounds by a Gov in a single game since 2016.
McGhee's three-point play was the pinnacle of a 12-2 Austin Peay run that ended with the Governors leading by double-digits. After the struggle to get back on top in the first half and the struggle to pull away in the second, the final five minutes or so were pretty formulaic—the Govs would score, and then they'd stop Southeast Missouri from scoring. Some late Redhawk free-throws brought the visitors' deficit below 20 but by then it was too late to throw a scare into the Govs.