SATURDAY'S SCORES
@Austin Peay 92, UT Martin 78
@Jacksonville State 104, Eastern Kentucky 101 (2OT)
@Belmont 97, SIUE 75
@Murray State 103, Southeast Missouri 67
@Tennessee State 75, Eastern Illinois 60
Morehead State 66, @Tennessee Tech 63
AUSTIN PEAY 92, UT MARTIN 78
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - For its final 2018-19 regular-season appearance in the Dunn Center, Austin Peay State University men's basketball team put on a show.
After a first half back-and-forth against a UT Martin team fighting for its life among the Ohio Valley Conference's swollen middle-class, the Govs blew away the Skyhawks in the second half to remain in the hunt for a two-day bye into the upcoming OVC Tournament semifinals after a 92-78 win on Senior Night.
UT Martin (10-17, 5-11 OVC) hit its first six shots from the floor. That's a pretty unsustainable pace, but the worrisome part was that Craig Randall II—who had not yet been cleared when these teams met on Jan. 12—hit four of those and had 11 points by the 15-minute mark as the Govs worked to contain the Duquesne transfer.
Eventually the Govs found the remedy for Randall—he missed his next three shots and scored just two more points in the half—but the Austin Peay (21-8, 13-3) offense was not the high-efficiency machine it has been for much of the year. Except for Zach Glotta—the O'Fallon, Missouri native put together a Senior Night performance he'll look back fondly on, hitting five threes in the opening half alone.
But otherwise the first half was a famine for the Govs, who hit just 37.0 percent when anyone but Glotta put up a shot. Austin Peay was fortunate to enter the half down by just two points thanks to—who else?—Glotta, whose final three of the half swished home with eight seconds remaining to send the game into the break at 42-40 in favor of the visitors.
The teams traded buckets over the opening three minutes of the second half before the Govs took off on a 15-6 run featuring a pair of threes from Glotta and another from freshman Antwuan Butler, his first since Jan. 24.
The Skyhawks pulled to within a possession but senior Chris Porter-Bunton scored five straight points and Glotta nailed yet another three, his career-high seventh, to give Austin Peay its first double-digit lead of the evening.
From there, the Govs rolled; Austin Peay outscored UT Martin 30-19 over the last 10 minutes of play, with sophomore Terry Taylor scoring 12 of his 25 points during the game-clinching stretch. Glotta finished with a career-high 26 points and eight three-pointers, one short of the Austin Peay single-game record.
JACKSONVILLE STATE 104, EASTERN KENTUCKY 101 (2OT)
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - The Jacksonville State men's basketball team wrapped up its home slate in dramatic fashion Saturday night at The Pete, outlasting Eastern Kentucky 104-101 in double-overtime.
Tied at 82 at the end of regulation and knotted at 92 at the end of the first overtime, Jacksonville State (21-8, 13-3 OVC) battled for 50 minutes and overcame a three-point deficit to claim the victory in the game's final minute.
A Colonels' 3-pointer put the Gamecocks down 99-96 with 1:32 left in the third OT, but a deuce-and-damage layup from Marlon Hunter tied the game just 15 seconds later. With Pete Mathews Coliseum rocking, Ty Hudson fought for a layup to give Jacksonville State the lead.
EKU (12-17, 5-11 OVC) called its final timeout after the Hudson basket, but was unable to get the ball inbounds in five seconds, turning the ball over with 26 seconds remaining. Detrick Mostella added an insurance points on a free throw, pushing the lead to 102-99, and a missed 3-pointer from the Colonels' Nick Mayo gave the ball back to the Gamecocks. Hudson then hit two free throws in a row to put the game out of reach. A last-ditch layup from EKU cut it to three points, but with no timeouts left to call the Colonels had to watch the clock run down to zero.
Senior Christian Cunningham tallied a double-double in his final game at The Pete, scoring 17 with 14 rebounds, while Jason Burnell registered his seventh 20-point game of the season.
Hudson finished with a team-leading and career-high 21 points, surpassing his previous high of 18.
Eastern Kentucky jumped out to a six-point lead in the game's first two minutes, but the JSU offense erased the deficit before the first media timeout on a 13-0 run. By the midway point of the first period, the Gamecocks led 28-20 with their largest lead of the game.
Jamall Gregory and Cunningham got the crowd into the game with a couple of big dunks. First, Gregory fed Cunningham on an alley-oop to make it 21-18, and then a steal and fast-break slam from Gregory made it 28-20 in favor of the Gamecocks.
Eastern Kentucky cut back into the JSU lead in the final three minutes of the period, coming within one point of tying the contest, but the Gamecocks were able to manage a 45-41 buffer at the break.
Gregory hit back-to-back baskets in the final 30 seconds of regulation to send the game to overtime. He hit an open-lane layup to pull JSU within two points of the Colonels, 82-80, and a big dunk with 11 seconds to go tied the game.
A near-3-pointer by Mostella almost ended the game at the end of regulation, and a Hudson jumper at the end of the first overtime came close to falling, but both barely missed.
Saturday's double-overtime game was the first for Jacksonville State since Nov. 22, 2008 when JSU defeated Georgia State 80-73. It was also the first double-OT win since that same contest 20 seasons ago, spanning 332 games.
It was also the first time a Jacksonville State squad scored triple digits against a Division I opponent, dating back to a 101-82, OT win against Stetson in 2002. It was the first time an opponent scored triple digits against the Gamecocks since allowing 103 to Belmont in a 21-point loss in 2015.
The win is the 13th in OVC play for the Gamecocks this season, setting a new Division I program record for league wins in a single season. The previous best was 12.
BELMONT 97, SIUE 75
NASHVILLE - Behind six double figure scorers, Belmont University men's basketball defeated SIU Edwardsville, 97-75, Saturday night.
Belmont, which honored seniors Dylan Windler, Kevin McClain and Mack Mercer prior to the game, has won 117 of its last 126 home games.
The Bruins needed an inspired effort from starters and reserves alike, as the visiting Cougars opened the game in impressive fashion. A 3-pointer from post Brandon Jackson gave SIU Edwardsville a 32-22 lead 11 minutes in.
But Belmont responded, scoring 30 of the final 41 points of the first half. Junior Michael Benkert scored five straight points to give Belmont a 52-43 lead at halftime.
From there, Belmont rode the post play of freshman Nick Muszynski, who scored or assisted on 14 points in the first 5:20 of the second half.
As the Bruin defense and rebounding intensified, consecutive driving layins from freshman Grayson Murphy and McClain made the score 75-56 with 11:33 remaining.
Belmont scored 52 points in the paint and 33 points off the bench. A 3-pointer from freshman Caleb Hollander stretched the margin to 24, 94-70, with 2:04 left.
Muszynski led six Bruins in double figures with 19 points. Windler had 18 points, nine rebounds and four assists. Junior Seth Adelsperger scored a career-high 14 points, while McClain and Benkert each had 13. Murphy added 11.
Brandon Jackson led SIU Edwardsville (9-19, 5-11 OVC) with 22 points.
MURRAY STATE 103, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 67
MURRAY, Ky. - The Murray State Racers rolled to their seventh-straight win Saturday with a 103-67 victory over the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks at the CFSB Center in Murray, Kentucky.
The Racers (23-4) won for the seventh-straight time in recording their second 100-point game in league play. MSU is 14-2 in league play, still in a share of first place in the Ohio Valley Conference with two games remaining in the 2018-19 regular season.
Ja Morant led the Racers with 23 points and 12 assists for his 12th consecutive game of 20 points or more and his 16th game this season of double-digit assists. Tevin Brown hit five 3-pointers on his way to 21 points and Shaq Buchanan added 16 points. KJ Williams and Darnell Cowart each added 12 points to give MSU five players in double-figure scoring.
Before the game was eight minutes old, the Racers had a 22-11 lead on the strength of three 3-point baskets from Brown. His fourth 3-pointer of the game and a perfect alley oop lob dunk from Morant to Buchanan at the 2:51 mark put the Racers in front 44-23. Brown capped the first stanza with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer and the Racers went into the halftime intermission with a 51-26 lead.
The Racers eventually pushed their lead to 33 points on a 3-pointer from Mike Davis at 84-51 with 6:13 left.
TENNESSEE STATE 75, EASTERN ILLINOIS 60
NASHVILLE - The Tennessee State men’s basketball team defeated the Eastern Illinois Panthers Saturday night in the Gentry Center in its final home game of the season. Big Blue honored seniors Armani Chaney, who finished the night with 13 points, four rebounds and two assists, and Stokley Chaffee, Jr., who had eight points, nine rebounds, two assists and one steal in the 75-60 win.
The Tigers led EIU for 31:19 of the game, allowing just a four point Panther lead early in the first half. For the remainder of the night, TSU carried the game.
Kamar McKnight and Michael Littlejohn had a hot start, combining for 21 points in the first half to lead the Tigers to a ten-point lead at the break.
On the defensive end, Big Blue held a high scoring team in EIU to shoot just 34 percent on the night, with TSU grabbing 40 boards, led by Donte Fitzpatrick Dorsey, who registered his first double-digit rebounding night of the season.
A second-half scoring drought helped EIU come back from the Tiger 15-point lead, to seven, but a late offensive push restored Big Blue’s lead, as the Tigers went 8-0 in the final 48 seconds of the game.
TSU is now 9-19 overall, 6-10 in the league.
MOREHEAD STATE 66, TENNESSEE TECH 63
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - Sophomore forward James Baker scored a career-high 20 points and had four blocked shots, while senior Lamontray Harris totaled nine points and seven rebounds in a second-half comeback as Morehead State men's basketball secured a 66-63 win at Tennessee Tech Saturday.
The Eagles improved to 7-9 in the Ohio Valley Conference and 11-18 overall. With Eastern Illinois' loss at Tennessee State tonight, MSU moves into a tie for fifth place in the OVC race with a tiebreaker over EIU. Tech slid to 3-13 in the league and 7-22 overall. It also marked a season sweep over the Golden Eagles.
Harris had 15 points overall and secured all of his rebounds in the second half when his team outscored Tech 36-26. He hit four free throws in the final 13 seconds, including what proved to be the winning margin free toss with just four ticks left.
Meanwhile Baker was nearly unstoppable. He hit for 11 points in the first half and added nine in the second on 9-of-12 shooting from the floor.
After trailing 37-30 at halftime, the Eagles opened the second stanza on a 7-0 run to tie and eventual made it a 12-2 run to lead 42-39. Neither team then led by more than three until the final minute.
Junior guard Jordan Walker added 12 points for his 13th straight double figure effort and for the 20th time in the last 21 games. Senior A.J. Hicks had three assists to give him 163 helpers this year. That total is now the fifth best single-season assist performance in program history.