SATURDAY'S SCORES
UT Martin 59, @Austin Peay 58
@Jacksonville State 69, Eastern Kentucky 64
Belmont 87, SIUE 54
@Murray State 82, Southeast Missouri 74
@Tennessee State 70, Eastern Illinois 66
Morehead State 73, @Tennessee Tech 70
UT MARTIN 59, AUSTIN PEAY 58
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - The University of Tennessee at Martin women’s basketball team trailed by as much as 16 points in the second quarter before stingy defense and strong post play in the second half lifted the Skyhawks to a 59-58 road victory at Ohio Valley Conference foe Austin Peay.
The Skyhawks (19-8, 11-5 OVC) snapped a three-game losing streak at the Dunn Center in a game which many thought the streak might stretch out to four. With Austin Peay jumping out to a 16-point lead with 3:09 to play in the second quarter, UT Martin faced an uphill battle down the stretch. From there the Skyhawks would transition into a half-court defense and force the ball into the paint to trim the margin down to six heading into the fourth and ultimately find a game-winner from freshman Damiah Griffin with 20 seconds to play.
UT Martin used its aggressiveness on the defensive end to force the action. The Skyhawks would tally 12 steals in the game, led by six from Emanye Robertson and four from Zaire Hicks. The squad would also protect the paint by tallying six blocked shots, including a pair from the sophomore pair of Maddie Waldrop and Chelsey Perry. With Perry’s performance, she pushed her season shot block total up to 63 while becoming just the third player in UT Martin history to join the 100 Block Club.
Along with her strong defensive day, Robertson left her mark throughout the stat sheet. In her fourth career trip to Clarksville, Robertson notched her first career victory in the Dunn Center behind a game-high 13 points, six assists, six steal and five rebound performance. Other standouts came in the form of Griffin who scored 10 points – including the game-winner – while sophomore Demi Burdick continued her hot play as of late with nine points and seven rebounds.
Austin Peay (14-13, 9-7 OVC) saw its three-game losing streak come to a halt in a second-half collapse. Senior Keisha Gregory tallied 19 points, five rebounds, four assists and four steals to pace the Governors.
JACKSONVILLE STAT 69, EASTERN KENTUCKY 64
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - The Jacksonville State women's basketball team held on for a 69-64 win over Eastern Kentucky on Saturday in the home finale of the season at Pete Mathews Coliseum.
The win for JSU (14-13, 8-8 Ohio Valley Conference) marked the fourth-straight on its home floor to end the year to propel the Gamecocks into a better position for postseason play after entering the day in a four-way tie for sixth in the league standings.
The Gamecocks recognized departing seniors Rayven Pearson and Brianna Perry in a Senior Day ceremony prior to tip-off, and the two went out in strong in their last game inside The Pete. Pearson posted a career-best 20 points to go along with 12 boards in her 22 nd career double-double. Perry added six points and a team-high three steals that turned into runouts for JSU.
Redshirt-senior Destiney Elliott has been granted a sixth-year of eligibility by the NCAA, and will return for the Gamecocks in 2019-20.
Behind Pearson, freshman Yamia Johnson poured in 15 points in her fifth-straight game in double figures. Redshirt-sophomore McKenna Lawrence provided a critical spark off the bench on 3-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc to shatter her season-high with nine points. It's the most the Evans, Ga., native, has scored against a Division I opponent.
Jax State got out to a slow start trailing 10-1 in the first four minutes, but began to find their rhythm late in the opening quarter. Down 15-5, the Gamecocks mounted a 9-0 run that lasted to the midway point of the second. EKU led 19-16 with under two minutes to play before the half until Lawrence evened things up with her first trey of the afternoon. Perry late took a steal back the length of the court for a pull-up jumper that gave JSU its first lead of the day at 21-19, which stood as the halftime score.
In the third, a three-pointer by EKU's leading scorer Abby Wright, who finished with a game-high 22, gave the Colonels a 30-29 advantage at the 5:09 mark. The Gamecocks used another big run, 10-0, over the next two minutes fueled by triples from Johnson and Elliott.
Leading by eight to begin the final stanza, Lawrence drained back-to-back three-pointers on consecutive possessions to extend JSU's lead to 14 at 52-38. The Colonels used a 15-4 run to trim the deficit to just three where it would remain for the final few minutes. Lawrence got a hand on an EKU pass to force a turnover in the final minute as Hawks iced the game with free throws in the closing seconds.
BELMONT 87, SIUE 54
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Belmont women's basketball team held a pair of celebrations Saturday. The first before tipoff was reserved for the four seniors who were playing in their final game at the Curb Event Center. The second came after the buzzer as the Bruins clinched yet another Ohio Valley Conference title.
Belmont's 87-54 victory over SIU Edwardsville on Homecoming means the Bruins are the outright regular-season OVC champions for a third straight year.
Saturday's win was Belmont's 13th in a row and the 104th of this senior class's outstanding four-year career. The Bruins recognized seniors Hannah Harmeyer, Paris Lawson, Darby Maggard and Jenny Roy prior to the victory.
Harmeyer (Kenosha, Wis.) and Lawson (Murfreesboro,) both drew their first career starts in the game, which the Bruins began to run away with after halftime. Belmont continues to play its best basketball of the season.
SIUE's Jay'nee Alston scored 17 points to lead SIUE. She was a single point shy of her season and career high of 18 points. Alston recorded three three-pointers and shot 7 of 10 from the field.
BU scored 53 points in the second half, the third straight outing in which the Bruins have logged a 50-point half. Belmont shot 53.3 percent from the field, the team's six time in seven games shooting better than 50 percent, and the Bruins also knocked down 10 3-pointers for an ninth straight contest.
The game even wound to a storybook conclusion for the team's three active seniors. Each made the final shot of their careers at the Curb before being subbed out of the game to a standing ovation.
Maggard's (Larwill, Ind.) final shot, her 409th career made 3-pointer, gave her a game-high 22 points. Roy's last layup upped her game total to 13 points; she added six rebounds and five assists.
Junior Ellie Harmeyer (Kenosha, Wis.) scored 12 points with eight rebounds, and junior Maddie Wright (Chattanooga, Tenn.) chipped in 12 more. Freshman Conley Chinn (Jackson, Miss.) grabbed 10 rebounds for the second straight game, the only two double-digit rebounding performances of her career.
MOREHEAD STATE 73, TENNESSEE TECH 70
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - Senior Miranda Crockett posted her third double-double of the season and also moved to third place on Morehead State's career scoring list as the women's basketball team built a hefty lead and then hung on a 73-70 win at Tennessee Tech Thursday.
With the victory, the Eagles (20-9/11-5) accomplished a trio of critical items.
They claimed the season series from Tech (19-8/11-5) for the third consecutive season and moved back into a tie for second place in the OVC. The Eagles currently hold the tiebreaker between themselves, Tech and UT Martin by going 3-0 against those two foes.
MSU also reached 20 wins in a season for the third straight time - the first such occurrence in program history. It also is just the sixth time in program history with 11 league victories.
But it didn't come easy. It appeared to be a runaway, even into the second half, but it turned into a fight until the final horn
Crockett scored 21 points and corralled 10 rebounds, including 16 markers in the first half when the Eagles built a 39-24 cushion . She now has 1,726 career points for third place, passing Donna Stephens (1978-82). Graduate transfer McKenzie Calvert actually paced the visitors with 23 points, her 11th double figure game in the last 13.
After running out to a 23-7 lead after the first quarter, the Eagles cruised to as much as a 23-point lead (55-32) with 3:28 left in the third quarter before Tech stormed back. The Golden Eagles hit 9-of-14 (64 percent) in the final quarter and outscored the Eagles 31-16.
TTU was within one (69-68) with just 27 seconds left before senior Darianne Seward drained two free throws. With MSU holding the 71-68 lead, a foul on the Eagles gave TTU's Jordan Brock two free tosses, which she nailed both.
The hosts fouled immediately, and Jaleesa Avery was true on both the ensuing free throws. A last ditch three-pointer by Brock was very close, but went awry, to seal MSU's win.
MSU won the rebounding battle, 51-38, as senior Tierra McGowan secured her 12th double-digit effort with 10 boards.
TENNESSEE STATE 70, EASTERN ILLINOIS 66
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - In a game that went down to the wire, the Tennessee State University women’s basketball team gutted out a, 70-66, win over Eastern Illinois Thursday night in the Gentry Center.
TSU trailed by four points early in the fourth quarter but battled back to tie the game.
Despite using a run to capture a seven-point lead with just under two minutes remaining, TSU had to fight off EIU down the stretch.
The Lady Tigers were up 68-66 when Tia Wooten hit two free-throws with 8.8 seconds remaining to give TSU a 70-66 lead. EIU’s final shot attempt was off the mark.
Tennessee State (5-23, 5-11 OVC) was led in scoring by Tia Wooten who posted 22 points in her final game in the Gentry Center. Taylor Roberts finished with 11 while Cebria Outlow had a solid performance of six points, seven rebounds and seven assists.
Eastern Illinois (10-17, 4-12 OVC) had three players score in double-digits led by Taylor Steele’s 23 points. Karle Pace tallied 21 points and Jalisha Smith added 11.
MURRAY STATE 82, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 74
MURRAY, Ky. - The Murray State women’s basketball team shot 66.-7-pecent from the floor and 80-percent from 3-point range in the second half of Saturday’s game at the CFSB Center in Murray to rally for an 82-74 win over Southeast Missouri.
It was a tale of two halves for the Racers, as they went just 8-for 30 overall and 2-for-11 from beyond-the-arc in the first half, on top of committing nine turnovers. In the second half, however, Murray State found its rhythm and went 16-of-24 from the floor, 8-for-10 from 3-point range and turned the ball over just three times, including no turnovers in the final 10 minutes of the game.
After battling back and losing the lead in the third, it was back-to-back 3-pointers from Evelyn Adebayo and Janika Griffith-Wallace that gave the Racers what would be their final lead of the game. Murray State would go on to lead by as many as six and by few as one, but is was Griffith-Wallace’s third 3-point basket in as many attempts with 1:37 remaining that iced the game for Murray State. The Racers closed out the final three minutes of the game on a 10-3 run en route to the 82-74 win.
All five starters reached double figures in the game with Griffith-Wallace and Adebayo leading the way with 20 points each. In addition to her 12th 20-plus point performance of the season, the Adebayo also pulled down 10 rebounds to extend her school record for double-doubles in a season to 18.
Macey Turley added 13 to the cause, while Lex Mayes and Brianna Crane each chipped in 12. Turley was an impressive 9-for-11 at the free throw line Saturday and also added a game-high seven assists and four rebounds.
Southeast Missouri was led by Tesia Thompson who scored a game-high 28 points to go with 13 points.
The win moves MSU to 12-15 on the season and 8-8 in the OVC, while the loss drops SEMO to 12-15 and 7-9, respectively. At 8-8, the Racers currently sit in a tie for sixth place in the OVC standings with Jacksonville State, who they hold the tiebreaker over.