THURSDAY'S SCORES
Belmont 83, @Eastern Kentucky 65
Tennessee State 81, @Morehead State 80 (2OT)
@Murray State 86, Eastern Illinois 75
@UT Martin 66, Jacksonville State 64
@Southeast Missouri 71, Tennessee Tech 66 (OT)
@Austin Peay 80, SIUE 45
BELMONT 83, EASTERN KENTUCKY 65
RICHMOND, Ky. - Behind 27 points, 12 rebounds and five assists from senior Kevin McClain, Belmont University men's basketball defeated Eastern Kentucky, 83-65, Thursday night.
Senior All-America candidate Dylan Windler added 20 points, 14 rebounds and five assists as Belmont won its sixth consecutive game.
Belmont (18-4, 9-2 OVC) led 45-31 at halftime and stretched the lead to as many as 27, 73-46, with 7:47 left on a Windler tip-in. Belmont handed out 24 assists on 35 made field goals and limited Eastern Kentucky to 39 percent shooting.
Freshman Nick Muszynski had 13 points and four assists while junior Seth Adelsperger added 11.
Nick Mayo led Eastern Kentucky (10-14, 3-8 OVC) with 22 points.
TENNESSEE STATE 81, MOREHEAD STATE 80 (2OT)
MOREHEAD, Ky. (AP) - Donte Fitzpatrick-Dorsey scored 18 points including a 3-pointer in the second-overtime as Tennessee State beat Morehead State 81-80 on Thursday night.
With the game tied at 78, Tennessee State's Stokley Chaffee Jr. blocked A.J. Hicks' shot to set up Fitzpatrick-Dorsey's 3 with 1:53 remaining. Malek Green scored on a dunk for Morehead State with 51 seconds left to cap the scoring. The Eagles had the last possession with 24 seconds to play, but Hicks missed two shots and James Baker missed a tip-in at the buzzer.
Fitzpatrick-Dorsey made four 3-pointers and had six rebounds. Chaffee finished with 12 points, and Michael Littlejohn and Kamar McKnight added 11 for Tennessee State (8-15, 5-6 Ohio Valley Conference).
Hicks scored 29 points and Jordan Walker had 20 for Morehead State (9-15, 5-6).
McKnight's layup with 11 seconds left tied it at 76 in the first overtime.
Hicks made four free throws and a 3-pointer during a 7-0 surge in the final 1:15 of regulation to force overtime.
MURRAY STATE 86, EASTERN ILLINOIS 75
MURRAY, Ky. - The Murray State Racers trailed with eight minutes remaining, but ran off a 22-4 run to finish out an 86-75 victory over the Eastern Illinois Panthers Thursday at the CFSB Center in Murray, Kentucky.
The Racers (18-4) kept a share of first place in the Ohio Valley Conference with Austin Peay and Belmont as each team is 9-2. Murray State is back at home Saturday to host the SIUE Cougars. EIU (13-11) fell to 6-5 in OVC games.
Darnell Cowart had two personal fouls in the first two minutes of the game, but still managed to be a force for the Racers in the paint. He scored a career-high 23 points on 8-of-13 from the field and 7-of-7 from the free throw line. He also grabbed 12 rebounds, seven of which came on the offensive glass.
Ja Morant thrilled the 5,111 that watched at The Bank with an amazing windmill dunk in the final minute as he recorded his 14th double-double in 22 games this season with 23 points and 11 assists. Shaq Buchanan added 18 points to the Racer attack.
A team might imagine better starts to a game, but the Racers' 5-of-6 start from the 3-point line, including four in a row from Morant, had the home fans on their feet with a quick 15-7 lead only five minutes in. EIU got even hotter from long range as they hit 7-of-14 in the first half and had a largest lead of 40-30 with 3:10 left when the Racers went on a run, most of from Morant hitting five free throws and also a 3-point basket from Buchanan to tie it 40-40 at the halftime intermission.
The Racers led until the 10:24 mark in the second half and EIU went on to build a gap of 71-64 with 9:04 left. The Racers got some defensive stops and took the lead for good on Brown's 3-point basket with 6:50 left.
UT MARTIN 66, JACKSONVILLE STATE 64
MARTIN, Tenn. - A game-ending run featuring several big plays on both ends by the University of Tennessee at Martin men's basketball team directly led to a 66-64 triumph over Jacksonville State at the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center.
In a game that featured 22 lead changes and 14 ties, the Skyhawks (7-15, 2-9 Ohio Valley Conference) buckled down defensively this evening. UT Martin outscored Jacksonville State by an 8-2 margin over the final 2:18, limiting the Gamecocks to just 26 points in the second half.
Meanwhile, Preston Parks took over the Skyhawk offense late, tossing in 10 points in the final 3:33. The junior southpaw helped UT Martin trim a six-point deficit with less than four minutes to play, eventually swishing the game-winning trey with 1:23 to go.
Quintin Dove came up with 21 points this evening, making 10 of his 13 field goal attempts while adding three steals in 26 minutes off the bench. Parks dialed up 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting – including a 4-for-5 effort from beyond the three-point arc. Delfincko Bogan added 10 points while Craig Randall II (nine points, four assists, four steals) and Jailen Gill (team-high eight rebounds, game-high three blocks) also played well for the Skyhawks, who held an 18-0 edge in fast break points.
Entering the game as one of four teams tied for the OVC lead, Jacksonville State (16-8, 8-3 OVC) received 16 points out of Marlon Hunter while Jason Burnell tallied a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Ty Hudson chipped in 10 points for a Gamecock team that shot 37.9 percent (including 14.3 percent from three-point range) over the final 20 minutes.
Gill got things started with a dunk off an alley-oop from Bogan just 21 seconds into the contest. Parks canned a three-pointer at the 11:33 mark to give the Skyhawks their biggest lead of the game at 16-13. The Gamecocks briefly reclaimed the advantage before Bogan knocked down a mid-range jumper to even the score at 31-all. However, Jacksonville State wrapped up the opening half with seven unanswered points to lead 38-31 at the break. Dove managed a game-high 11 points at the break while De'Torrion Ware's eight points paced the Gamecocks.
After UT Martin scored the first seven points of the second half, a Dove jumper in the paint tilted the score back in favor of the Skyhawks at 44-42. Neither side would lead by more than four points until Jacksonville State took a 60-54 lead with 3:57 left to play. That's when Parks took over, as he made a pair of free throws, a fast break layup and a pair of trifectas over a 2:10 span. After his three-pointer gave UT Martin a 66-64 lead, the Skyhawk defense held their ground as the Gamecocks had four chances to tie or take the lead in the final 1:23.
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 71, TENNESSEE TECH 66 (OT)
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Gabe McGlothan turned in a double-double 27 points and 16 rebounds, made a shot with two seconds left to send the game to overtime as Southeast Missouri (8-16, 3-8) beat Tennessee Tech (7-17, 3-8), 71-66, Thursday.
McGlothan, who scored only two points in the first half, pitched in 20 in the second stanza and added five of SEMO's 12 points in the extra period. He also threw down a thunderous dunk off a missed layup by Isaiah Gable to put SEMO ahead, 68-64, with 38 seconds left in overtime.
The Redhawks trailed, 51-44, with 4:35 left in regulation when they scored 10-straight points to take a three-point advantage. Nygal Russell made a layup on back-to-back possessions to give SEMO a 54-51 edge with 2:33 remaining.
Hunter Vick made two free throws to regain a 57-54 lead for TTU with 19 seconds left.
Eight ticks later, Alex Caldwell was fouled shooting behind the arc. Caldwell made two of his three free throws to pull SEMO within a point.
Jr. Clay then split a pair of free throws to give TTU a 58-56 cushion before McGlothan forced the overtime period.
The Redhawks outscored the Golden Eagles, 12-8, in the final five minutes and never looked back following McGlothan's huge putback dunk. The Redhawks made 3-of-4 free throws following that play to seal the win.
Both teams struggled to put points on the board in a shaky first half that resulted in a combined 38 points. That mark was the lowest combined total of first half points in a game involving SEMO this season.
Neither team led by more than four points during the first 20 minutes of play and neither team scored for stretch of nearly eight minutes until Jr. Clay's layup ended the drought and brought the game to a 17-17 deadlock.
Mark Laros answered with a layup off a pass from Nygal Russell before Clay knocked down two free throws to make it 19-19 at the half.
Combined, TTU (1-of-11) and SEMO (1-of-7) were just 2-of-18 from 3-point range and turned the ball over 23 times in the first half.
McGlothan shot 10-of-14 from the field, knocked down two of SEMO's three 3-pointers and made 5-of-6 free throws en route to his career-high in points. He matched a career-best 16 rebounds and had six on the offensive end. The double-double was McGlothan's second this season.
Ledarrius Brewer and Russell followed with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
As a team, SEMO rallied to shoot 52 percent (13-of-25) from the field in the second half and 66.7 percent (4-of-6) in overtime to get by TTU.
Clay scored 22 points and Courtney Alexander finished with 20 points and 13 rebounds to lead TTU.
AUSTIN PEAY 80, SIUE 45
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Terry Taylor scored 22 points with four 3-pointers and Austin Peay dispatched SIU-Edwardsville 80-45 on Thursday night.
The Governors (17-7, 9-2 Ohio Valley Conference) raced to a 33-5 lead as Taylor scored 18 of their points with nine coming from beyond the 3-point arc.
Austin Peay led 42-18 at the break on 18-of-36 shooting. Taylor had 20 by halftime. SIU-Edwardsville (8-15, 4-7) missed 19 of their first 25 shots and turned it over 11 times before intermission.
It's the second time in as many months Taylor has feasted on the Cougars. He posted his career-high 33 points when he made half his 24-shot attempts on Jan. 17 in a 79-71 win at Edwardsville, Illinois. In the two games combined Taylor shot 21 of 38 (55.2) from the field.
Steve Harris scored 12 and Jabari McGhee and Isaiah Hart each scored 11 for Austin Peay.
Brandon Jackson led the Cougars with 12 points, David McFarland 11 and Jaylen McCoy 10.