SATURDAY'S SCORES
@Morehead State 69, Eastern Illinois 66
@Eastern Kentucky 78, SIUE 72
Belmont 85, @UT Martin 78
Tennessee State 75, @Southeast Missouri 73
Austin Peay 71, @Jacksonville State 67
Murray State 81, @Tennessee Tech 69
MOREHEAD STATE 69, EASTERN ILLINOIS 66
MOREHEAD, Ky. - Trailing throughout the contest, Morehead State's men's basketball team put together a 12-0 run in the final five-plus minutes and held off a pesky Eastern Illinois team in the final minute for a 69-66 Ohio Valley Conference victory at Johnson Arena Saturday.
The Eagles won their third straight game and improved to 9-8 overall and 3-1 in the league. EIU, which dropped consecutive road games by three points this week, fell to 7-9 and 0-4 in the conference.
Trailing 58-55 with 6:25 remaining, freshman forward Tyzhaun Claude converted a lay-in to bring his team to within one. Just more than a minute later, sophomore guard Malik Riddle gave the home team its first lead, and the advantage for good, with a steal and slam dunk. The Eagles went on to lead 67-58 before a furious rally brought the Panthers back to within 67-66 with just 14 seconds left.
Junior guard Juice Thomas, despite playing a majority of the second half with four fouls, led the Eagles with 18 points, six assists and five rebounds. Senior guard Djimon Henson registered 10 points. Josiah Wallace led EIU with 17 points but was limited to only four in the final 20 minutes.
EASTERN KENTUCKY 78, SIUE 72
RICHMOND, Ky. - Eastern Kentucky University’s men’s basketball team went 6-for-6 at the free throw line in the final minute to secure a 78-72 win over Southern Illinois University Edwardsville on Saturday and improve to 3-1 in Ohio Valley Conference play.
For the game, EKU made 27-of-35 (77 percent) at the charity stripe. The Colonels attempted 10 more free throws and out-scored the Cougars (16-for-25) by 11 at the free throw line.
SIU Edwardsville (4-13, 1-3 OVC) took a 56-55 lead on a lay-up from Tyresse Williford with 14:04 left in the game but the Cougars scored just two points over the next 4:42. Eastern rolled off an 8-2 run during that time to seize control. Two free throws by Lachlan Anderson with 12:10 to play put the home squad up 57-56 and the Colonels never trailed again.
Anderson scored half of the eight points during the run. A free throw by Jomaru Brown capped it and gave EKU (6-11, 3-1 OVC) a 63-58 advantage.
SIUE closed within two on five occasions and got as close as one once. The Cougars had the ball down three, 72-69, with 40 seconds to go when Brown came up with a steal and made a pair of free throws on the other end with 35.4 showing on the clock. Russhard Cruickshank hit two with 16.4 left and Brown put in two more with 2.6 seconds remaining.
Brown finished the night with a team-high 20 points. Anderson had 14 points and nine rebounds. Michael Moreno scored 14 and grabbed eight boards. Cruickshank contributed nine points, six assists and had just one turnover.
Southern Illinois Edwardsville shot 50 percent (25-of-50) from the field compared to 39 percent (22-of-57) for Eastern Kentucky. However, the Colonels turned 13 offensive rebounds and 17 SIUE turnovers into 28 points in addition to holding an 11-point edge at the free throw line.
Williford led SIUE with 20 points and six rebounds. Zeke Moore added 17 points.
BELMONT 85, UT MARTIN 78
MARTIN, Tenn. - Belmont University men's basketball closed strong in defeating UT Martin, 85-78, Saturday.
Belmont led 37-36 at halftime, but in a game featuring seven ties and 15 lead changes needed huge plays down the stretch to break free from the host Skyhawks. Sophomore Grayson Murphy nearly recorded a triple-double, leading six Bruins in double figures with 19 points, eight rebounds and 12 assists.
An Adam Kunkel baseline 3-pointer gave Belmont a 69-67 lead with 3:47 left. Then after an exchange of scores, Murphy buried a wing 3-pointer to increase the Belmont lead to 74-69 with 2:23 remaining.
Following a blocked shot from sophomore Nick Muszynski, Murphy found freshman Mitch Listau for a transition layin that pushed the lead to seven. Belmont went 9-for-10 from the free throw line in the final 1:03 to secure the victory.
The Bruins, third nationally in assists per game entering play, handed out 22 assists and made 12 3-point field goals. Kunkel scored 19, while graduate student Tyler Scanlon had 14 points. Muszynski had his fifth double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Listau had 11, while sophomore Caleb Hollander added 10.
Quinton Dove led UT Martin (5-10, 1-3 OVC) with 24 points.
Belmont (12-5, 3-1 OVC) won its 100th regular season conference game since joining the OVC in 2013; the Bruins are 100-20 in OVC regular season games.
TENNESSEE STATE 75, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 73
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AP) - Carlos Marshall Jr. had 21 points, including a put-back layup with 6.6 seconds to play, as Tennessee State narrowly beat Southeast Missouri 75-73 on Saturday.
Michael Littlejohn hit five 3-pointers and finished with 19 points for Tennessee State (11-6, 3-1 Ohio Valley Conference). Ben Kone had three blocks for the visiting team.
Alex Caldwell hit a 3-pointer to give the Redhawks (4-13, 0-4) a 10-point lead with 9:30 to play but they went 0 for 4 from the field and committed four turnovers from there as TSU scored 17 of the final 22 points.
Jy'lan Washington made back-to-back 3-pointers before Marshall, Wesley Harris and Littlejohn each hit another to give the Tigers their first lead since midway through the first half at 73-71 with 2:28 left. Skyler Hogan answered with two free throws 35 seconds later and neither team scored again for nearly two minutes. Littlejohn missed a 3-point shot from the left wing but Marshall grabbed the offensive rebound and banked home the eventual winner.
Southeast Missouri failed to get off a shot in the final seconds.
DQ Nicholas had 16 points for the Redhawks, who have now lost four straight games. Alex Caldwell added 15 points. Quatarrius Wilson had eight rebounds.
AUSTIN PEAY 71, JACKSONVILLE STATE 67
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - Down by 19 more than halfway through the first half, the Govs showed the heart, grit and tenacity of champions. Veterans stepped up. Young players grew up. And in the second half, the Govs showed up and rallied for a huge 71-67 win to remain unbeaten in Ohio Valley Conference play.
The start was not pretty for the Govs. After allowing the Govs to take monster leads early in each of the last two meetings here, Jacksonville State came out determined not to be the team clawing back in this meeting. By the first media timeout, the Gamecocks led 14-0 and the Govs were searching for answers.
By the six-minute mark, the deficit was 19 points; although the offense had finally sparked to life thanks to Evan Hinson providing some instant-offense off the bench, the Gamecocks were still controlling the tempo.
And then Austin Peay started getting stops, kept getting buckets and took all the momentum into halftime. The Govs ended the half on a 19-7 run thanks to six points from Jordyn Adams and a pair of threes from Sita Conteh and Pavle Djurisic, who helped Hinson bring some life from the reserves. The deficit entering halftime was still 10 points, but it was certainly more manageable than the near-20 point deficit the Govs were facing.
From the first moments in the second half, it was evident that the momentum remained firmly with the Govs. On Austin Peay's first possession, Carlos Paez hit a three to cut the deficit to seven.
In less than seven minutes, the Govs cut the lead down to a single point, helped by another Conteh three and triple from freshman Alec Woodard. But Jacksonville State did not fold easily—the Gamecocks took off an 11-2 run of their own to push the deficit back to 10 with 8:48 to play.
On the ensuing possession, Paez hit another three. He repeated the feat on the next possession. And the next. The one-man 9-2 run cut the Gamecock lead to three with seven minutes to play. The dream of a comeback was quickly becoming a reality.
When Jacksonville State's Elijah Harden rained in a three to push the Jacksonville State advantage back to five points, it was Djurisic who answered on the other end to once again make it a one-possession game. The teams traded stops before a Marek Welsch layup was answered by Paez's fifth and final three of the night to make it a one-point game. The littlest guy on the floor continually showed up big when it mattered most, finishing with a game-high 16 points, all in the second half.
After a pair of Taylor free-throws finally tied the game, the Govs took the lead for good on the ensuing possession, when Paez stole the ball, drove the floor and found Djurisic fror the hoop and foul. The big man from Montenegro gave the Govs a lead they would never relinquish, as Austin Peay hit 6-of-10 free-throws in the last minute to fend off the Gamecocks.
MURRAY STATE 81, TENNESSEE TECH 69
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - KJ Williams scored 17 points as Murray State beat Tennessee Tech 81-69 on Saturday night.
DaQuan Smith added 16 points for the Racers, while Jaiveon Eaves chipped in 15.
Anthony Smith had 14 points and 10 rebounds for Murray State (11-5, 4-0 Ohio Valley Conference), which earned its fifth straight victory.
Jr. Clay had 18 points for the Golden Eagles (3-14, 0-4), whose losing streak stretched to eight games. Keishawn Davidson added 11 points. Darius Allen had 11 points and six rebounds.