THURSDAY'S SCORES
@Belmont 68, Eastern Kentucky 58
@Southeast Missouri 81, Austin Peay 43
@Eastern Illinois 55, Jacksonville State 52
@UT Martin 98, Murray State 56
Tennessee Tech 65, @SIUE 50
Morehead State 84, @Tennessee State 47
BELMONT 68, EASTERN KENTUCKY 58
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Four players with double-figure scoring helped the Belmont Bruins blow past the Eastern Kentucky Colonels, 68-48, Thursday night at the Curb Event Center. The Bruins extended their home winning streak to 14 games in the Curb.
Sophomore Conley Chinn led the charge for Belmont (9-7, 4-1 OVC) with a team-high 15 points, which also tied her career best. Chinn also raked in eight rebounds, as senior Ellie Harmeyer logged her 10th double-double of the season with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
The Bruins also saw double-digit performances from sophomore Jamilyn Kinney (14 points and three assists) and senior Maddie Wright (10 points and eight rebounds). Chinn and Kinney combined for all eight of Belmont's 3-pointers, as they each shot a 4-for-7 clip from deep range.
Overall, the Bruins outscored the Colonels (7-9, 1-4 OVC) by a 39-22 margin in the second half, while they led Eastern Kentucky for nearly 37 minutes of the contest.
The junior duo of Qay Stanton and Teri Goodlett meshed for 20 points, eight rebounds and eight boards for the Colonels. No other Eastern Kentucky player tallied over 10 points on the evening.
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 81, AUSTIN PEAY 43
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Southeast Missouri (11-5, 3-2 OVC) blew by Austin Peay (10-6, 1-4 OVC), 81-43, Thursday night at the Show Me Center.
SEMO completed a two-game sweep of APSU in the first three weeks of Ohio Valley Conference play.
The Redhawks forced a season-high 25 turnovers for the night, resulting in a season-best 15 steals. Taelour Pruitt tied a career-high five steals to lead a strong defensive effort.
Despite shooting 87.5 percent (7-of-8) in the first quarter, the Governors were outscored 23-17. APSU had 11 turnovers, allowing SEMO to score 16 points off those miscues.
SEMO went on a 16-3 run to start the second period. Tesia Thompson and Jessie Harshberger each scored four points to key that surge.
The Redhawks went on to lead 41-23 at the intermission.
The Redhawks held the Governors to just 23 points in the first half. It was the second-straight game that SEMO held its opponent to a season-low 23 first-half points.
SEMO went on an 8-0 run to begin the third quarter, with six points coming from Carrie Shephard.
The Redhawks polished off the Governors with the help of an 11-0 run in the final 10 minutes.
The Redhawks took their largest lead of the night in the final minute when Taelour Pruitt scored to give SEMO a 81-43 advantage.
Shephard and Thompson led the Redhawks with 16 points each. Harshberger and Pruitt finished with 10-points apiece. Thompson finished the game with a team-high seven rebounds and five assists.
The Governors had just one player, Arielle Gonzalez-Varner, in double figures. Gonzalez-Varner posted a team-best 10 points and seven rebounds.
EASTERN ILLINOIS 55, JACKSONVILLE STATE 52
CHARLESTON, Ill. - Jacksonville State's women's basketball team dropped a tough 55-52 game at Eastern Illinois on Thursday night inside Lantz Arena.
It was a career night for redshirt-junior McKenna Lawrence who carried the Gamecocks (6-10, 2-3 Ohio Valley Conference) in the opening half. But the Panthers (10-6, 4-1 OVC) found an answer for the Evans, Ga., native, in the second half as the edged out Jax State for their fourth conference win.
In her first career start, Lawrence set a new career-high in points in just the first 20 minutes of action before finishing with a game-high 15. All five of her buckets came from beyond the arc for nearly half of JSU's 11 treys on the evening. Freshman Nekiyah Thompson added a pair of threes to match her career high with 11 points, as did redshirt-senior Destiney Elliott who was the third Gamecock in double figures with 10 points.
Eastern Illinois' Karle Pace led the Panthers with 14 points.
JSU shot just 27-percent as a team, but outside of Lawrence, Thompson and Elliott, were just 7-of-39 (.178) from the floor while struggling to keep up with EIU. While redshirt-junior Chloe Long failed to score, she continued her dominant start to league play with another team-high eight rebounds.
Lawrence's big night started fast with consecutive triples for JSU's first six points of the game. Taylor Hawks added another three-pointer late in the period for JSU's only points in the quarter as they trailed 14-9 after one.
Another long scoring drought in the second was snapped when Lawrence came through again with back-to-back threes to give JSU its first lead at 21-19 with just over two minutes to play in the half. Unfortunately, EIU ended the period on a 7-0 run to take a 26-21 lead into the break.
The Gamecocks slowly clawed back in the third, finally evening things at 30-30 on a trey by Elliott, but similar to the second quarter, the home team responded with another big run to go back up by eight. Trailing by nine late in the fourth, Elliott's second three of the night cut it to 50-44 with 2:07 remaining in what would be JSU's last surge of the night.
Threes in the final minute by Thompson brought JSU all the way back to within three at the very end, but the Gamecocks didn't have time for a final shot after a missed free throw. The charity stripe was one of many things not favorable for the visitors on the night as JSU finished 1-of-2 for the game after Thompson's intential last-second miss. Meanwhile, the Panthers were 14-for-18 at the line. JSU tried to make up the difference from beyond the perimeter setting a new program record with 45 three-point attempts on the night, breaking the previous mark of 39 set against Murray State in 2005.
UT MARTIN 98, MURRAY STATE 56
MARTIN, Tenn. - With the stands of the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center filled with excitement for a rivalry matchup and a new logo reveal, the University of Tennessee at Martin women's basketball team gave its fans yet another reason to celebrate with a dominating 98-56 victory over Ohio Valley Conference foe Murray State on Thursday evening.
The Skyhawks (9-7, 5-0 OVC) pushed their winning streak to five games behind a complete team performance. UT Martin dismantled Murray State from start to finish, leading for over 38 minutes in the game while posting its biggest margin of victory this season of 42 points.
UT Martin shot 54.3 percent from the floor while knocking down 10 three-point field goals on 26 assists. The Skyhawks would prove stingy on defense, holding the Racers to just 30.8 percent from the floor while forcing 23 turnovers in the contest. Overall, the Skyhawks saw four different players score in double figures.
Reigning OVC Player of the Week Chelsey Perry continued her dazzling junior campaign with her second straight 30-point outing with 30 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks. With her three blocks, she surpasses former Skyhawk Rickiesha Bryant for second place on the program's with 156 career rejections. Meanwhile, sophomore Kyannah Grant who flirted with a triple-double, tallying 16 points, eight assists and six rebounds. Joining the duo in double-figures was Maddie Waldrop (15 points, six rebounds) and Dasia Young (10 points).
Murray State (8-8, 1-4 OVC) struggled for much of the contest despite placing three players in double figures. Lex Mayes paced the Racers with 17 points while the duo of Laci Hawthorne and Cekeya Mack tallied 10 points each.
TENNESSEE TECH 65, SIUE 50
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - Tennessee Tech defeated SIUE, 65-50, to extend its win streak to eight straight. With the win the Golden Eagles improved to 12-4 overall and 5-0 in league play while the Cougars fell to 3-13 overall and 1-4 in the OVC.
Kesha Brady led Tech with a game-high 28 points. She was 10-of-16 from the floor, including knocking down four three-pointers. Akia Harris had 12 points while Jordan Brock added 10.
SIUE was led by Mikia Keith with 12 points to go with a team-best five steals. Mikayla Kinnard added 10 points. Zaria Whitlock brought down a team-high 11 rebounds to go with six points.
MOREHEAD STATE 84, TENNESSEE STATE 47
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Tennessee State University women’s basketball team suffered an, 84-47, loss to Morehead State Thursday night in the Gentry Center.
Tennessee State got off to a slow start but battled back to within six early in the second quarter. The Lady Tigers, however, went cold and got outscored, 20-3, in the rest of the period.
After trailing 45-23 at halftime, TSU continued to play from behind and never managed to get back into the game.
Morehead State had four players reach double digits in points with Tomiyah Alford leading the way with 19. Breuna Jackson had 16 points while Jazzmyn Elston recorded 12 and Orlandra Humphries added 10.
Jaden Wrightsell led TSU with 11 points while Megan Kent tallied a team-best ten rebounds on the night.