THURSDAY'S SCORES
Austin Peay 67, East Tennessee State 66 (Estero, Fla.)
Belmont 95, Howard 78 (Washington, D.C.)
LSU 94,
SIUE 81 (St. Louis, Mo.)
AUSTIN PEAY 67, EAST TENNESSEE STATE 66
ESTERO, Fla. - Over the course of his Austin Peay State University men's basketball career, you could point to a lot of different games as a Terry Taylor Game—games where he tossed the team on his back, put up absurd numbers in victory, matched a fellow big step-for-step or hit the big shot when the Govs needed him most. Twenty-nine points, 10 boards and the game-tying bucket in regulation against UNC Asheville his freshman year. Forty-two and 18 in overtime at Morehead State his sophomore season. Thirty-seven points, 14 boards and six threes without a miss against Tennessee State last season.
You get the point. Terry Taylor brings it every game, but there are those special moments where he Brings It. And his Thanksgiving Day performance against ETSU—25 points, 16 boards and multiple go-ahead buckets down the stretch of a 67-66 Austin Peay win—falls squarely under the parameters of Bringing It.
The contest's opening minutes were a dichotomy—the Govs cleaned up every miss, getting second and third looks on just about every possession. However, ETSU couldn't miss from the floor early—the Bucs hit five straight shots to open the game and eked out a 13-9 lead in the first six minutes.
Both outliers—the Govs' rebounding and the Bucs' shooting—regressed to the mean as the half went on. So too did the score swing, back and forth with neither squad seizing the upper hand for long. With just under two minutes to play in the half, a DJ Peavy drive put the Govs up seven—the largest lead for either team in the first half—but ETSU closed the half on a 7-0 run, with Southeast Missouri transfer Ledarrius Brewer providing five of those points to send the teams into the locker rooms tied at 36.
The Governors came out of the break and slowly built an eight-point lead by the 10-minute mark, ending the 16-8 run with a feed from Mike Peake to Taylor for a bucket. But the Bucs posted a quick 10-2 run of their own to tie the game with just over seven minutes to play.
The game was never more than a possession out of reach for either team over the final seven minutes of play; David Sloan gave the Bucs a brief lead with a three one possession and a layup the next following two Carlos Paez free-throws, but two Taylor free-throws and a layup of his own put the Govs back ahead with 4:41 to play.
Scoring would be at a premium as both teams tightened up defensively down the stretch. After a Damari Monsanto three put ETSU back ahead with 3:36 to go, Austin Peay wasn't able to find the tying bucket until a Reginald Gee drive to the hoop with under two minutes to go. A minute of tense basketball passed before a Brewer dunk gave the Bucs the upper hand again.
Then it was Taylor Time.
Out of a 30-second timeout, Taylor powered through contact for an up-and-under bucket and sank the free-throw with 35 seconds left to give the Govs a tenuous lead. Credit to Brewer, who led the Bucs with 16 points—he answered with an elbow jumper on the next possession to put ETSU back in the lead with 17 ticks left.
On the game's penultimate possession, Taylor drove the lane for a short jumper that missed right. The senior collected himself and jumped for his 10th offensive rebound of the game, collecting the ball and sticking it in with 5.1 seconds to play. A Sloan three attempt on the other end banged off the back iron and the Govs moved to 2-0 on the season.
BELMONT 95, HOWARD 78
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Behind balanced scoring and strong rebounding, Belmont University men's basketball defeated Howard, 95-78, Thursday in the opening game of the DC Paradise Jam presented by the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Freshman JaCobi Wood paced four bruins in double figures with 21 points, while junior Luke Smith (Knoxville, Tenn.) added 20.
The Bruins held Howard to one field goal during a six-minute stretch of the first half in building a double figure lead. Junior Nick Muszynski punctuated a 14-3 run to close the first half as Belmont led 48-27 at halftime.
Belmont maintained active defense to start the second half, stretching the lead to 30, 70-40, with 13 minutes left on a basket from sophomore Derek Sabin. Smith caught fire late, scoring 11 points in just over three minutes to make the score 92-65.
Belmont forced 17 turnovers, outrebounded Howard, 44-34, and held a 50-32 advantage in points in the paint
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Muszynski had 15 points while becoming Belmont's NCAA Division I era career blocked shots leader. Junior Grayson Murphy added 14 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists and three steals.
Heralded Howard (0-1) freshman Makur Maker scored seven points early, but was limited to 11 points in 29 minutes.
Belmont has won 13 consecutive games.
LSU 94, SIUE 81
ST. LOUIS - SIUE men's basketball played toe-to-toe with LSU Thursday, falling in the end 94-81 at Chaifetz Arena.
LSU, 1-0, got off to a quick start and built a 22-point lead with 11 minutes to play in the first half, but the Cougars whittled away at the lead. SIUE, 0-2, trimmed the lead to nine with 3:05 to play before half and trailed 49-34 at the break.
SIUE opened the second half scoring 26 of the first 39 points to pull within two at 62-60 after a layup from Philip Pepple, Jr. with 11:50 to play. An Iziah James' three-pointer with 9:13 left brought the Cougars within two again at 67-65. A 16-3 LSU run from that point stretched the margin to 15 with 5:11 left. SIUE pulled within 10, but never got closer.
The Cougars used strong shooting, particularly from three-point range, and good ball movement on offense. SIUE connected on 51 percent (29-57) of its shots and knocked down 13 of 27 (48 percent) of its three-point attempts.
The 13 made three-pointers marked the most for SIUE against a Division I opponent since a 2010 game at North Dakota.
The Cougars piled up 19 assists compared to 15 turnovers.
Mike Adewunmi led SIUE in scoring with 23 points, just two points shy of his career high. He was 7-10 from the field, including 3-5 from three-point range, and 6-8 at the free throw line.
Pepple turned in the first double-double of the year with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Shamar Wright added 12 points and four rebounds.
Freshman Cameron Thomas paced LSU with 27 points including four three-pointers. Darius Hays added 24 points for the Tigers and Trendon Watford scored 13 points.
The Cougars scored 26 points in the paint and got 28 points from its bench.