THURSDAY'S SCORES
Belmont 80, @Morehead State 67
@Eastern Kentucky 83, Tennessee State 62
Austin Peay 78, @SIUE 60
@Tennessee Tech 78, UT Martin 65
@Eastern Illinois 63, Murray State 60
@Jacksonville State 65, Southeast Missouri 58
BELMONT 80, MOREHEAD STATE 67
MOREHEAD, Ky. - Belmont University men's basketball defeated Morehead State, 80-67, Thursday night.
Sophomore Grayson Murphy flirted with the program's first triple-double of the NCAA Division I era before finishing with 16 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. Sophomore Adam Kunkel scored 10 of his 16 points in the second half.
Sophomore Nick Muszynski added 11 points, but with 4:56 remaining in the first half he left the game after sustaining an apparent ankle injury following a transition 3-point field goal. Muszynski was held out the final 25 minutes of the game as a precaution, per the Belmont coaching staff.
Belmont (21-7, 12-3 OVC) held Morehead State scoreless the final 5:37 of the first half, outscoring the Eagles 14-0 to lead 34-25 at halftime.From there, Belmont shot 60 percent from the field in the second half, riding timely offense from Murphy and Kunkel.
Morehead State got within 54-51 on a Djimon Henson layin, but a layin from senior Seth Adelsperger capped an 8-0 Belmont run to push the margin back to 11.
Consecutive 3-point field goals from junior Nick Hopkins and sophomore Tate Pierson gave Belmont a 72-59 lead with 4:24 left.
10 Bruins scored as Belmont forced 17 Morehead State turnovers.
Tyzhaun Claude led Morehead State (12-16, 6-9 OVC) with 14 points.
EASTERN KENTUCKY 83, TENNESSEE STATE 62
RICHMOND, Ky. - The Eastern Kentucky University men’s basketball opened the game on a 30-3 run and never looked back on its way to an 83-62 win over Tennessee State on Thursday night at McBrayer Arena.
With the victory, EKU (14-14, 11-4 OVC) wrapped up a top-four seed and a first-round bye in the upcoming OVC Tournament.
Senior Ty Taylor led all players in the game with 22 points. In doing so, the grad transfer reached 1,000 points for his collegiate career.
Three other Colonels reached double figures on the night. Sophomore Tre King had 17 points and a team-best seven rebounds. Sophomore Jomaru Brown tallied 16 points, six steals, four assists and four rebounds. Junior JacQuess Hobbs came off the bench to finish with a season-high 11 points and four rebounds.
Junior Russhard Cruickshank opened the game with a three-pointer, and less than two minutes later a triple by Taylor made it 16-0 in favor of the Colonels.
A three-pointer from the corner by senior Lachlan Anderson made it 30-3 at the 11:59 mark of the first half. The Colonels took a 24-point lead, 53-29, into the locker room at halftime.
TSU (16-12, 8-7 OVC) slowly chipped away at the lead and pulled to within 14, 72-58, on a layup by Donnie Malone with just over five minutes left; however, a dunk by King sparked EKU, and the Colonels scored the game’s final seven points to finish off the crucial victory.
Wesley Harris led Tennessee State with 18 points. Shakem Johnson chipped in a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds.
EKU held a huge advantage – 22-10 – in the turnover battle, and the Colonels converted those turnovers into 25 points.
King, meanwhile, led Eastern to a 48-28 advantage in the paint.
AUSTIN PEAY 78, SIUE 60
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - Austin Peay topped SIUE 78-60 and are now in sole possession of the Ohio Valley Conference lead, on the back of a wire-to-wire win that saw the Govs band together defensively and put away their upstart hosts.
At 19-9, the Govs are one win away from back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time since 2006-07 and 2007-08.
It didn't take long for the Governor offense to get in gear—an 8-0 run, featuring a heavy dose of Evan Hinson, put Austin Peay up 15-4 less than six minutes into the contest.
A difference-maker emerged in the form of Matheus Silveira off the bench. On back-to-back trips, Silveira earned and-one opportunities and hit all three first-half buckets, posting a season-high seven points in just over four minutes of action—he finished with nine for the game.
The Governors maintained a comfortable if not commanding lead for most of the half—from the 14-minute mark onward, Austin Peay never led by more than 15 points or less than seven. Most impressive was the variety of the contributions. Hinson got involved. Silveira picked up big minutes. Terry Taylor and Jordyn Adams were reliable options, as is custom. Six Govs scored at least five points in the first half and Austin Peay headed into halftime with a comfortable 44-31 lead on their hosts.
SIU Edwardsville spent much of the second half hanging around that same 10-point deficit, annoyingly refusing to be put away. A 9-4 Cougar run even made it an eight-point game with eight minutes to play.
And then the Govs did what good teams do—they put the game away. A 10-0 Austin Peay run, aided by threes from Hinson and Alec Woodard, ballooned the lead to a game-high 18 points with 3:33 to play and at that point, the only part of the game remaining to be determined was the final deficit. Four Govs finished in double figures, led by Eli Abaev for the first time in his career with 19 points. Taylor, Adams and Hinson also reached double figures.
While often there is an offensive catalyst, in this contest the defense set the tone. Only one Cougar reached double figures as a swarming Austin Peay unit held SIU Edwardsville to 38.9 percent from the floor and 25.0 percent from beyond the arc.
TENNESSEE TECH 78, UT MARTIN 65
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Cade Crosland came off the bench to score 15 points and Tennessee Tech turned back Tennessee-Martin 78-65 on Thursday night.
Crosland did all his damage from beyond the 3-point stripe, sinking 5 of 11 attempts for the Golden Eagles (8-20, 5-10 Ohio Valley Conference). Jr. Clay scored 14 points, but he made just 3 of 11 shots -- 1 of 7 from distance. Clay was 7 of 8 at the foul line and added six assists and three steals. Freshman Tujautae Williams had 11 points and five rebounds, while freshman Keishawn Davidson scored 10 with six assists. Amadou Sylla pitched in with nine points and nine rebounds off the bench.
Miles Thomas hit two 3-pointer and scored 19 to pace the Skyhawks (8-18, 4-11). Thomas added seven assists. Reserve Quintin Dove totaled 17 points and 12 rebounds for his seventh double-double of the season. Derek Hawthorne Jr. scored 13 but made just 5 of 15 shots. Hannes Polla came off the bench to score 10 on 5-of-6 shooting.
EASTERN ILLINOIS 63, MURRAY STATE 60
CHARLESTON, Ill. - Eastern Illinois trailed by 27 points with 11:45 remaining in the game on Thursday night before storming back to pick up a dramatic 63-60 win over Murray State.
Josiah Wallace sank what proved to be the game winning shot with 2 seconds left in the game as the Panthers outscored the Racers 40-10 over the final 11:30 of the game.
EIU became just the seventh Division I team to win a game they trailed by at least 27 points in the second half.
EIU improved to 13-14 overall, 6-9 in the OVC. Murray State fell to 19-8 overall, 12-3 in the OVC.
Devin Gilmore scored on a lay-up with 11:45 to play to put the Racers up 50-23 as EIU scored only six points in the first eight and a half minutes of the second half.
Kashawn Charles triggered the long run with a 3-pointer with 11:23 to play. EIU then cut it to a 19-point lead with 6:09 left with Jordan Skipper-Brown converting a pair of free throws.
Wallace cut the margin to single digits with a jumper with 2:34 to play as he scored all 20 of his points during the final Panthers run.
After another Wallace bucket cut the margin to six, DaQuan Smith drained a 3-pointer for the Racers to push the lead back to nine with 1:56 to play.
Wallace then scored nine of the Panthers final 14 points with Shareef Smith adding a lay-up and Charles tying the game at 60-60 with 40 seconds left.
EIU shot 53 percent in the second half as four Panthers finished in double figures. Wallace had 20 followed by George Dixon with 16 and Charles with 13. Mack Smith had ten including a pair of 3-pointers as he extended his consecutive games streak with a made 3-pointer to 76 games.
Murray State was led by Tevin Brown and Jaiveon Eaves both with 13 points. The Racers led 32-17 at the half. Anthony Smith just missed a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds.
JACKSONVILLE STATE 65, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 58
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - De'Torrion Ware's second double-double in as many games helped the Jacksonville State men's basketball team to a 65-58 win over Southeast Missouri on Thursday at Pete Mathews Coliseum.
The Gamecocks (11-17, 6-9 OVC) bounced back from their loss at SEMO (7-21, 3-12 OVC) from earlier in the year to even the season series with the help of 16 points from Ware and 15 points from Jacara Cross.
Sophomore Maros Zeliznak logged nearly 19 minutes, scoring six points, going 3-for-3 from the floor, and swatting two SEMO shots.
The win puts Jacksonville State in a three-way tie for sixth place in the Ohio Valley Conference, tied with Eastern Illinois and Morehead State, while SEMO fell to last with only three games remaining in the regular season.
Junior Kayne Henry turned in a big first half to help the Gamecocks to a 31-27 lead at the break. The transfer tallied 12 points and five rebounds in the opening half and sparked an 8-0 run to put JSU up early.
With Jax State trailing by six, Henry hit a couple of free throws to pull the SEMO advantage down to four. He followed up the foul shots with a layup and two 3-pointers, and added on another pair of free throws after a SEMO basket to score all 12 points in a three-minute stretch.
The Redhawks went on a 7-0 run of their own, but it wasn't enough to overcome the offensive burst from Henry. Ware and Henry each hit a basket in the final minute of the period to keep Southeast Missouri down four.
The Redhawks threatened early in the second, jumping out to a 9-2 run to begin the new period. Quatarrius Wilson scored six points in just over a minute to push SEMO ahead 36-35 for its first lead since the 15:05 mark of the first.
Southeast held the lead for a little over a minute before a pair of Cross free-throws put the Gamecocks back out front.
Cross totaled nine points in the second, while Ware hit one basket and hit all eight of his free throws in the final 20 minutes to squash the visitors' comeback. On the defensive end, Zeliznak played eight minutes, blocked two shots and grabbed two rebounds.