SATURDAY'S SCORES
Eastern Kentucky 80, @Austin Peay 75
Belmont 90, @UT Martin 69
@Eastern Illinois 87, Tennessee Tech 81
Morehead State 61, @Murray State 56
@Southeast Missouri 83, Tennessee State 79 (2OT)
EASTERN KENTUCKY 80, AUSTIN PEAY 75
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - Freshman Wendell Green Jr. scored a career-high 30 points to lead the Eastern Kentucky University men’s basketball to an 80-75 road win at Austin Peay on Saturday evening at the Dunn Center.
Green Jr. was 9-of-17 from the field and 5-of-7 from deep in the win. He also grabbed five rebounds. His 30 points are the second-most by any player in the OVC this season.
Junior Brandon Knapper came off the bench to tally 15 points, while fellow junior Tre King had 13 points and seven rebounds. Sophomore Michael Moreno contributed eight points, 11 rebounds and four steals.
Green Jr. went 5-of-5 from three-point range in the first half to spark the Colonels. A triple from Moreno gave EKU its largest lead of the game, 42-28, with 2:34 left in the first half.
A pair of free throws by Austin Peay’s Alec Woodard cut the Colonels’ lead to 10 at the break, 42-32.
APSU opened the second half on a 10-2 run and pulled back to within two, 44-42, following a three-point play by Terry Taylor with 16:40 remaining in the game.
Eastern, however, never let the Govs take the lead in the second half. When redshirt freshman Curt Lewis stormed down the lane and dunked it with 8:17 on the clock, the Colonel lead was pushed back out to eight, 67-59.
Austin Peay made one final push, making it a one-point game, 76-75, on a pair of foul shots by Woodard with 21 seconds on the clock.
Knapper, however, converted two clutch free throws for EKU, and Taylor missed a potential game-tying three-pointer on the other end.
Green Jr., appropriately, sank two free throws to ice it with six seconds on the clock.
EKU shot 46 percent (25-of-55) from the field and 50 percent (11-of-22) from three-point range to secure the victory. The Colonels stifled the Govs to 18 percent (4-of-22) shooting from deep.
Woodard led four Givs in double figures with 17 points.
BELMONT 90, UT MARTIN 69
MARTIN, Tenn. - Behind 21 points from sophomore Ben Sheppard, Belmont University men's basketball defeated UT Martin, 90-69, Saturday.
Sheppard, who tied his career-high in points set earlier this week in victory over Murray State, went 9-for-14 from the field and added seven rebounds and a career-high six steals.
Sheppard was in double figures six minutes into the game as Belmont jumped out to a 20-6 lead. Five points from sophomore EJ Bellinger and a basket from freshman JaCobi Wood increased the Belmont lead to 34-15 with 4:01 left in the first half.
Belmont (10-1, 4-0 OVC) led 44-24 at halftime. Belmont shot 62 percent (16-for-26) from the field in the opening 20 minutes while limiting UT Martin to five first-half field goals.
A post score from freshman Frank Jakubicek extended the lead to 57-29 with 14:49 remaining. All told, Belmont shot 60 percent (34-for-57) from the field - including 11-for-25 from 3-point distance.
Wood added 17 points while junior Nick Muszynski had 13. Freshman Even Brauns had nine points and five rebounds. Bellinger added a career-high six assists.
Cameron Holden led UT Martin (3-4, 1-2 OVC) with 16 points.
Belmont has won 22 of its last 23 games.
EASTERN ILLINOIS 87, TENNESSEE TECH 81
CHARLESTON, Ill. - Eastern Illinois men’s basketball built a 15 point lead early in the second half before holding on to beat Tennessee Tech, 87-81, in Ohio Valley Conference action Saturday afternoon at First Mid Court at Lantz Arena.
EIU improved to 4-5 overall, 1-1 in the OVC. TTU fell to 1-10 overall, 1-3 in the OVC.
After a seesaw battle for most of the first half, EIU closed the half on an 8-3 run as the Panthers led 45-38 at the half. Kashawn Charles knocked down a pair of 3-pointers during the run as he finished 6-of-6 from the floor and 4-of-4 from 3-point range scoring 16 points.
The Panthers then went on a 12-2 run to open the second half with baskets by Josiah Wallace and George Dixon capping the run as the Panthers led 57-42 with 16:56 remaining. Wallace finished with 19 points in his return to the EIU line-up after missing Wednesday’s game at Eastern Kentucky due to COVID-19 protocols.
EIU would keep the lead at 15 for the next two and a half minutes with Wallace answering baskets by Tennessee Tech on two occasions.
The Golden Eagles chipped away at the lead closing the Panthers lead to 63-58 with 12:20 to play following a 10-0 run. Keishawn Davidson and Shandon Goldman both drained 3-pointers during the run for TTU. Davidson (12 pts) and Goldman (13 pts) were two of the four TTU players to finish in double figures.
A 3-pointer by Jr. Clay would make it a one possession game with 10:08 to play at 68-65 before Wallace answered with a 3-pointer for EIU.
Damaria Franklin brought Tennessee Tech within two points with a lay-up with 7:53 to play making it, 73-71. Marvin Johnson’s dunk off a TTU turnover with 6:37 to play put the Panthers back up four and Tennessee Tech would never get within one possession the remainder of the game. Johnson posted his second double-double of the season with 19 points and ten assists.
Franklin finished with 25 points to lead all scorers while Clay added 19 for TTU.
The Panthers played without senior guard Mack Smith who was out with an injury suffered late in the EKU game. On Wednesday, Smith set the NCAA record for consecutive games with a made 3-pointer at 89 straight.
MOREHEAD STATE 61, MURRAY STATE 56
MURRAY, Ky. - Led by a career-high 19 points from junior guard DeVon Cooper, Morehead State men's basketball led nearly wire-to-wire and ended two long streaks at Murray State Saturday night as the Eagles upended the Racers 61-56 at the CFSB Center.
The Eagles (5-6/2-2 OVC) halted a 13-game losing streak at Murray State (4-5/1-3 OVC) since Jan. 23, 2003 and put a halt to Murray State's 25-game home winning streak. The last time the Racers fell on their home court was to Belmont in 2019, the fifth longest current streak in the nation. The last time an Eagle team beat Murray State in Murray, all-time leading scorer Ricky Minard had 28 points.
Morehead State led for 36:19 of the contest and only trailed in the first three minutes of the night for a total of 59 seconds.
Helping out Cooper in the scoring column was the other Cooper on the roster, sophomore guard Ta'lon Cooper. He scored a season high 12 points, while junior forward LJ Bryan got the starting assignment with freshman forward Johni Broome out. Bryan scored a season-best 10 - all in the first half.
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 83, TENNESSEE STATE 79 (2OT)
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - DQ Nicholas scored a season-high 21 points and made a career-best 17 free throws to lead Southeast Missouri (3-6, 1-2) to its first Ohio Valley Conference win, a thrilling 83-79 double overtime victory over Tennessee State (1-6, 0-4) Saturday.
SEMO tied a school record with 40 made free throws in 51 attempts and it needed all of those to pull out its gritty win tonight.
The Redhawks, who played their fourth overtime game in nine contests this year, overcame a nine-point deficit with 2:03 left to play in regulation.
Down, 65-56, Chris Harris made a 3-pointer and added a couple free throws to bring the Redhawks within four. Then, Nicholas made a layup, was fouled and converted a 3-point play to cut the Tigers lead to one.
After Yusuf Mohamed split two free throws to put TSU ahead, 66-64, Nicholas hit a pair of big free throws with 36 seconds left to tie things up at 66-66. Marcus Fitzgerald's 3-pointer was off the mark on the Tigers final possession forcing overtime.
Nolan Taylor muscled his way to scoring five-straight points and gave SEMO a 72-69 advantage with 2:14 to go in the first overtime period. TSU, however, responded with three free throws to tie the game at 72-72. Harris managed to get a 3-pointer off just before the buzzer sounded, but his shot came off the front of the rim.
SEMO led, 78-74, following two free throws by Harris with 1:52 remaining in the final overtime period. Mohamed later made it an 80-79 game on his free throw with 20 seconds on the clock.
Taylor split two free throws and Nana Akenten calmly buried his pair of free throws with one second left to put the Redhawks win on ice.
Tied, 16-16, with 8:28 remaining in the first half, SEMO scored nine of the game's next 11 points to build a seven-point cushion. The Redhawks scored seven of their points at the free throw line and Jordan Love completed a 3-point play to put the Redhawks ahead, 25-18, at the 5:38 mark.
TSU answered with a 10-3 run and knotted things up at 28-28 on a jump hook by Mohamed. Harris then nailed a 3-pointer at the buzzer to send SEMO into the locker room with a 31-28 edge at the half.
Eric Reed, Jr. scored the first points of the game when he made a layup, was fouled and converted a 3-point play a little over a minute into the contest. The lead was the Redhawks first since the 1:12 mark of the first half in their league opener vs. UT Martin on Dec. 18.
SEMO also had five blocks in the first half, its most in an opening stanza of basketball this season.
Nicholas, who scored over 20 points for the fourth time in his career, led four Redhawk starters in double figures. He missed only two free throws, going 17-of-19, for the game. Nicholas also grabbed seven rebounds, dished out five assists and had three steals.
Harris followed with 17 points, made three 3-pointers and was a near-perfect 6-of-7 at the free throw line. Taylor and Reed, Jr. added 14 and 13 points, respectively.
SEMO outscored TSU, 40-22, at the free throw line. The Redhawks and Tigers were 11th and 12th in the OVC in free throw percentage entering tonight's matchup.
Fitzgerald and Ravel Moody each scored 18 points to lead TSU. Mason Green contributed 10 points, as well.
SEMO ended a five-game losing streak en route to giving Brad Korn his first career OVC victory as a head coach. Additionally, Redhawks started a New Year with a win for the first time since 2013 (86-84, vs. Austin Peay on Jan. 3).