SUNDAY'S SCORES
St. Thomas 86,
SIUE 73 (Youngstown, Ohio)
UT Martin 77, North Dakota 72 (Boca Raton, Fla.)
@Mississippi State 66,
Morehead State 46
@South Dakota 83,
Tennessee State 66
ST. THOMAS 86, SIUE 73
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - A balanced, strong offensive performance wasn't enough for SIUE men's basketball Sunday. The Cougars concluded their time at the YSU/J. Arnold Wealth Management Company Tournament Sunday with an 86-73 loss to St. Thomas.
The Cougars finished 1-2 at the tournament and are now 2-4 overall. St. Thomas finished the tournament at 2-1 and are 3-3 overall.
Both teams shot the ball well Sunday, but it was the Tommies' three-point shooting, and specifically in the first half, that allowed them to pull away from the Cougars.
Both sides connected on 50 percent of their shots. SIUE tied its season high with 30 made baskets out of 60 total attempts. The 50 percent was a season-high success rate for the Cougars. SIUE was 8-18 (44 percent) from three-point range.
St. Thomas was 28-56 overall and 14-34 (41 percent) from three-point range. The Tommies were 11-21 from three in the in the first half. St. Thomas averaged just under 15 made three-pointers per game in the three-day event.
Ryan Lindberg did the majority of the damage from beyond the arc. He was 8 for 10 for 24 points, with all of his production coming in the first half to help St. Thomas to a 50-34 lead at the break.
St. Thomas took advantage of nine more opportunities at the free throw line. The Tommies were 16-19 in free throws, while SIUE was just 5-10. SIUE had three technical fouls assessed to team as well.
Ray'Sean Taylor scored 15 points to lead four SIUE players in double figures. He was 6-12 from the field and 3-5 from three-point range. Courtney Carter scored a season-high 14 points. Shaun Doss, Jr, also scored 14 points while Lamar Wright added a season-best 10 points. Shamar Wright and Cam Williams each scored seven points. Shamar added 10 rebounds, the second highest mark of his career.
SIUE shot 50 percent total and was 6 for 10 from three-point range after halftime.
UT MARTIN 77, NORTH DAKOTA 72
BOCA RATON, Fla. - A remarkably efficient offense out of the University of Tennessee at Martin men’s basketball squad set the tone for an impressive nonconference victory as the Skyhawks generated a 77-72 triumph over North Dakota this afternoon.
Playing its third game in three days at the Paradise Classic event, UT Martin showed no signs of tired legs as it knocked down 54.7 percent (29-for-53) of its field goal attempts. That included a sizzling 60 percent (9-of-15) clip from beyond the three-point arc. That marks the best performance from downtown for the Skyhawks since shooting 64 percent (16-of-25) against Tennessee Tech on Jan. 13, 2016 – a span of 173 games.
The duo of KK Curry and KJ Simon helped UT Martin (2-3) to its first road win of the season. Curry dialed up a career-best 24 points while nabbing a game-high nine rebounds. Simon collected 21 points on 9-of-13 shooting and swatted away a pair of blocks.
Mikel Henderson (nine points on three 3-pointers), Koby Jeffries (3-of-3 shooting, game-high seven assists), Chris Nix (six rebounds, game-best two blocks) and Darius Simmons (seven points) also performed well while the Skyhawks received big minutes from the true freshman trio of Josiah Morris (six points), Grant Hurst (game-high two steals) and David Kamwanga (three rebounds, one steal).
North Dakota was led by Caleb Nero’s 20 points while Tsotne Tsartsidze (13 points) and Mitchell Sueker (11 points) also scored in double figures. The swarming UT Martin defense locked down the Fighting Hawks from three-point range as North Dakota shot just 15.4 percent (4-of-26) from long distance.
The Fighting Hawks (2-3) led for the first 12-plus minutes before the Skyhawks seized momentum late in the first half. North Dakota took a six-point lead early but Simon poured in five points during a 7-1 UT Martin run. A little over two minutes later, Curry scored five straight Skyhawk points to give UT Martin its first lead of the ballgame at 21-22 with 7:22 remaining before the break.
After the Fighting Hawks battled back to take a 31-27 advantage, the Skyhawks closed out the first half on an 8-2 run to take a 35-33 lead into the locker room. Simmons canned a three-pointer to start the surge before Curry pumped in five consecutive points – including the go-ahead trey with 1:02 to go in the half.
Curry’s 13 points led all scorers at halftime while Sueker posted nine points to pace North Dakota.
The second half started with four straight Fighting Hawks points but UT Martin flipped the lead thanks to an old-fashioned three-point play from Curry and a Henderson three-ball. Henderson knocked down another trifecta a few minutes later but North Dakota unreeled four straight points to reclaim the lead.
Jeffries swished jumpers on back-to-back trips down the floor to give the Skyhawks a 50-49 advantage – a lead they wouldn’t relinquish the rest of the way.
UT Martin led 60-52 at the 8:44 mark but the Fighting Hawks clawed within a single possession (65-62) with 3:38 to go. Morris buried a big wide-open three-pointer on a set play coming out of a Skyhawk timeout and Simon added a contested triple from the right corner to give UT Martin some breathing room.
A thunderous Curry dunk on an outlet pass from Henderson gave the Skyhawks their biggest lead of the day at 75-66 with 36 ticks remaining. Simmons added a pair of free throws down the stretch to help ice the win.
MISSISSIPPI STATE 66, MOREHEAD STATE 46
STARKSVILLE, Miss. - In what turned into somewhat of a slower-paced ballgame, Morehead State's men's basketball team trailed by just one at the half at Mississippi State Sunday, but the host Bulldogs were able to pull away in the final half to hand the Eagles a 66-46 defeat at Humphrey Coliseum.
The Eagles slipped to 2-3 with the setback as the Bulldogs outscored the Eagles 37-18 in the second half.
After trailing just 29-28 at the break, Morehead State was hampered a bit by 26 percent shooting in the second half and scored 18 points, while the Bulldogs shot better than 60 percent in the final 20 minutes.
Grad transfer Tray Hollowell led the Eagles with 10 points, his fourth consecutive double-digit effort. Sophomore point guard Ta'Lon Cooper scored points and had five assists, now with 17 assists in the last two games.
Morehead State did hit eight three-pointers and shot 75 percent at the free throw line.
The Eagles trailed 20-11 in the first half but a 12-0 spurt on all three-pointers (by Hollowell, Cooper, Skyelar Potter and Drew Thelwell) gave the visitors their first lead at 23-20. MSU hit another three-pointer at the 5:19 mark of the half to lead 26-24. Mississippi State canned a three-pointer with less than a minute to go to take the one-point lead at the break and then opened the second half on an 8-0 before Hollowell ended that spurt.
The final margin was the largest for the Bulldogs.
SOUTH DAKOTA 83, TENNESSEE STATE 66
VERMILLION, S.D. - Tennessee State fell 83-66 at South Dakota on Sunday.
In the first half Tennessee State recorded the first basket of the game after Christian Brown swiped a steal and logged a fast-break layup. Jalen Dupree continued the scoring as he generated the next two field goals, extending the Tigers early lead. At the 12:13 mark, Carlos Marshall Jr. rattled off back-to-back three pointers to give TSU an eleven-point advantage, 22-11. The Coyotes attacked the basket throughout the first half and entered the bonus halfway through the first. USD went on a 12-0 run as Kruz Perrott-Hunt tallied 10 points during the scoring stretch. For the half, South Dakota cashed in 19-of-24 from the charity stripe to jump start the offense.
USD opened the second half with six unanswered points before Emmanuel Dowuona converted two free-throws to trim the deficit to single digits. Marcus Fitzgerald Jr. ignited a 9-2 scoring stretch for TSU as the freshman tallied six of the nine points to bring the Tigers within five. At the 6:30 mark, Fitzgerald Jr. scored on a contested layup followed by a technical foul on the Nashville native. After the tech, over the next minute of play, the Coyotes went on a 10-0 run to increase their lead to double digits. Tennessee State could not close the gap as they scored six points over the final 4:52.
Marshall Jr. led TSU with 16 points on 6-of-8 from the field, including a perfect 3-for-3 from long range. Kenny Cooper swiped four steals, a season-high for the transfer. In his three years at Lipscomb, the guard totaled 59 games with multiple steals.
USD converted 39-of-49 from the free-throw line as TSU had five players with at least four fouls.