WEDNESDAY'S SCORES
@Belmont 76, Chattanooga 68
@Murray State 118, Tennessee Wesleyan 48
@#22 Xavier 86,
Morehead State 63
@Southern Illinois 80,
Southeast Missouri 55
BELMONT 76, CHATTANOOGA 68
NASHVILLE - Behind 23 points from Ben Sheppard, Belmont University men's basketball defeated Chattanooga, 76-68, Wednesday from the Curb Event Center.
In a meeting of two of the nation's top programs outside the power conferences, Belmont earned a valuable victory over a Chattanooga program ranked No. 31 in the NCAA NET rankings and picked to win the Southern Conference.
After Silvio De Sousa scored Chattanooga's first four points, Sheppard spearheaded an 8-0 Belmont reply as the hosts methodically claimed control.
With active, unified defense, Belmont limited Chattanooga to two made field goals over a seven-minute stretch of the first half.
A Grayson Murphy score punctuated a 14-2 run and gave Belmont a 34-17 lead with 3:50 left in the first half. JaCobi Wood found Nick Muszynski for a slam to close the half as Belmont led 39-23 at halftime.
Belmont (9-3) shot 64 percent (16-of-25) from the field in the opening 20 minutes, against a Chattanooga team which entered among national leaders in field goal percentage defense. Furthermore, Belmont limited Chattanooga to 8-of-27 shooting in the first half, while forcing seven turnovers.
Four different Bruins scored to open the second half - including strong bench contributions from Even Brauns and Michael Shanks - but elevated Chattanooga defense led by Malachi Smith and uncharacteristic Belmont turnovers kept the Bruins from completely breaking free. A De Sousa basket got Chattanooga within 53-45 with 10:15 left.
Determined baskets from Muszynski and Sheppard pushed the Belmont lead back to 12. Chattanooga would get as close as 64-57 with 5:17 left on a KC Hankton 3-pointer, but Belmont responded with a Luke Smith 3-pointer and four Sheppard points.
All told, Belmont shot 60 percent (28-of-47) from the field - including 8-of-20 from 3-point distance. Belmont outrebounded Chattanooga, 28-26.
In addition to Sheppard, Smith scored 15 points, while Muszynski had 14 points and seven rebounds. Murphy had six points, eight rebounds and six assists.
Malachi Smith led Chattanooga (9-2) with 27 points.
Belmont's 76 points represents the most scored against Chattanooga this season; the Mocs had only allowed one previous opponent to score over 70 points.
MURRAY STATE 118, TENNESSEE WESLEYAN 48
MURRAY, Ky. - The Murray State Racers carried a strong start to 118-48 victory Wednesday over the Tennessee Wesleyan Bulldogs at the CFSB Center in Murray, Kentucky.
The Racers (9-1) have won six in a row overall and posted the second highest winning margin in CFSB Center history. The 70-point win matches the 106-36 win over Spalding (2018) and is behind only the 78-point a year ago (2020) against Greenville 173-95.
Six players reached double-figure scoring for the Racers including KJ Williams who had 19 points on 8-of-11 from the field, while Trae Hannibal added 18 on 7-of-8 shooting. DaQuan Smith added 15 points as well as four steals and the Racers got 12 points each from Nicholas McMullen and Jackson Sivills. McMullen made it his first career double-double at Murray State with 10 rebounds. Smith's four steals marked his MSU career-best.
#22 XAVIER 86, MOREHEAD STATE 63
CINCINNATI - Playing its second top-25 opponent this season, Morehead State men's basketball outscored the No. 22 Xavier Musketeers by five in the second half, scoring 44 points, but a 20-4 first-half run by the team on their home court proved to be too much to overcome as the Eagles fell 86-63 at the Cintas Center Wednesday night.
MSU (6-5) fell behind 47-19 at the halftime break, but forced X into eight mistakes in the final half and outscored the Big East Musketeers (10-1) 44-39.
Second-year center Johni Broome collected his 19th career double-double (and sixth this season) with game-highs of 20 points and 12 rebounds, marking his second consecutive 20-point effort. MSU also got a career-best five three-pointers made and a career-high 19 points from grad transfer guard Tray Hollowell.
But, once again an opponent was able to separate itself from the Eagles by burying a plethora of three-pointers. Xavier finished with 11 triples and shot 49 percent overall.
Xavier continually built upon a lead in the first half and before the Eagles knew it, they trailed by 30. But, MSU scored the first six in the second half and later had the margin back down to as low as 17 (56-39) with 12:24 to play.
The Eagles finished at 41 percent (27-of-66) on shooting for the night but could only manage to hit 4-of-6 free throws while seeing the Musketeers knock down 17 of 18 free tosses.
MSU also had 31 rebounds, including seven offensive grabs by Broome.
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS 80, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 55
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Southeast Missouri (5-6) scored a season-low 55 points in an 80-55 loss to longtime rival Southern Illinois (6-4) Wednesday night during the 119th all-time meeting between the schools.
SEMO fell to its sixth loss against a SIU team which shot 58.7 percent (27-of-46) from the field and buried 12 three-pointers for the night.
The Redhawks started strong scoring six of the game's first eight points and led 6-2 after Chris Harris drove the lane for a layup with 17:15 left in the opening half.
The Salukis, after making seven of their first nine field goals, stayed hot throughout the half shooting 54.5 percent (12-of-22) en route to its 29-23 halftime advantage.
SIU capitalized on a stretch where SEMO missed eight of nine shots. As a result, the Salukis used an 8-0 run to build a 24-13 lead, its biggest of the first half. Nate Johnson's turnaround jumper ended the Redhawks cold spell at the 5:56 mark.
The Salukis didn't let up in the second half and shot even better at a 64 percent clip. SIU made 16-of-25 field goals and drained 10 of its 3-pointers in the final 20 minutes.
SEMO made a pair of 3-pointers in the first two minutes of the second stanza and pulled to within three on each of those occasions. Phillip Russell and Eric Reed, Jr. each made it a one-possession game at the time.
SIU, however, answered both of those shots with 3-pointers of its own and went on to push its lead to 22 points before closing out its victory.
Steven Verplancken led SIU with a game-high 17 points and had five of the Salukis' treys. Marcus Domask added 16 points, Ben Coupet Jr. had 15 and Kyler Filewich pitched in 12.
The Salukis, who came into the game second-to-last in the Missouri Valley Conference in free throw percentage (.650), made 12-of-14 for 85.7 percent at the charity stripe.
Harris led three Redhawks in double figures with 12 points, while Russell and Reed, Jr. finished with 10 apiece.
SEMO shot 37.3 percent (22-of-59) from floor.