MONDAY'S SCORES
@Tennessee State 80, Tennessee Tech 64
Murray State 72, @Eastern Illinois 46
Belmont 80, @SIUE 64
TENNESSEE STATE 80, TENNESSEE TECH 64
NASHVILLE - The Tennessee State men's basketball team defeated Tennessee Tech, 80-64, on MLK Day at the Gentry Center.
Tennessee State tallied the first basket of the game on a floater by Marcus Fitzgerald Jr., while TSU jumpstarted the offense with multiple three-pointers in the opening five minutes. Tennessee Tech scored nine unanswered points to take an early lead, 11-5. TSU responded with a 10-0 run to regain the lead, 21-18. Dedric Boyd and Fitzgerald Jr. drained three consecutive long-range jumpers during the stretch. The Tigers controlled the back-end of the half as they totaled nine three-pointers in the opening stanza.
The Tigers opened the second half with a 9-4 scoring stretch as four different Tigers contributed to the run. Midway through the half, TSU went on a six-point run to extend the lead to 68-51. The Golden Eagles trimmed the deficit to 11 following a 10-4 run, in which Keishawn Davidson registered four straight points for TTU.
Carlos Marshall Jr. scored a game-high 19 points and matched the team-high of six rebounds. Marcus Fitzgerald Jr. recorded 18 points on 50% (6-for-12) from the field.
Dedric Boyd logged 16 points and six rebounds as he drained a perfect 4-of-4 from deep in the first half. Kenny Cooper led the team with six assists, five of which came in the first half.
MURRAY STATE 72, EASTERN ILLINOIS 46
CHARLESTON, Ill. - The Murray State Racers moved to 5-0 in the Ohio Valley Conference with a 72-46 win over the Eastern Illinois Panthers at Lantz Arena in Charleston, Illinois. The win gave the Racers a five-game winning streak as they improved to 15-2.
A big part of the game story cold was the Murray State career 3-point record that had been held by MSU Hall of Famer Isaiah Canaan who starred for the Racers from 2009-13. Tevin Brown was three 3-pointers from breaking that record when he hit his first three of the day only 45 seconds into the game. He tied Canaan at 304 with another 3-pointer with 4:45 remaining in the half.
KJ Williams, who finished with 18 points, had a big first half hitting 6-of-9 from the field and the Racers used a 23-11 rebound advantage to grab the lead over the Panthers 33-24 at the intermission.
Brown's big moment held over into the second half with 16:21 remaining on a 3-pointer from the top of the key. The ball swished through the net and Brown had 305 threes at Murray State. He finished the game 5-of-11 and had a game high 19 points. With the Murray State record of 307 and a lot of basketball yet to be played, Brown has the OVC record of 319 in his reach, set by Austin Peay's Joe Sibbitt from 1994-98.
The Racers' defensive effort was stellar against the Panthers. EIU shot 29 percent from the field (14-of-49) and 26 percent from the 3-point line (5-of-18). MSU hit 51 percent from the field (28-of-55) and 39 percent from the 3-point line (9-of-23). MSU won the rebound battle 42-26 and had 14 offensive rebounds. DJ Burns grabbed 10 rebounds to lead MSU and Justice Hill dished out six assists.
BELMONT 80, SIUE 64
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - Behind career nights from Grayson Murphy and Luke Smith, Belmont University men's basketball defeated SIUE, 80-64, Monday night.
Murphy delivered his second career triple-double with 11 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists while Smith scored 17 of his season-high 23 points in the first half. It marked the 22nd triple-double in OVC history and the 13th at the Division I level in 2021-22.
A Smith 3-pointer and a Ben Sheppard basket gave Belmont a 12-5 lead six minutes in. Following a DeeJuan Pruitt conventional 3-point play, Smith scored eight consecutive points to increase the Belmont lead to 37-25 with 3:27 left in the first half. Smith added two more 3-point field goals in the final two minutes of the half as Belmont led 46-32 at halftime.
Belmont (14-4, 4-1 OVC) shot 46 percent (15-of-33) from the field in the opening 20 minutes - including 8-of-19 from 3-point distance - and committed only two turnovers.
SIUE got as close as 61-52 on a Shamar Wright basket, but eight points from Will Richard and five clutch points from JaCobi Wood pushed the margin back to 18, 76-58, with 5:18 remaining.
All told, Belmont shot 51 percent (30-of-59) from the field; SIUE entered play 31st nationally in field goal percentage defense holding its opposition to 39 percent shooting. Belmont forced 20 turnovers and held SIUE to three second chance points.
Murphy added five steals. Richard had 19 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals, while Sheppard scored 13.
Pruitt led SIUE (7-9, 1-2 OVC) with 14 points.