SATURDAY'S SCORES
@Tennessee State 80, South Carolina State 61
@Purdue Fort Wayne 81,
SIUE 76
@UT Martin 124, Champion Christian 65
@Southeast Missouri 83, Lyon College 46
@Morehead State 62, Bellarmine 55
TENNESSEE STATE 80, SOUTH CAROLINA STATE 61
NASHVILLE - The Tennessee State men's basketball team went into the half tied with South Carolina State 35-35, but took control in the second half to defeat the Bulldogs 80-61 at home on Saturday.
The Tigers (2-0) had four players score in double figures, led by Jr. Clay, who had 23 points. Zion Griffin added 23 points, nine rebounds, and four blocks while Marcus Fitzgerald Jr. chipped in 12 points and six assists.
Tennessee State took advantage of great ball movement in Saturday's game, piling up 16 assists on 28 made field goals. Fitzgerald Jr.'s six assists paced the Tigers and Justin Williams also contributed with five assists of his own.
Tennessee State did a great job disrupting South Carolina State shots in the contest, coming away with five blocks. Griffin's four rejections led the way individually for the Tigers.
After falling behind 14-11, Tennessee State went on a 6-0 run with 10:54 left in the first half, culminating in a three from Griffin, to take a 17-14 lead. South Carolina State then responded to tie things up at 35-35 heading into halftime. Tennessee State got a boost from behind the arc in the period, hitting six shots to account for 18 of its 35 points.
South Carolina State then snagged a 48-45 advantage before Tennessee State responded by going on a 7-0 run, finished off by Clay's three, to seize a 52-48 lead with 13:18 to go in the contest. The Tigers kept expanding the margin and coasted the rest of the way for the 80-61 win. Tennessee State took care of business in the paint, recording 28 of its 45 points in the lane.
SIUE 81, PURDUE FORT WAYNE 76
FORT WAYNE, Ind. - SIUE men's basketball erased a double-digit deficit, but ultimately couldn't overcome a barrage of three-point baskets as Purdue Fort Wayne outlasted the Cougars 81-76 Saturday at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.
Both SIUE and Purdue Fort Wayne are now 1-1.
The Mastodons connected on 13 of 29 three-point attempts for the game. They landed eight of 17 first-half threes for an 11-point lead at halftime.
A Purdue Fort Wayne three followed a Ray'Sean Taylor bucket to extend the Mastodon lead to 12-the largest of the game. Cougars got it back down to 11 points at the first break.
Out of the timeout, the Cougars scored the next eight points in a row to narrow the advantage to three points at 55-52. PFW pushed the lead back to five twice before the Cougars worked back within one (59-58) on a Cobie Barnes jumper. A Jonathan Kurtas putback at 6:26 tie the score at 62 and a three-pointer by Shamar Wright at 5:24 put SIUE up for the first time.
The Cougars had their largest lead of the game when back-to-back layups by Lamar and then Shamar Wright made it 69-65 with 3:29 left.
The teams traded three-point baskets with Shamar Wright knocking down a shot from the left wing to put SIUE up 72-68 with 2:33 to play. Wright was then assessed a technical foul for flopping and the subsequent free throw cut the lead back to three.
The Mastodons tied the score at 72 with a three by Damian Chong Qui with 2:02 left and then never trailed again.
The Cougars knocked down 50 percent (32-64) of their shots and we led offensively by Damarco Minor's 21 points. Minor was 9-14 shooting and was a perfect 7-7 in the first half. Shamar Wright scored 16 points and paced SIUE with eight rebounds. Taylor scored 10 points, marking the 21 time in 23 career games that he has scored in double figures.
Purdue Fort Wayne was 27-63 (43 percent) from the field including the 13 three-point baskets.
Chong Qui and Deonte Billups each scored 18 points to lead the Mastodons.
UT MARTIN 124, CHAMPION CHRISTIAN 65
MARTIN, Tenn. - Forwards Jalen Myers and Chris Nix combined for 45 points on 22-of-25 shooting in 39 minutes of playing time as the University of Tennessee at Martin coasted to its first win of the young 2022-23 campaign, 124-65 over Champion Christian.
All 11 Skyhawks who saw playing time scored today as the team’s 124 points were only five shy of the school record and were the most for a UT Martin squad since lighting up the scoreboard for 127 points against UC Clermont on Dec. 10, 2017. Today, the Skyhawks converted a program record 52 field goals in 89 tries (58.4 percent) and held an 84-16 advantage on points in the paint. The 52 field goals broke the previous school record of 51 set against Lambuth on Nov. 22, 1982 and against Union on Feb. 27, 1973.
Myers sank 11 of his 13 field goal attempts on the way to a career-highs of 23 points, six rebounds and three assists in 19 minutes. Nix was nearly perfect from the floor, shooting 11-for-12 for 22 points, four rebounds and three assists in 20 minutes.
Parker Stewart (18 points, seven rebounds, four assists, game-high four steals), KJ Simon (17 points, five rebounds, three assists, two steals) and KK Curry (11 points, team-best eight rebounds) also shined for UT Martin today.
Champion Christian was led by Xavier Hall’s 29 points as the junior guard went 7-of-11 from three-point range. The Tigers were forced into 23 turnovers and shot 35.8 percent (24-of-67) from the floor.
“From the jump, Champion Christian was ready to play and we had a casual approach but obviously we kicked it into gear and put up a lot of points on the scoreboard today,” Skyhawk head coach Ryan Ridder said. “I thought we played on our terms and we shot the ball better tonight. It was really nice to play a lot of players – we’re still trying to take every opportunity to grow.”
Simon got the high-scoring affair started with a driving layup only 15 seconds into the contest. After Champion Christian scored on its first two trips down the floor, three straight dunks (two from Curry, one from Nix) ignited UT Martin into a 6-0 run.
The score was 20-16 in favor of the Skyhawks when Myers checked into the game with exactly 12 minutes on the clock. The sophomore forward from Madison, Ala. then went off for nine consecutive UT Martin points in the span of 1:56 to help the Skyhawks extend their lead out to double digits.
UT Martin’s defense soon held the Tigers without a field goal for 4:49 of clock time, pushing its lead out to 42-22 over that stretch.
Stewart swished a trifecta at the 1:29 mark to cap off an 11-0 run and extend the Skyhawks advantage out to 30 points before UT Martin settled for a 58-29 lead at the halftime break.
Myers’ 15 points (on 7-of-7 shooting) guided four double-digit Skyhawk scorers at the half while Hall accounted for a game-high 17 points for Champion Christian.
UT Martin went on a 9-1 run early in the second half, wrapping up with a Simon dunk that nudged the Skyhawk lead out to 67-32 with a little under 18 minutes remaining.
Desmond Williams soon got hot for UT Martin. The junior guard from Montgomery, Ala. – who equaled a career-high with seven rebounds today – drilled three-pointers on three straight possessions in a 49-second span. That spurt resulted in an 84-43 Skyhawk advantage at the 12:54 mark.
Nix scored eight consecutive points for UT Martin during one stretch – including the team’s eighth dunk of the afternoon to make the score 104-49 with 6:51 to go.
The game was capped off with several highlight plays from sophomore Dylan Pumpian, who registered the first points of his collegiate career. The Marietta, Ga. native knocked down a pair of three-pointers and a pull-up jumper in the lane for eight quick points in a 2:09 span as his deep three-pointer at the 2:15 mark gave the Skyhawks their biggest lead of the contest (122-59).
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 83, LYON COLLEGE 46
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Southeast Missouri Men's Basketball (2-0, 0-0 OVC) defeated Lyon College (1-1) in their home opener at the Show-Me Center on Saturday afternoon by a final score of 83-46. The Redhawks were led by point guard Phillip Russell who chipped in 23 points and four assists.
SEMO opened with an 8-0 lead and utilized a 15-0 run to increase the Redhawks advantage to 32-8 with 3:16 remaining in the opening half.
Phillip Russell wrapped the run with back-to-back triples before a lay-up. He led the Redhawks with 15 points at the break, going 6-for-12 including 3-for-8 from beyond the arc.
The Redhawks would then head to the locker room with a 34-13 advantage.
Kobe Clark grabbed 10 rebounds to go with eight points in the initial 20 minutes. He would finish with 16 rebounds, eight points, and led the Redhawks in minutes played with 33.
SEMO shot 35 percent from the field in the first half compared to Lyon College's 5-for-24 shooting rate.
In the second half, the Redhawks were deadly from three, shooting a 45 percent clip (5-11) compared to just 13 percent in the first half.
SEMO opened the second half with a great defensive play from Center Nate Johnson. Johnson blocked the shot of Lyon's Nikola Sasaroga, and on the other end scored the first basket of the second half off a Phillip Russell assist, to give SEMO a 23-point advantage.
Nikola Sasaroga would lead the Scots with nine points in the contest, going 4-7 from the field.
Lyon would cut the SEMO lead to as low as 17 in the final 20-minutes of the game with a three pointer by Trenton Bell.
Back-to-back baskets from Josh Earley and a Phillip Russell three-pointer extended the SEMO lead back to 24, and it never got below 20 again as the Redhawks dominated the second half.
SEMO's bench delivered 30-points for the Redhawks, led by Forward Josh Earley who tallied 11 points and 12 rebounds in 16-minutes of action.
Freshman center Mason Hanback made his Redhawk debut, playing 10-minutes and registering five points.
As a team, SEMO finished the contest shooting 46.5 percent from the field (33-71), and a 24.2 percent clip from behind the arc (8-33).
MOREHEAD STATE 62, BELLARMINE 55
MOREHEAD, Ky. - -Junior guard Drew Thelwell hit a dagger 3-pointer with 36 seconds left in the fourth quarter to put Morehead State up 56-49, and the Morehead State men's basketball team earned a 62-55 win over the Bellarmine Knights at home Saturday with a lock-down defensive effort.
The Eagles (2-1) had four players score in double figures, led by Jake Wolfe, who had 14 points. Thelwell tacked on 13 points and two blocks and Mark Freeman helped out with 13 points and seven assists.
The Morehead State offense was impressive from downtown, knocking down eight threes. Wolfe hit four treys for the Eagles in the contest. Morehead State's defense held Bellarmine (1-1) to only 33 percent shooting from the field, including just 13 percent from beyond the arc.
Morehead State has still never lost to Bellarmine, now leading the series 8-0.
After falling behind 14-12, Morehead State went on an 11-0 run with 8:28 left in the first half to take a 23-14 lead. The Eagles then added three points to that lead by the end of the period and entered halftime with a 28-16 advantage. Morehead State got out and ran in the period, scoring 13 points on the break.
Morehead State kept its lead intact before going on a 6-0 run, finished off by Wolfe's three, to grow the lead to 34-18 with 17:01 to go in the contest. The Knights narrowed the margin somewhat before the game was over, but the Eagles still cruised the rest of the way for the 62-55 win. Morehead State shot well from three-point range in the second half, hitting six shots from deep to score 18 of its 34 points.