SUNDAY'S SCORES
Western Carolina 90,
Lindenwood 88 (OT)
SIUE 61, @Longwood 56
@UT Martin 80, Prairie View A&M 79
@Tennessee Tech 69, ETSU 62
@Little Rock 94, Jackson State 91
WESTERN CAROLINA 90, LINDENWOOD 88 (OT)
LAKE CHARLES, La. - The Lindenwood men's basketball team (2-4) dropped its final game of the weekend to Western Carolina (4-2) by a final of 90-88 in overtime on Sunday in Lake Charles, La.
Lindenwood and Western Carolina played a tight game early, but took a 12-8 lead at the 14:20 mark after a three-point basket by Keenon Cole. Nearly 10 minutes later, the Lions took a double-digit lead after Cole made his second three-ball of the game.
Lindenwood maintained a multi-possession lead through the remainder of the first half, and went into the break with a 38-28 advantage. The Lions shot 50 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes, while holding the Catamounts to less than 30 percent shooting.
The first two minutes of the second half saw little offense by both teams, but the Lions were able to obtain an 11-pont lead as Cam Burrell made five points in less than a minute. Western Carolina made it a 43-40 game at the 15:54 mark before Brandon Trimble put the Lions back up by six with his three pointer.
The Catamounts were able to claw back and tie the game at the end of regulation and send the game to overtime. The Lions built a four-point lead with 54 seconds left in overtime, but couldn't close out as Western Carolina came back to win 90-88.
SIUE 61, LONGWOOD 56
FARMVILLE, Va. - SIUE men's basketball completed its task Sunday, knocking off host Longwood 61-56 to win the 2022 JK54 Classic. SIUE won all three games to claim the championship.
The Cougars improved to 4-2. Longwood dropped to 3-3. The win snapped a 15-game home winning streak for Longwood, last year's Big South Champion and NCAA tournament participant. It also marks the first tournament championship for SIUE since the 2010 Las Vegas Classic. The Championship win, incidentally, also came against Longwood.
SIUE outlasted Longwood, despite neither team shooting very strongly from the field. The Cougars took an eight-point lead (35-27) into halftime on the strength of a buzzer-beating three-pointer from Ray'Sean Taylor.
The lead swelled to as many as 11 points after two free throws from Shamar Wright made it 40-29 with 18:43 left in the second half but Longwood forged a comeback. It was 47-40 Cougars when the Lancers scored the next 10 points to take a 50-47 lead with 6:03 left.
SIUE regained the edge when Longwood's Michael Christmas missed a shot, which was altered by Jonathan Kurtas, and the Damarco Minor came away with the steal. Minor went the length of the floor for the finish at the rim to put SIUE up 51-50 and the Cougars never trailed again.
DeeJuan Pruitt made it 58-54 with a pick and roll play as Minor found Pruitt diving to the rim for two points with 23 seconds left.
D.A. Houston brought Longwood back within two with a pair of free throws before Taylor buried two free throws with 10 seconds left. Lamar Wright sank a free throw with under a second to play to seal the win for SIUE.
Taylor led SIUE in scoring with 15 points. Pruitt and Shamar Wright each added 10 points for the Cougars, who shot just 34 percent from the field. The Cougars were 6-19 (32 percent) from three-point range but connected on 81 percent (25-30) of their free throws.
DeShaun Wade scored 14 points to lead Longwood, which shot just 33 percent (19-57) for the game.
UT MARTIN 80, PRAIRIE VIEW A&M 79
MARTIN, Tenn. - A game that featured 18 lead changes and nine tie scores fittingly came down to the final possession today as the University of Tennessee at Martin men's basketball squad held on for an 80-79 triumph over Prairie View A&M at the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center.
Facing a Panther squad that was coming off a win over Pac 12 opponent Washington State, the Skyhawks (3-3) took the 80-79 lead when Parker Stewart knocked down a go-ahead step-back jumper from the left wing with 1:29 to go. Neither side would score on its next two trips down the floor, setting up the dramatic final possession coming out of a timeout with 12.7 seconds left. Prairie View A&M's leading scorer Will Douglas – already accounting for 22 points in the game – was bottled up by Stewart and was forced to take an off-balance fadeaway jumper that caromed off the rim and right into Stewart's hands for the rebound as soon as the final buzzer sounded.
Stewart finished with a team-high 21 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals. He was joined in double figures scoring by Jordan Sears (season-high 18 points) and KK Curry (15 points, team-highs of eight rebounds and three steals). Chris Nix added seven points and team-highs of eight rebounds, three assists and three blocks while Desmond Williams (nine points on three treys, three assists) and Rifen Miguel (season-best eight points, four rebounds in just 15 minutes) were also key contributors for UT Martin.
Four Panthers combined for 72 of Prairie View A&M's 79 points. Following Douglas' team-high scoring effort was Jeremiah Gambrell (19 points), Kortrijk Miles (16) and Yahuza Rasas (15).
Five separate players (Sears, Curry, Stewart, Williams, Nix) combined for UT Martin's first 10 points as the Skyhawks held a six-point advantage early. After Stewart's second triple of the game at the 14:36 mark, the Panthers went on a 12-0 run and eventually took a 24-14 lead with 10:50 to go in the first half.
The Skyhawk deficit remained at 10 points with a little over seven minutes remaining before the halftime break. UT Martin soon turned things around with a 14-3 surge as Curry accounted for seven points during that stretch. A Miguel layup at the 3:47 mark made the score 32-31 in favor of the Skyhawks and although Prairie View A&M would briefly retake the lead, UT Martin led 37-36 at the intermission after Williams canned a go-ahead three-pointer with 12 seconds left in the opening half.
Curry had 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting in the first 20 minutes to guide the Skyhawks, who held the Panthers to 38.2 percent (13-of-34) shooting – including a 3-for-11 performance from three-point range. Douglas and Gambrell had 14 and 10 points, respectively, to pace Prairie View A&M.
The Panthers scored seven of the first nine points in the second half but UT Martin went on an 11-2 run – claiming a 54-49 edge following a pair of Stewart free throws with 14:38 left to play.
The Skyhawks stayed on top until six unanswered Prairie View A&M points resulted in a 60-59 Panther lead with 10:19 remaining. UT Martin stayed within four points for the next six-plus minutes of clock time until a pair of Sears free throws nudged the Skyhawks ahead by a 76-74 margin coming out of the final media timeout.
Four lead changes and two ties followed from that point forward. After Stewart's go-ahead jumper, Sears came up with a big block on a fast break layup that would have given Prairie View A&M a lead with 45 seconds remaining. That was the first of two big stops as UT Martin closed out the victory soon thereafter.
TENNESSEE TECH 69, ETSU 62
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - A total team effort lifted the Tennessee Tech men's basketball team to an impressive, 69-62 victory over in-state rival ETSU Sunday afternoon in the Hooper Eblen Center, as the Golden Eagles (2-3) took an early lead and never looked back.
The visiting Buccaneers (3-2) hit a 3-pointer with 14:21 to play in the first half to take their only lead of the contest at 7-5. Tech guard Brett Thompson promptly responded with a big triple of his own, putting the Cookeville crew back on top for good.
The Golden Eagles grew their advantage to as much as 11 in the opening stanza, but the Bucs refused to go down without a fight. ETSU closed out the final 2:33 of the first half on a 10-2 run, cutting the Tech lead to 33-30 at the break.
Right out of halftime, the visitors cut the deficit to a single point. Tech never let the Bucs back that close again, steadily pushing the lead back into double digits and, eventually, to its peak of 15 with 8:34 to play. A put-back dunk from graduate forward Jaylen Sebree forced an ETSU timeout and a loud surge through the Tech crowd.
Tech slowed down the tempo of the game the rest of the way, holding at least an eight-point advantage until ETSU's Jordan King hit an inconsequential triple with five second to play to provide the final score of 69-62. King led all scorers with 20 points in the contest.
Each of the 10 Golden Eagles that saw the court during the game scored at least two points and hauled in at least one rebound. The group combined to limit a potent Buc offense averaging 81.5 points per game and shooting 47.2 percent from the field to season-lows of 62 points and 35.2 percent efficiency from the floor.
Sebree paced the purple and gold with 15 points, all in the second half. He tacked on five rebounds and a pair of assists for good measure. Thompson flirted with a double-double, contributing 10 points and seven rebounds on 4-for-5 shooting. The junior added three boards and three steals to the mix as well.
Local Sparta native Grant Slatten chipped in nine points and a pair of steals off the bench while South Dakota transfer Erik Oliver led the Golden Eagles with seven rebounds to go along with eight points and three dimes.
LITTLE ROCK 94, JACKSON STATE 91
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Recap coming soon.