TUESDAY'S SCORES
@SIUE 89, St. Ambrose 54
@Morehead State 109, Kentucky Christian 62
SIUE 89, ST. AMBROSE 54
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - SIUE men's basketball defeated St. Ambrose 89-54 Tuesday and, in the process, matched a pair of program highs. The Cougars won their fifth consecutive game tying the longest winning streak at the Division I level and earned their sixth nonconference win of the year, matching last year's team for the most nonconference wins in a season.
SIUE improved to 6-2, while playing just its second home game of the season.
The Cougars led 47-30 at the break but held St. Ambrose to 24 points on 31 percent shooting after halftime.
Four SIUE players scored in double figures led by Terrance Thompson's career-high 15 points. He was 7-9 from the field. He added four rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Ray'Sean Taylor scored 13 points and added six rebounds and four assists. Lamar Wright scored 12 points and knocked down his first three attempts from three-point range.
Damarco Minor added 10 points.
SIUE dominated St. Ambrose down low, finishing with a 40-20 edge in points in the paint. The Cougars forced 19 turnovers from the Fighting Bees which resulted in 20 SIUE points. SIUE finished with 13 steals, one shy of its season high.
SIUE tied a season-high with 19 assists and turned the ball over just nine times itself.
For the game, the Cougars connected on 31-63 shots (49 percent) and veven players off the SIUE bench scored 42 points. The Cougars outrebounded the Fighting Bees 41-33.
Amarey Wills scored 10 points and was the only St. Ambrose player in double figures.
MOREHEAD STATE 109, KENTUCKY CHRISTIAN 62
MOREHEAD, Ky. - Alex Gross notched a double-double with 23 points and 13 rebounds, and the Eagles lit up the nets to the tune of 60 percent field goal accuracy to lead the Morehead State men's basketball team to a 109-62 defeat of the Kentucky Christian Knights on FamilyLeisure.com Court at Johnson Arena Tuesday night.
The Eagles (4-4) had six players score in double figures for the third time in 2022-23, led by Gross. Branden Maughmer tacked on 14 points, and Mark Freeman helped out with 13 points, four assists and four steals. The Eagles went over 100 points for the second time this season, marking the first time since the 2018-19 season the program has multiple 100+ games.
The Morehead State offense was impressive from deep, knocking down eight threes.
Morehead State forced 19 Kentucky Christian turnovers while committing just 10 themselves in Tuesday's game. The Eagles turned those takeaways into 25 points on the other end of the floor. Freeman's four steals led the way for Morehead State.
After jumping out to an 18-15 advantage, Morehead State went on an 11-0 run with 12:53 left in the first half, culminating in a bucket from Gross, to increase its lead to 29-15. The Eagles then added 10 points to that lead by the end of the period and entered halftime with a 58-34 advantage. Morehead State did most of its first half damage in the paint, scoring 34 of its 58 points close to the basket.
Morehead State kept its lead intact before going on a 7-0 run to grow the lead to 70-39 with 15:16 to go in the contest. The Eagles kept expanding the margin and coasted the rest of the way for the 109-62 win. Morehead State got a boost from its bench in the second period, as non-starters accounted for 27 of its 51 total points.