THURSDAY'S SCORES
@Morehead State 75, Tennessee Tech 68
Murray State 65, @Austin Peay 53
@UT Martin 84, Southeast Missouri 63
Belmont 88, @Tennessee State 61
Eastern Illinois at SIUE (postponed until February 21)
MOREHEAD STATE 75, TENNESSEE TECH 68
MOREHEAD, Ky. - Second-year freshman center Johni Broome scored a season-high 25 points and added 14 rebounds and five blocked shots, while third-year sophomore point guard Ta'Lon Cooper dished out nine assists to go along with 10 points and a career-high five steals as the Morehead State men's basketball team shook off Tennessee Tech for a 75-68 win at Johnson Arena in a Thursday afternoon matinee moved up to avoid incoming winter weather.
The Eagles won their 19th consecutive home game as they rank in the top four in the nation in Division I in consecutive home victories. MSU (18-6/10-1 OVC) also swept the season series from Tech, defeating the Golden Eagles (5-17/2-7 OVC) again just three days after knocking off TTU on its home floor.
Broome, who leads the OVC in rebounds and blocks, nearly accomplished a double-double just in the final 20 minutes with 19 points and eight rebounds on 9-of-13 shooting. His five rejections also marked the 12th game this season with 5+ swat-aways, upping his season total to 89 blocks. He now has 16 double-doubles this season and 29 for his career.
Cooper, who already has two point-assist double-doubles this year, nearly dd it again with just one assist short. He still upped his OVC-high assist total to 153, which is now the ninth-best single-season total in program history.
But, those two weren't the only Eagles to contribute to the win. Junior guard Skyelar Potter was 5-of-7 from the floor and had his seventh straight double-figure effort with 14 points. Junior transfer Jake Wolfe scored in double digits for just the third time this season with 11 points while also getting two steals and two assists.
The home team finished at 48 percent from the field and also hit 11 of 16 free throws. After being out-rebounded in four of the last five contests, MSU also got back to its usual business on the glass, out-rebounding TTU 43-31.
A fast 5-0 start for the Eagles didn't quite hold up as TTU fought back. While never taking a lead, the Golden Eagles kept it close. MSU ended with a 31-25 halftime advantage.
MSU ended up pushing its lead to as much as nine (39-30) in the final half but then saw Tech fight all the way back to eventually tie the game 57-all with just 6:26 remaining. Broome connected on a bucket and an and-1 foul shot and scored the Eagles' next bucket too, while Potter drained a three-ball at the end of the shot clock, and MSU led again by six. Tech never got closer than four (72-68) in the final 15 seconds.
Jr. Clay paced the visiting Golden Eagles with 22 points.
MURRAY STATE 65, AUSTIN PEAY 53
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - The Murray State Racers posted their 11th-straight victory in a 65-53 win over the Austin Peay Governors Thursday at the Winfield Dunn Center in Clarksville, Tennessee. The win pushed the Racers to 11-0 as the sole leader in the Ohio Valley Conference.
With the Racers (21-2) set to join the Missouri Valley Conference this summer and Austin Peay headed to the A-Sun Conference, this game marked the final meeting for the two at the Govs' home court as OVC members. APSU returns the game to Murray State's CFSB Center for a national TV game on ESPNU (Feb. 17).
Tevin Brown, the OVC career record holder in 3-point baskets scored 17 points on 3-of-8 from long range with a team-high eight rebounds. Justice Hill added 12 points with six turnovers and zero turnovers and MSU got 10 points from DJ Burns and four steals.
In the first half, down 16-7, the Racers put together a 28-15 run in the final 12:05 of the half for a 35-31 lead.
Coming out of the halftime intermission, the Racers began the second half with a pair of 3-pointers from Brown for a 12-point lead, their largest of the game at the 14:58 mark (44-32). With 9:05 remaining Austin Peay cut the MSU lead to five points at 47-42, but the Racers answered with back-to-back layups by DJ Burns for a 51-42 lead at 7:20 left. The Racers defensive effort held the Govs to only one field goal in the final 6:54 and they finished the game on a 18-6 run.
MSU held Austin Peay to 8-of-20 from the field for 40 percent and forced the Govs into 10 overs. For the game, the Racers scored 23 points off of 18 APSU turnovers. The Racers won the rebound battle 34-28 and had 12 offensive rebounds that created 18 second-chance points.
UT MARTIN 84, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 63
MARTIN, Tenn. - An extended run at the end of the second half helped the University of Tennessee at Martin men's basketball squad put away Southeast Missouri in convincing fashion, winning 84-63 at the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center.
Although the Skyhawks (8-15, 4-7 Ohio Valley Conference) held a lead for 29:33 today, it was a five-point contest with six minutes remaining. UT Martin then wrapped up the game on a 17-1 run, largely aided by a sizzling stretch where KJ Simon went off for 10 points in a span of 2:53.
Simon concluded the day with a game-high 19 points in only 17 minutes as the junior guard from Orlando, Fla. was plagued by foul trouble for a majority of the contest. He knocked down seven of his nine field goal tries and swatted a pair of shots for his 10th multi-block performance of the season for the Skyhawks, who outrebounded the Redhawks by a 44-25 margin while canning 45.5 percent (10-of-22) of their three-point attempts.
Mikel Henderson generated 17 huge points off the bench – shooting 5-for-8 from three-point land. Bernie Andre tallied his fourth double-double in the last five games (14 points, season-high 12 rebounds) while the frontcourt tandem of KK Curry and Chris Nix posted identical stat lines of 10 points, eight rebounds and two blocks.
Southeast Missouri was held to 37 percent shooting today, slipping to 30 percent (9-of-30) in the final 20 minutes. Manny Patterson and Eric Reed, Jr. each scored 12 points while Nygal Russell and Nana Akenten both provided 10 points for the Redhawks, who fall to 9-13 overall and 4-5 in OVC play.
The Skyhawks started off slow as Southeast Missouri jumped out to a 7-0 lead. Simon got UT Martin on the scoreboard with a driving layup at the 15:35 mark.
Five of the Skyhawks' next six field goals came from long distance, including a trio of trifectas from Henderson – the last of which provided UT Martin with its first lead of the day at 19-17. A hook shot from Nix at the 8:35 mark capped off a 10-0 run and flipped a four-point deficit into a six-point advantage for the Skyhawks.
A fast break pull-up trey from Andre with 5:07 to play in the opening half stretched UT Martin's lead out to 30-22. Josh Endicott sank a free throw to pad the Skyhawk advantage to nine points but the Redhawks were able to get within four (38-34) at the intermission.
Andre's 12 points led all scorers at halftime while Russell and Akenten each accumulated seven points to pace Southeast Missouri.
The UT Martin duo of Simon (five) and Nix (four) joined forces to score UT Martin's first nine points of the second half. Despite that, the Redhawks trimmed their deficit to one point (47-46) at the 15:35 mark.
The Skyhawks then struck for six unanswered points – taking a 54-47 lead following a Henderson trifecta. Another Henderson trey – his fifth of the contest – extended UT Martin's lead out to 59-49 with 13 minutes to go.
A 4-for-4 effort from the charity stripe (two from Andre, two from Henderson) following a common foul and technical foul helped the Skyhawks maintain a double-digit advantage (65-55) with 8:41 remaining.
Southeast Missouri had one final run left in them, pulling within five points (67-62) at the 6:03 mark. UT Martin rallied with its game-ending run, ignited by four consecutive points from Koby Jeffries before Simon's scoring barrage. A pair of Curry free throws with just under a minute to go gave the Skyhawks their biggest lead of the day (22 points) going away.
BELMONT 88, TENNESSEE STATE 61
NASHVILLE - Behind 24 points from Nick Muszynski, Belmont University men's basketball defeated Tennessee State, 88-61, Thursday.
Muszynski went 9-of-10 from the field - including two 3-pointers - and added four assists as Belmont led 41-24 at halftime.
A JaCobi Wood basket gave Belmont a 65-35 lead with 12:27 left.
Belmont (18-5, 8-2 OVC) shot 59 percent (33-of-56) from the field and forced 15 turnovers.
Wood scored 17 points while Ben Sheppard had 15 points and seven rebounds. Grayson Murphy had six assists and six steals.
Shakem Johnson led Tennessee State (9-14, 4-7 OVC) with 11 points.