THURSDAY'S SCORES
@Tennessee Tech 89, SIUE 62
Little Rock 58, @Morehead State 45
@Southeast Missouri 77, Tennessee State 59
@Eastern Illinois 67, Southern Indiana 62 (OT)
TENNESSEE TECH 89, SIUE 62
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - Tennessee Tech defeated visiting SIUE, 89-62, on Thursday afternoon. The win improved the Golden Eagls to 7-2 in league play and 13-6 overall while SIUE falls to 6-14 overall and 5-4 in league play.
Four of Tech's five starters reached double digits in scoring with Anna Walker leading the way with 16 poits. Jada Guinn had 15 points and tied for the team lead with nine rebounds. Reghan Grimes had 14 points while Maaliya Owens added 12.
SIUE's Ajulu Thatha led all players with 20 points to go with a team-best seven boards. KK Rodriguez added 12 points while Sofie Lowis had 11.
LITTLE ROCK 58, MOREHEAD STATE 45
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Tia Harvey scored a career-high 19 points and Little Rock's defense clamped down in the final quarter as the Trojans moved to 8-1 in Ohio Valley Conference play with a 58-45 win at Morehead State Thursday evening.
The Trojans (11-9, 8-1) held the host Eagles to just seven points in the final quarter after limiting Morehead State to just 2-for-14 (14.3%) shooting over the final 10 minutes.
The Eagles (7-13, 3-6) became the eighth OVC opponent in nine tries to fail to reach 50 points against Little Rock's suffocating defense. Little Rock scored 17 points off 19 Eagle turnovers; the 12th time this season the Trojans have posted 15-plus points off turnovers in a single game.
Faith Lee and Jaiyah Harris-Smith added 10 points each with Harris-Smith adding seven rebounds and four assists. Jalya Brooks dished out a career-high six assists as the Trojans accumulated 17 assists, one shy of a season high, with just 12 turnovers.
Overall, the Trojans shot an efficient 50% (24-for-48) from the field including a critical 45.5% (5 of 11) in the fourth quarter, out-scoring Morehead State 13-7 in the final period. The Eagles had cut their deficit to as little as seven at the end of the third quarter but a 5-0 run by Little Rock to open the fourth quarter extended the Trojan lead to double digits, never falling back to a single-digit margin.
Morehead State was led by Sandra Lin's 14 points and seven assists while Jayden Rhodes scored 11.
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 77, TENNESSEE STATE 59
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Rahmena Henderson came off the bench to score a game-high 19 points leading Southeast Missouri (9-11, 4-5) to a 77-59 win over Tennessee State (7-13, 3-7) Thursday night at the Show Me Center.
SEMO, which has won four of its last five games, improved to 8-2 at home this season.
The Redhawks dominated from start to finish and set the tone early by making seven of its first nine shots to grab an early 19-8 lead. SEMO used an 11-1 run and buried five-straight field goals on the way to its double-digit advantage. Kiyley Flowers came off the bench to score five points and key that run which ended on her own 3-pointer.
Henderson later buried a 3-pointer and followed that up with a layup to stretch SEMO's lead to 27-12 after one quarter of play. The Redhawks forced nine turnovers in the game's opening 10 minutes, as well.
TSU answered by winning the second quarter, 15-11, but trailed SEMO, 38-27, at the intermission.
Erica Haynes-Overton's basket cut SEMO's lead to 40-35 with six minutes remaining in the third quarter, but that was as close as the Tigers would get.
SEMO responded by scoring 14 of the final 15 points of the quarter and went ahead, 54-36, with 34 seconds left in the period.
The Redhawks continued to pour it on and built their first 20-point lead at 63-43 on Kennedi Watkins' layup with 6:28 to go. Jaliyah Green's 3-pointer gave SEMO its largest lead (74-52) with just under two minutes to go.
TSU did not lead for a full minute and was outscored 33-6 from 3-point range. SEMO, after going 0-of-16 from long range in its previous game vs. Tennessee Tech, nailed a season-high 11 threes tonight.
Henderson reached double figures in the scoring column for the eighth time this year. She shot 7-of-9 from the field and a near-perfect 5-of-6 from 3-point land.
Green followed with 12 points and Sophie Bussard added 11. Both Green and Bussard contributed six rebounds apiece, while Green also dished out eight assists. Meanwhile, Flowers registered 10 points as SEMO's fourth double-digit scorer.
As a team, SEMO shot 49.1 percent (27-of-55) from the field and scored 30 points off 22 TSU turnovers.
Haynes-Overton paced TSU with 14 points.
EASTERN ILLINOIS 67, SOUTHERN INDIANA 62
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - Eastern Illinois women's basketball survived 67-62 in overtime on the road against the Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles. With the win, the Panthers have surpassed their overall win total from a season ago, improving to 17-3 overall and 9-0 in Ohio Valley Conference play.
USI's Vanessa Shafford scored the first five points of the game before a Lyric Johnson layup got EIU's offense going, sparking a 13-2 panther run. After back-to-back exchanges of baskets, the Panthers went up 17-11 at the end of the first quarter. Up 19-13 early in the second period, Taris Thornton hit a three-pointer to put EIU up 9. Foul trouble then began to mount up for the Panthers in the second quarter as five players in EIU's rotation found themselves with two first half fouls. USI used a 6-0 run to pull to within 23-20 midway through the quarter before some quality minutes from EIU's reserves allowed the Panthers to answer with a 6-0 run of their own. Not going away, the Screaming Eagles would end the half on a 7-0 run to make it a two-point game at halftime.
After USI tied the game up at 31 early in the third, the Panthers responded once again, using a 7-2 run capped by four straight Morgan Litwiller free throws to take a 38-33 lead. The Panthers were once again unable to stretch it out any further, as USI tied the game at 39 going into the fourth quarter. The Screaming Eagles continued to attack to begin the fourth quarter, as a Hannah Haithcock layup to give USI the lead was followed by another Shafford three-pointer to put EIU in a five-point hole with 9:12 remaining. In a sign of things to come, Miah Monahan came up with a clutch jumper from the elbow to cut it to three, but another Shafford three made it a six-point margin. After being saddled with foul trouble for much of the first three quarters, Macy McGlone came alive, hitting one layup, and then another one after two Litwiller free throws to tie the game up at 47. The Panthers pushed the run to 11-0 after a Lariah Washington three-pointer was followed by a Monahan steal and another McGlone layup to give EIU a five-point lead with just under four minutes remaining. At the other end, Shafford sank another three-pointer that she hoisted up as the shot clock was expiring to pull USI back to within two. After a Thornton layup, another Shafford three followed by a converted and-one by Meredith Raley put EIU in a two-point hole with 1:24 to go. After the Panthers failed to come up with the equalizer despite back-to-back offensive rebounds from McGlone, USI got the ball with 52 seconds remaining, but Monahan came up with a clutch steal and layup to tie it up at 56. After Shafford's subsequent layup came off the front of the rim, Washington's jumper at the buzzer rimmed out, sending the game into overtime.
Monahan got EIU on the board first into overtime, but Shafford once again responded, tying the game at 60. After a McGlone layup was answered by a Haithcock layup, the game became knotted up at 60 with 1:24 to go. After Washington converted two free throws, Monahan once again proved clutch, coming up with another steal-and-score to put EIU up 64-60 with 47 seconds remaining. Washington and Monahan were able to make the free throws in the waning seconds to put the game on ice for the Panthers.
Washington led EIU with 14 points to go along with seven rebounds and a season-high five steals. Monahan scored 12 points to go along with five rebounds and had three steals.
McGlone and Litwiller both finished with 10 points and had eight and five rebounds, respectively. Thornton contributed with nine points and six rebounds while Lyric Johnson had five points and seven rebounds. Hannah Purcell had three points and four rebounds, while Haley Cameron and Julia Bengtson came off the bench in the second quarter to provide quality minutes with multiple Panthers in foul trouble.
Shafford led USI with 24 points, hitting six three-pointers in the game. Hannah Haithcock added 21 points going a perfect 5-for-5 from the line while Meredith Raley had 11 points.
EIU outrebounded the top rebounding team in the OVC 47-31 and forced 20 Screaming Eagle turnovers.