WEDNESDAY'S SCORES
Tennessee State 75, @Portland 65
Evansville 76,
@Southeast Missouri 57
@Illinois State 69,
Eastern Illinois 61
TENNESSEE STATE 75, PORTLAND 65
PORTLAND, Ore. - Christian Brown totaled 24 points to help lead the Tennessee State men's basketball team over the Portland Pilots 75-65 on the road Wednesday.
The Tigers (3-0) had three players score in double figures, led by Brown, who had 24 points. Ej Bellinger added 18 points and Marcus Fitzgerald Jr. helped out with 13 points and four assists.
Tennessee State took advantage of fantastic ball movement in Wednesday's game, piling up 15 assists on 27 made field goals. Individually, Kinyon Hodges was on top of the distribution list for the Tigers with four assists.
The Tennessee State defense held Portland shooters to only 39.2 percent from the field, including 27.6 percent from three-point range. The Pilots did not get many second opportunities on the offensive end, as they grabbed only eight offensive rebounds and scored six second-chance points while Tennessee State pulled down 26 defensive rebounds.
After jumping out to a 17-14 advantage, Tennessee State went on an 8-0 run with 8:42 left in the first half, culminating in a three from Bellinger, to increase its lead to 25-14. The Tigers then added three points to that lead by the end of the period and entered halftime with a 42-28 advantage. Tennessee State relied on its three-point shooting in the period, knocking down seven shots to account for 21 of its 42 points.
Tennessee State kept its lead intact before going on a 5-0 run, finished off by Fitzgerald Jr.'s three, to grow the lead to 69-51 with 5:02 to go in the contest. The Pilots narrowed the margin somewhat before the game was over, but the Tigers still cruised the rest of the way for the 75-65 win. Tennessee State took care of business in the paint, recording 22 of its 33 points in the lane.
EVANSVILLE 76, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 57
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Rob Martin, Braxton Stacker and BJ Ward each scored nine points as Southeast Missouri (0-3) dropped its home-opener to Evansville (3-0), 76-57, Wednesday night at the Show Me Center.
SEMO, which never led in the game, struggle to get anything going against UE.
The Redhawks pulled within four points (27-23) on a layup by Adam Larson with a little over six minutes left in the first half before UE used a 12-5 run to grab a 39-28 advantage at the intermission.
Ben Humrichous' 3-pointer gave the Purple Aces a spark and UE scored 10 of the next 13 points to build a 37-26 lead. Cameron Haffner buried a three to give the Purple Aces their first double-digit lead with 1:47 to go. Antonio Thomas' layup pushed UE's lead to 13 before BJ Ward scored the final points of the half on a jumper.
UE shot 50 percent (16-of-32) from the field and scored 17 of its points off 10 SEMO turnovers in the game's first 20 minutes.
The Purple Aces used an 8-0 run to widen their lead to 56-40 with 14:12 remaining and led by as many as 21 (76-55) when Haffner hit a 3-pointer at the 1:13 mark.
Martin added three assists and four rebounds and Ward finished with two steals, as well. Kobe Clark paced SEMO with five rebounds off the bench. The Redhawks edged the Purple Aces, 31-30, in rebounds.
Yacine Toumi pitched in a game-high 20 points, Ben Humrichous followed with 18 and Haffner contributed 10 points to lead UE. The Purple Aces outscored SEMO, 52-22, in the paint and scored 29 points off a season-high 18 SEMO turnovers.
ILLINOIS STATE 69, EASTERN ILLINOIS 61
NORMAL, Ill. - Eastern Illinois built an early lead on back-to-back 3-pointers by Dan Luers only to see Illinois State close the half on a 21-4 run as the Redbirds won 69-61 on Wednesday night at CEFCU Arena.
EIU had built a 20-13 lead with early points by Luers who finished with 12 points, all in the first half.
The Redbirds then went on a 10-run to take the lead at 23-20 with 4:41 to play in the first half. ISU had good production off the bench during the run with seven points by Johnny Kinziger and nine points by Luke Kasubke who went 3-of-3 on first half 3-pointers. Kasubke finished with 12 points.
ISU led 34-24 at the half.
In the second half EIU would make several runs to cut into the Redbirds lead. The first run cut the margin to four at 48-44 with 11:25 to play as Sincere Malone had a steal and fed the ball ahead to Jaylin Gibson for a bucket, Gibson finished with nine points.
Later EIU was able to get as close as three points on a 3-pointer by Nakyel Shelton as the junior guard led all players with 22 points. Shelton had another 3-pointer with 2:04 left in the game that made it a two-possession game at 63-57.
ISU held on with big free throws in the final minutes including four by Dalton Banks who was 8-of-10 at the stripe to finish with 12 points. The Redbirds kept the Panthers at an arms-length with solid play on the offensive glass converting 18 offensive rebounds into 16 second chance points.
EIU falls to 1-3 on the season while ISU improved to 2-1.