SUNDAY'S SCORES
@Miami (Ohio) 76,
Eastern Illinois 64
Prairie View A&M 78,
UT Martin 66 (Richmond, Ky.)
@South Alabama 86,
SIUE 74
Lindenwood 71, William & Mary 60 (USAF Academy, Colo.)
@Georgia State 88,
Little Rock 77
@Chattanooga 68,
Tennessee Tech 63
MIAMI (OHIO) 76, EASTERN ILLINOIS 64
OXFORD, Ohio - Eastern Illinois men’s basketball battled back from an early double digit deficit on Sunday afternoon closing to within five points late in the second half. In the end, 39 trips to the free throw line by Miami (Ohio) were too much to overcome as the Panthers lost 76-64 to the RedHawks.
Miami jumped out early putting Eastern Illinois in early foul trouble as they were playing without three point guards on the roster which led to several early turnovers before the Panthers settled down and committed 16 for the game.
Miami went up double digits with 13:15 to play on free throws by Darweshi Hunter giving the RedHawks a 15-4 lead. The lead grew to as high as 18 points with 9:12 to play on a jumper by Hunter, who finished with 16 points. The RedHawks led 43-30 at the half.
In the second half Kooper Jacobi’s bucket with 7:39 that made it 63-55 cutting the margin to single digits for the first time since early in the first half. EIU would then make three straight free throws at the line following a regular foul and technical foul to trim the lead to five. Nakyel Shelton hit the second two free throws as part of his 21-point day to lead EIU.
EIU was able to cut the lead back to five three other times over the next three minutes following baskets by Miami but could not get closer.
Evan Ipsaro was 4-of-4 at the foul line in the final 90 seconds as part of his 11-for-11 day at the line finishing with 18 points. Miami ended the day 31-of-39 at the stripe.
Jacobi and Sincere Malone both had seven rebounds to lead EIU as the Panthers won the battle on the glass. Malone had ten points with Kyndall Davis also scoring ten to round out the double figure EIU scorers.
PRAIRIE VIEW A&M 78, UT MARTIN 66
RICHMOND, Ky. - The University of Tennessee at Martin men’s basketball team boasted a pair of players with double-doubles and today’s game-high scorer but a late cold spell cost the Skyhawks in a 78-66 setback to Prairie View A&M.
Issa Muhammad piled up 15 points (on 7-of-10 shooting) and a career-best 13 rebounds while Jacob Crews registered 13 points and 10 rebounds for UT Martin (3-2), who had two players secure a double-double in the same game against a NCAA Division I opponent since Feb. 4, 2017. Jordan Sears also pumped in game-highs of 23 points and five assists but the Skyhawks were outscored 19-8 over the final 7:45.
Prairie View A&M (3-2) also received double-doubles from two players as Brian Myles (18 points, 14 rebounds) and Andre Nunley (10 points, 10 rebounds) achieved that feat. Charles Smith IV equaled a team-high with 18 points while Chris Felix, Jr. and Nick Gazelas each scored 12 points.
An old-fashioned three-point play off a dunk by Curry gave UT Martin its first lead of the day a little over three minutes in. The Skyhawks soon picked up the pace, at one point scoring seven fastbreak points in a row to build up a 17-10 advantage with 11 minutes remaining in the first half.
The Panthers scored eight of the next 10 points to creep within one point before Christian Fussell knocked down a three-pointer, extending UT Martin’s advantage out to 22-18 at the 5:33 mark.
Prairie View A&M briefly took a one-point lead before Sears (mid-range jumper) and Jalen Myers (two free throws) flipped the score back in favor of the Skyhawks at 30-27. However, the Panthers closed out the half on an 8-2 run to take a 35-32 lead at the intermission.
Sears owned a game-high 11 points at the break while Smith scored 10 points to lead Prairie View A&M.
Crews began the second half with a pair of treys in the first 2:08. Those buckets – plus another dunk from Curry and a layup from Sears – gave UT Martin a 42-39 advantage with 17 minutes to go.
The Panthers followed with a 12-1 run but back-to-back buckets by Crews and a Muhammad dunk made it a one-score contest (53-51) midway through the second half. That was the start of nine consecutive points from Muhammad, who tossed in his 15th point of the contest at the 7:45 mark to keep the Skyhawk deficit at a single point.
A 7-0 Prairie View A&M run followed until Sears swished a three-pointer coming out of a timeout with 4:31 left on the clock. However, the Panthers scored eight consecutive points over the next 3:41 and UT Martin could not get within single digits the rest of the way.
SOUTH ALABAMA 86, SIUE 74
MOBILE, Ala.- A balanced scoring effort by SIUE men's basketball couldn't overcome a hot-shooting South Alabama team as the Cougars dropped an 86-74 game Sunday in the final game of the South Alabama Jaguar Classic.
Both SIUE and South Alabama are 3-3. Both teams finished 2-1 at the tournament.
The Jaguars got off to a hot start and never really cooled. South Alabama used a 16-2 run to take its largest lead at 34-17 with 5:12 left before halftime and then SIUE gained control
Eddiean Tirado scored five points, Shamar Wright added four and Damarco Minor scored nine before the half came to an end. Minor capped off an 18-4 Cougar run when he picked off a rebound at one end and then heaved up a 25-foot, left-wing three as time expired on the half. South Alabama took a 38-35 lead into the break.
A Tirado jumper at 11:19 made it 55-54 South Alabama , but the Jaguars scored the next nine points to lead 64-54 with 7:51 left.
South Alabama knocked down 62 percent (29-47) of its shots overall and hit 11-18 (61 percent) of its three-point attempts.
Julian Margrave scored 22 points and was 6-8 from long range.
Shamar Wright led the way with 17 points and Lamar Wright scored 10 points for the Cougars. Minor and Ray'Sean Taylor each scored nine points. Tirado and Terrance Thompson both finished with eight points. Arnas Sakenis scored seven points and Brian Taylor II scored six points on a pair of second-half three-pointers.
The Cougars hit 47 percent of their shots and drained 13-29 (45 percent) three-pointers.
LINDENWOOD 71, WILLIAM & MARY 60
USAF ACADEMY, Colo. - Lindenwood men's basketball (3-3, 0-0 OVC) improved to .500 as they took down William & Mary (2-4, 0-0 CAA) by a final score of 71-60 in their third and final game of the Air Force Classic on Sunday. The Lions went 10-21 from downtown, their best shooting performance from three this season.
"What a week for our program early in the year and a tremendous effort today to close it out," said head coach Kyle Gerdman on Sunday. "Everyone pitching in and doing their part as we continue to grow. We have a long way to go, but they deserve to feel good about this."
Darius Beane led the Lions with his new career-high 25 points on 10-19 shooting. Beane also grabbed four rebounds and dished two assists for the Lions. Keith Haymon II shot lights out from the three hitting five of seven on his way to a season high 15 points. He also grabbed seven boards to lead Lindenwood.
Lindenwood started off the game going 5-5 from the field on their way to a 12-4 run before the first media timeout. The Tribe of William & Mary would continue to climb their way back early on getting as close as 17-15 after a three by Jack Karasinski.
The Lions went on a 12-0 run after the three by Karasinski including six points from Beane and two threes from Haymon II. Haymon made four of his five threes in the first half, all of them coming in the span of five and a half minutes. LU led 38-24 at the half. They shot 47% from the field in the first period. Beane and Haymon combined for 27 of LU's 38 points in the first.
Lindenwood maintained a 10-12 point lead for the majority of the second half as Beane continued to make plays inside the paint. Jeremiah Talton also pitched in eight points, five of them coming in the second half. Keenon Cole also scored eight of his 13 points in the second half, continuing his stretch of scoring in double-figures in all six games this season.
Trey Moss hit a three-pointer with 5:47 left to play to cut Lindenwood's lead down to four point 56-52. Talton then responded with a three of his own to push the lead back to seven. Cole added another three with 2:30 left to extend the Lions' lead to nine.
With under a minute left, Lindenwood hit six huge free throws to close out the game and earn their second victory of the tournament. Lindenwood finished hitting 24-55 shots (43.6% FG) while splashing in 10 three pointers.
William & Mary shot 37.0% for the game and were held to just a 29.0% field-goal percentage in the first half. The Tribe was led by Chase Lowe with 17 points and seven rebounds.
GEORGIA STATE 88, LITTLE ROCK 77
ATLANTA - The Little Rock men's basketball team finished the Capitol Challenge on Sunday with an 88-77 loss to host school Georgia State. Jamir Chaplin led the team with a career-high of 22 points and led the team in rebounds with six. Cougar Downing recorded a season-high of 17 points including going 6-of-12 from the three-point line.
Georgia State opened the first half with a three-pointer, before Little Rock answered back with a jumper by DeAntoni Gordon.
Both teams exchanged points with the Panthers extending their lead to 12 at the 9:14 mark on two free throws. Over the next two minutes, the Trojans went on a 7-2 run including a three-pointer by Downing while holding the Panthers to just free throws.
Little Rock cut Georgia State's lead to six at the 4:02 mark with another three-pointer by Downing, before two Panther threes, including one off a Trojan turnover, extended the home team lead to 12.
In the remaining 3:08, the Trojans went on a 12-0 run including six of the final points by Chaplin to tie the score at 40 going into the half.
The second half started with exchanged baskets before a three-pointer by GSU sparked an 8-0 run giving the Panthers a seven point lead.
After a jump ball gave Little Rock the possession, a put back and one by Creed Williamson followed by a three-pointer by Downing cut the Panther lead to one with 12:17 remaining.
GSU answered back with a 6-0 run to increase their advantage to seven.
Free throws by Jordan Jefferson and KK Robinson brought the Georgia State lead to two, before a Panther layup sparked a 13-2 run with the only Trojan points coming from a dunk by Chaplin.
In the remaining two minutes of the game, the Panthers maintained their lead to win 88-77.
CHATTANOOGA 68, TENNESSEE TECH 63
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - It came down to the wire, but the Tennessee Tech men's basketball team couldn't hold off a late charge by in-state rival Chattanooga Sunday afternoon, as the Mocs edged the Golden Eagles at McKenzie Arena, 68-63.
The Golden Eagles turned in a brilliant defensive effort to open the contest, holding a Chattanooga squad averaging better than 80 points per game to just 29 over the first 20 minutes of action. The purple and gold limited the Mocs to just 37 percent shooting from the floor and a 3-for-16 mark from distance.
Only four different Moc players score in the opening stanza as well, in contrast to the seven different Golden Eagles that found the bottom of the bucket. Sophomore guard Josiah Davis led the Cookeville crew in the first half, producing eight points.
Chattanooga used three quick foul calls to kick off the second half to draw even with Tech at 39-39 for the first time since the early moments of the ball game. The Golden Eagle defense tightened up following the 7-0 Moc run, allowing the offense to take back control of the lead for a spell.
It was pure war from that point on, as neither side could string along together enough momentum to pull away the other by more than four points until the final buzzer. Tech built a pair of four-point leads, but the Mocs responded with back-to-back triples to take their first lead of the second half with just under five minutes to play.
The squads traded leads down the stretch on a number of occasions, with Chattanooga taking a three-point advantage with just over a minute to play. Davis hit a brilliant bucket in the paint to cut the deficit to one with under a minute of action left, but a questionable foul call on the other end gave the Mocs a pair of free throws.
After the Mocs converted them both, junior forward Rodney Johnson Jr. hit a huge contested layup with under 30 seconds to go. Forced to foul, Tech sent Chattanooga to the line for two more, both of which the home team converted with 15.2 seconds left in the ball game.
Sophomore guard Grant Strong's fadeaway attempt from beyond the arc fell just short in the waning seconds of the contest, as the Mocs corralled the loose ball and sunk two final free throws at the end.
Johnson paced the purple and gold with another impressive display on the hardwood, scoring a team-high 18 points while narrowly missing a double-double with a team-best nine rebounds. He hit 3-of-6 attempts from deep to lead the Golden Eagles.
Davis finished the day with 14 points on 6-for-11 shooting, chipping in five boards and pair of steals to the effort. Junior guard David Early completed the contest with 13 points on a 6-for-13 effort from the floor, snagging three boards as well.
Strong led the Golden Eagles with four assists to go along with six points while sophomore forward Daniel Egbuniwe contributed six points, five rebounds, and a block.