THURSDAY'S SCORES
@Western Illinois 92, Hannibal-LaGrange 40
@North Alabama 86,
Tennessee Tech 71
@Kansas City 74,
Southeast Missouri 44
@Rice 98,
UT Martin 78
WESTERN ILLINOIS 92, HANNIBAL-LAGRANGE 40
MACOMB, Ill. - It was the perfect homecoming for the Western Illinois men's basketball team on Thursday night. After a three-game road swing, the Leathernecks opened their three-game homestand, topping Hannibal-LaGrange 92-40.
Davis came off the bench to lead the Leathernecks, finishing with 22 points. James Dent Jr. was in double figures for the eighth-straight game, scoring 15. JJ Kalakon was next, scoring 10 off the bench while grabbing seven rebounds.
Jesiah West added eight points and eight rebounds, Drew Cisse chipped in eight points and four boards while Joe Petrakis finished with eight points and five rebounds. The win also snapped a three-game losing streak for WIU.
The Leathernecks were able to get going early, never trailing and building a halftime lead of 46-15. Shay Davis had it going early, scoring 14 points in the first half. In the second half, WIU kept pouring it on as the lead grew to as large as 58, 90-32 with 3:32 to go in the game.
For the contest, Western Illinois went 37-73 from the floor, 8-30 from three and 10-17 from the line. The Leathernecks outrebounded the Trojans 53-27, scoring 19 second-chance points.
WIU controlled the interior, scoring 54 points in the paint, many on authoritative dunks. Western Illinois also forced 15 turnovers, converting those to 22 points.
NORTH ALABAMA 86, TENNESSEE TECH 71
FLORENCE, Ala. - The Tennessee Tech men's basketball team couldn't overcome a slow start to the second half of its contest at North Alabama Thursday evening, as the Lions used a massive final 20 minutes to down the Golden Eagles, 86-71.
Just hours prior to tip, a transformer blew on the North Alabama campus, forcing a power outage to parts of CB&S Bank Arena. The outage prevented the use the Lions' video boards, shot clocks, and normal scoreboards for the contest.
UNA Athletics secured mobile scoreboards for the sidelines and used verbal cues for the shot clock at 15 seconds and 10 seconds, along with a countdown of the final five seconds.
Despite the challenges, the Golden Eagles came ready to fight right out of the gates, opening an 11-4 advantage. The Tech defense forced the Lions into three quick turnovers to jump start the lead.
North Alabama battled back to even the score and it was a seesaw battle until the final four minutes of the stanza. The Cookeville crew moved back in front by as many as eight just before the break and took a 38-32 lead into the locker room.
The Lions took their turn opening a half on fire, taking a 53-43 advantage while the Tech offense tried to find its footing. It was an ice cold start for the visiting purple and gold, missing its first seven attempts from the field while sinking five free throws prior to their first bucket of the stanza.
Things finally began to click for the Golden Eagles in the scoring department, but the North Alabama offense never cooled off, finishing 7-for-11 from distance and shooting over 60 percent from the floor until the final buzzer sounded.
UNA used a decisive advantage in the turnover battle to fuel the second-half surge, outpacing Tech 7-1 and producing 17 points off TTU miscues. All-in-all, the Lions shot 52.6 percent for the night, including a 44.4 percent showing from deep and 81.8 percent performance at the charity stripe.
Golden Eagle senior guard Jayvis Harvey dropped a career-high 25 points on 9-for-14 efficiency, sinking three attempts from downtown while dishing out a team-high four assists. Sophomore forward Daniel Egbuniwe flirted with his second straight double-double, concluding the evening with 16 points, eight boards, and three dimes.
Junior guard David Early chipped in 13 points to the effort while sophomore center David Craig enjoyed his best showing in the purple and gold with nine points and five boards. Rookie forward Rylee Samons added six points to the mix with a couple of makes from beyond the arc.
KANSAS CITY 74, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 44
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Southeast Missouri (1-6) scored a season-low 44 points in a 74-44 loss to Kansas City (3-5) Thursday night at the Swinney Center.
SEMO, which led for only 20 seconds of the game, scored 17 points in the opening 20 minutes of play. The Redhawks did not score for the final 4:55 of the first half and trailed, 38-17, at the intermission.
Aquan Smart's turnaround jumper put SEMO ahead, 8-6, early on before KC went on a 14-2 run to get a double-digit advantage at 20-10 with 11:54 to play.
Mason Hanback's layup narrowed the Roos' lead to 26-17 at the 4:55 mark for SEMO's last points of the first half. The Redhawks went 0-of-8 from the field and missed two free throws in that stretch.
KC led by as many as 31 points with 2:28 left before ending its five-game losing streak with its third victory of the season.
Smart scored 13 points to lead SEMO which shot 28.8 percent (17-of-59) from the field. The Redhawks made just one 3-pointer going 1-of-19 from beyond the arc. BJ Ward made SEMO's lone 3-pointer.
Jamar Brown led KC with 19 points and Cameron Faas followed with 16 points and nine rebounds. The Roos outrebounded the Redhawks 52-31 and pulled down 15 offensive boards, as well.
RICE 98, UT MARTIN 78
HOUSTON - – Despite the fact that the University of Tennessee at Martin men’s basketball team swished a season-best 13 three-pointers and went a perfect 11-for-11 from the free throw line tonight, the Skyhawks fell by a 98-78 margin to Rice out of the American Athletic Conference.
The 13 treys came on a 43.3 percent shooting clip and were two more than UT Martin’s previous season-high tally, set three times (at Eastern Kentucky on Nov. 17, against North Alabama on Nov. 22, at Chicago State on Nov. 25). Meanwhile, the Skyhawks’ 100 percent shooting effort from the charity stripe was the first time the squad sank double-digit tries without a miss since also going 11-of-11 against Austin Peay on Feb. 8, 2021.
Jacob Crews led UT Martin (5-3) with 22 points to go along with seven rebounds in 29 minutes of playing time. Justus Jackson contributed 13 points in 20 minutes off the bench while Issa Muhammad (11 points, nine rebounds) and Jordan Sears (eight points, career-best nine assists) narrowly missed double-doubles. Desmond Williams nailed a trio of three-pointers on the way to a season-high nine points for the Skyhawks.
Rice (2-5) was led by 29 points from Travis Evee while Mekhi Mason (17 points) and Alem Huseinovic (11 points) also reached double digits in the scoring column.
Buckets by Crews (mid-range jumper in the paint) and Muhammad (dunk off a feed from Sears) gave UT Martin an early lead but the Owls came back with an 18-5 run and never looked back.
Crews converted a pair of free throws at the 11:38 mark of the first half to keep the Skyhawks within striking distance (20-13) but Rice immediately scored 14 unanswered points.
Over a six-minute span during the first half, UT Martin drilled four treys to get back in the game. Jackson made the first two trifectas and was followed by Muhammad and Sebastian Mendoza.
Crews scored on a second-chance layup with a little over a minute left in the half to trim the Skyhawk deficit to 42-35 before the Owls took a 47-37 lead into the locker room at the break.
Muhammad (nine points) paced UT Martin in the opening half while Evee’s 18 points guided Rice.
The Skyhawks’ first bucket of the second half was a Crews triple but the Owls pieced together a 14-0 run thereafter.
Jackson ended UT Martin’s drought with a mid-range jumper with 14:55 remaining. Crews would go on to score 10 of the next 12 Skyhawk points – capping off his personal run with an old-fashioned three-point play with 11:30 to go.
However, another Rice run – this time a 13-2 surge – officially put the game out of reach. Williams splashed three treys while Jackson and Koby Jeffries each added a long-range make in the final five minutes but UT Martin’s deficit was too large to overcome.