FRIDAY'S SCORES
@Purdue 87,
Morehead State 57
@Murray State 78,
Tennessee Tech 72
@Butler 91,
Southeast Missouri 56
@UIC 86,
Little Rock 71
PURDUE 87, MOREHEAD STATE 57
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Graduate transfer Riley Minix had 18 points and Jordan Lathon added 12 points and eight rebounds, but the Morehead State Men's Basketball Eagles fell to the No. 3 Purdue Boilermakers 87-57 at Mackey Arena Friday night.
Eddie Ricks III also added seven points and seven rebounds. The Eagles could not generate a consistent outside shooting game, however, hitting only seven of 31 triples. Purdue finished just 8-of-23 but shot 55 percent overall. MSU also was only out-rebounded by seven (38-31) to a team with two 7-footers.
The Morehead State offense grabbed 12 boards off misses and turned them into 12 second-chance points.
MURRAY STATE 78, TENNESSEE TECH 73
MURRAY, Ky. - A perfect, second-half run by Murray State was the difference of the night for the Tennessee Tech men's basketball team Friday, as the Golden Eagles fell to their former Ohio Valley Conference rival at the CFSB Center, 78-72.
Tech (0-2) kicked off the evening sluggish on the offensive side of the ball, allowing the Racers (2-0) to build a 10-0 lead through the opening five minutes. The home team pushed that advantage out to 15 with under a minute to play in the first stanza, but the purple and gold got five points down the stretch from junior guard David Early, including a buzzer-beating triple to head into the locker room trailing 36-26.
Murray State expanded that lead to a game-high 23 points with just under 11 minutes to play in the contest, thanks to a white-hot start to the half. The Racers scored on each of their first nine possessions, rolling out to a 62-39 lead.
From that point on, the comeback was on. Tech scratched and clawed its way back into the contest, closing to within six points at the end before running out of time. Freshman Kyle Layton put forth a monster effort off the bench in the second half, drilling three buckets from 3-point range to help cut the deficit to under 10 points.
The rookie guard ended the evening with nine points, four rebounds, and two steals wit a team-high plus-minus of +15. Junior forward Rodney Johnson Jr. led the purple and gold with 15 points while shooting efficiently on a 7-for-12 effort.
Making his season debut, senior guard Jayvis Harvey produced 13 points, with a team-high four assists and three rebounds in 29 minutes off the bench. Sophomore guard Josiah Davis tacked on 12 points on 6-for-10 shooting to go along with five rebounds and two dimes.
Early chipped in nine points and two boards while sophomore guard Grant Strong led the team with six rebounds to complement four points and two assists.
Tech outscored the Racers by four in the second half, registering 46 points. The Golden Eagle bench was highly valuable, outpacing the Murray State bench, 45-13.
BUTLER 91, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 56
INDIANAPOLIS - Southeast Missouri (0-2) dropped a 91-56 decision to Butler (2-0) Friday night at Hinkle Fieldhouse.
Adam Larson scored 11 points off the bench to lead SEMO in its first-ever meeting with the Bulldogs out of the BIG EAST Conference.
The Redhawks fell into a big hole early again when BU pulled ahead 15-2 in the first 2:53 of the contest. The Bulldogs drained three 3-pointers to key their early surge that ended on DJ Davis' triple with 17:06 remaining in the first half.
Hot shooting BU later opened its lead to 28-8 after scoring nine unanswered points. Evan Eursher's pullup jumper ended a three-minute scoreless drought for the Redhawks.
Another Bulldog run, this time 17-0, increased BU's lead to 50-12 before the Bulldogs headed into the locker room up, 55-21.
SEMO struggled to get anything going offensively shooting just 21.9 percent (7-of-32) from the field to BU's 51.4 percent (18-of-35) clip in the opening stanza.
There were postives in the second half headlined by Larson who scored all of his points in seven minutes on his way to his second double-digit game of the year.
He shot 4-of-5 from the field and made all three of his 3-point attempts. Larson drove the baseline for a nice dunk, as well.
True freshman guard Marqueas Bell also added six points in the second half, where SEMO was edged by one point (36-35).
For the game, the Redhawks shot 29 percent from the field and buried five 3-pointers. SEMO was outscored, 26-11, at the free throw line.
Behind Larson, Rob Martin and Braxton Stacker each finished with nine points, while Aquan Smart added eight. TJ Biel topped the Redhawks with six rebounds.
Posh Alexander scored 15 points to lead five BU players in double figures. Pierre Brooks chipped in 14 points, Davis pitched in 13 and did not miss a free throw (10-of-10), Jahmyl Telfort had 12 and Boden Kapke added 11.
UIC 86, LITTLE ROCK 71
CHICAGO - The Little Rock men's basketball team lost 86-71 at UIC on Friday. DeAntoni Gordon led the Trojans with 19 points and contributed six rebounds, while Jamir Chaplin recorded a double-double with ten points and a game and team high ten rebounds.
Jaylen Crocker-Johnson recorded a career-high of 12 points, while Bradley Douglas contributed 11 points including going 8-of-10 from the free throw line.
The Flames had four players in double-digit scoring, while the team shot 47.6 percent from the three-point line going 10-of-21.
The lead changed just twice with Little Rock holding their only lead at the 15:28 mark. UIC maintained the advantage for 38:04 minutes of the game.
The Trojans forced 20 UIC turnovers while committing 16. Little Rock won the advantage in the paint 40-34 and off of second chance points 18-17. UIC's bench outscored the Trojans 18-10.