SUNDAY'S SCORES
Southern Indiana 73, @Lindenwood 62
Western Illinois 78, @SIUE 70
Morehead State 83, @Southeast Missouri 64
SOUTHERN INDIANA 73, LINDENWOOD 62
ST. CHARLES, Mo. - University of Southern Indiana sophomore guard/forward AJ Smith (Edwardsville, Illinois) scored a career-high 27 points and led the Screaming Eagles to a 73-62 victory over Lindenwood University Sunday afternoon at Hyland Arena in St. Charles, Missouri. The Eagles rise to 4-11 overall and start OVC play 1-1, while the Lions are 6-8 overall, 0-1 OVC.
The victory marked the 50th USI career win for Eagles' Head Coach Stan Gouard. Gouard is 50-41 at USI and 277-158 for his coaching career.
USI was the fast out of the gate, posting a 15-5 lead before seven minutes were gone in the game. The Eagles, who were four-of-seven from the field, including a pair of three-pointers, and five-of-six from the stripe in the opening run, was led by junior forward Nick Hittle (Indianapolis, Indiana), who had six of the 15 points during the opening run.
The Lions would battle back, responding with a 12-1 run, and took a 17-16 lead with 8:14 before halftime. The squads would trade buckets and leads from that point before USI grabbed a 31-30 lead at the intermission on a runner in the lane by junior guard Jeremiah Hernandez (Chicago, Illinois) with eight seconds on the clock.
The second half would belong to USI and Smith, who scored 18 of his 27 points in the final 20 minutes.
After the lead changed hands 12 times in the first 13 minutes of the final half, the Eagles took control with a 7-1 run to lead 60-55 with 6:48 to play. Junior forward Jack Mielke (Downers Grove, Illinois) gave the Eagles the lead for good with a pair of free throws, while Smith scored the final five points of the run to put USI up five.
Through all of the lead changes in the second half, Smith kept the Eagles moving forward with 11 of the first 24 USI points. Sophomore forward Kiyron Powell (Evansville, Indiana) also contributed to keeping USI in the contest with an additional six points.
The Lions would cut the USI advantage to one, 60-59, with 5:06 left, but that would be close as they would be the rest of the contest. The Eagles, who are 7-0 all-time against Lindenwood, sealed the 73-62 win with a 13-3 surge in the final five minutes, led by six points from Hernandez.
Overall for the game, Smith would posts his career-high and game-high 27 points on nine-of-16 from the field, four-of-seven from beyond the arc, and five-of-eight from the stripe. He also tied for a game-high with nine rebounds, missing his seventh double-double of the season by one.
Hernandez followed Smith in the scoring and rebound columns with 16 points and eight rebounds. The junior guard was four-of-10 from the field and eight-of-12 from the line.
Powell rounded out the double-figure scorers with 11 points off the bench. The sophomore was a blistering five-of-six from the field.
As a team, USI dominated the glass with a 43-25 advantage in rebounds and held the Lions to 36 percent from the field (18-50). The Eagles offensively shot 45.1 percent from the field in the game (23-51), 51.7 percent in the second half (15-29).
WESTERN ILLINOIS 78, SIUE 70
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - It was back and forth fight to the finish, but the Western Illinois men's basketball team made their Ohio Valley Conference debut a successful one, going on the road and topping SIU Edwardsville 78-70 in the league opener for the Leathernecks.
The game featured 10 ties and 26 lead changes, but in the end, Western Illinois (8-6 overall, 1-0 in the OVC) was strong enough, extending their win streak to five games and winning their sixth in seven games.
The two teams went back and forth all night, but WIU hit six-straight free throws and got three straight stops, closing out the game on a 6-0 run to win by eight.
Hitting four of those free throws and several clutch field goals was Ryan Myers, who led the team with 21 points.
Despite the back and forth nature of the contest, the Leathernecks led the bulk of game, including 33-32 at halftime. WIU turnovers kept the game tight but after the break, the team cleaned up the mistakes.
The Leathernecks also flexed their muscles on the boards, outrebounding SIUE 34-22.
Also having a big night for the Leathernecks was Quinlan Bennett, who finished with 12 points, the bulk coming in the opening half to get WIU rolling. James Dent Jr. was also in double figures, finishing with 10 points, all after intermission.
As a team, WIU went 29-53 from the floor, 5-13 from three and 15-20 from the line while SIUE went 25-53 from the floor, 8021 from three and 12-15 from the line.
MOREHEAD STATE 83, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 64
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Riley Minix scored a career high - and Morehead State individual season high - 34 points while Jordan Lathon added 20, and the Eagle men's basketball team knocked off the Southeast Missouri Redhawks 83-64 on the road Sunday.
Minix and Lathon's stellar scoring performances led the Eagles (10-4, 1-0 OVC) in the team's first OVC contest. Minix tacked on eight rebounds and Lathon added nine rebounds and five assists. Drew Thelwell, the OVC leader in assists, also helped out with nine points and seven assists.
Minix's scoring outburst was the most by a Morehead State individual since Drew Kelly scored 40 against South Dakota on Dec. 19, 2013. Since the 2007-08 season, MSU is now 11-2 against SEMO at the Redhawk's home facility, the Show Me Center.
Morehead State took advantage of great ball movement in Sunday's game, piling up 20 assists on 28 made field goals.
The Morehead State defense held Southeast Missouri State shooters to just 39 percent from the field. The Eagles also kept Aquan Smart to 4-of-16 shooting in the game. The Redhawks did not get many second opportunities on the offensive end, as they grabbed only four offensive rebounds and scored just seven second chance points while Morehead State pulled down 28 defensive rebounds and held a decisive 35-20 rebounding cushion for the game.
After falling behind 30-29, Morehead State went on a 7-0 run with 4:11 left in the first half to take a 36-30 lead. The Eagles then added one point to that lead by the end of the period and entered halftime with a 40-33 advantage. Morehead State did most of its first half damage in the paint, scoring 20 of its 40 points close to the basket.
Following intermission, Morehead State kept widening that lead, expanding it to 61-50 before going on a 7-0 run to grow the lead to its largest (68-50) with 7:04 to go in the contest. The Eagles kept expanding the margin and coasted the rest of the way for the 83-64 win.