SUNDAY'S SCORES
Winthrop 85,
@Little Rock 68
@Ball State 83,
SIUE 71
@UT Martin 110, Ecclesia 52
Morehead State 86, @North Alabama 77
Central Arkansas 73,
@Eastern Illinois 70
@ETSU 73,
Tennessee Tech 72
@Lipscomb 78,
Tennessee State 71
WINTHROP 85, LITTLE ROCK 68
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The Little Rock men's basketball team lost their second-straight contest on Sunday to Winthrop 85-68. The Eagles used 58 percent shooting from the floor and 81.8 percent shooting from the free throw as well as holding the Trojans to their one of their lowest first halves with 25 points.
Jaylen Crocker-Johnson led the team with a career-high 15 points and added a team-high nine rebounds. Bradley Douglas knocked down 14 points, whilie Jamir Chaplin contributed 11 points. Cougar Downing scored ten points in the loss.
Winthrop opened the first half on an 8-0 run, before Chaplin knocked down a jumper at the 16:55 mark. After both teams exchanged points, the Eagles recorded seven-straight points to take an 18-4 lead.
At the 13:01 mark, Crocker-Johnson scored on a jumper to bring the score to 18-6.
The Eagles scored four points, before a Little Rock jumper sparked an 8-2 run including a Downing layup off a steal to bring the Winthrop lead to 26-14 with 9:03 left in the half.
Winthrop scored ten-straight points, before a layup and one by Crocker-Johnson sparked a 11-0 run for the Trojans, including back-to-back three-pointers by Chaplin, to cut the Eagle lead to 34-25.
Winthrop ended the half on a 5-0 run and held the Trojans to their one of their lowest scoring halves of the season.
The Eagles opened the second half with seven-straight points, before the Trojans first basket at 17:20 on a put back by Gordon.
After five points by Winthrop, a jumper by Douglas started a 6-0 run by the Trojans to cut the lead to 51-33.
Both teams exchanged points with the Eagles maintaining their advantage. Little Rock never recovered losing 85-68.
BALL STATE 83, SIUE 71
MUNCIE, Ind. - Ray'Sean Taylor eclipsed the 1000-point plateau and Damarco Minor recorded his fourth double-double of the season, but it wasn't enough as the Cougars dropped an 83-71 decision on the road at Ball State Sunday.
SIUE fell to 6-5 overall and 0-5 in true road games. Ball State improved to 8-2 overall and 7-0 in home games.
Ball State, which led throughout, never pulled away from SIUE until the final minutes. The Cardinals pushed their lead to 42-32 with 1:26 to play in the first half, but the Cougars got three-pointers on back-to-back possessions to cut the lead. Taylor's three with 1:12 to play made it 42-35 and gave the third-year guard 1,002 points for his career. Taylor becomes the 18th player at SIUE and the fifth in the Division I era to go over 1,000 points. He did so in his 64th career game.
Taylor finished with 12 points thanks to three three-pointers. It is the 52nd double-digit scoring effort of his career. He now has 1,009 points for his career.
Desmond Polk knocked down a three-pointer with 40 seconds left in the half and SIUE trailed 42-38 at the break.
The Cougars found themselves down eight two separate times early in the second half. A 7-2 SIUE push made it a three-point game (51-48) after a Shamar Wright layup with 13:44 left.
Mickey Pearson, Jr. and Trent Middleton, Jr. hit three-pointers on consecutive possessions to extend the Ball State advantage back out to nine at 57-48 with 11:44 left.
Ball State connected on 11 of 21 (52 percent) three-point attempts for the game and shot 46 percent (25-55) overall.
Basheer Jahid (27 points), Jalin Anderson (23) and Pearson (10) led the offensive attack for the Cardinals.
Ball State also converted 22 of 26 (85 percent) trips to the free throw line including knocking down 5-6 in the final 50 seconds of the game.
SIUE shot 43 percent (25-58) overall and 7-19 (37 percent) from three-point territory. The Cougars were 14-21 from the foul line.
Minor's 21 points and 12 rebounds led SIUE offensively. He added three assists.
Shamar Wright added 12 points. Terrance Thompson and Lamar Wright each scored eight points for SIUE.
UT MARTIN 110, ECCLESIA 52
MARTIN, Tenn. - All 11 University of Tennessee at Martin men's basketball players who saw action this afternoon scored as the Skyhawks piled up a season-high tally in points during a 110-52 victory over Ecclesia at the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center.
UT Martin improved to 6-4 on the season after sinking 51.9 percent (42-for-81) of its field goal attempts. The Skyhawks outscored the visitors from the National Christian College Athletic Association by a 56-18 margin in the paint, 33-10 in fast breaks and 68-19 in bench points.
Defensively, UT Martin forced the Royals into 24 turnovers and limited the opposition to 26.4 percent (19-of-72) shooting, including a 25.8 percent (8-for-31) effort from three-point range.
Jalen Myers tallied a game-high 21 points on 7-for-9 shooting, six rebounds and a career-best five assists in just 24 minutes for the Skyhawks. Sebastian Mendoza earned his first double-double behind career-highs in points (18) and rebounds (11) in only 19 minutes while Jordan Sears posted 17 points with six assists. Desmond Williams recorded season-highs of 15 points, three assists and three steals while KK Curry's 10 points rounded out the double-digit scorers for UT Martin.
Ecclesia (2-7) was paced by Ryan Reed's 17 points.
Curry scored UT Martin's first six points of the contest and the Skyhawks never trailed for the final 38:43. Mendoza then reeled off six consecutive UT Martin points before a Justus Jackson fast break layup at the 9:54 mark of the first half extended the Skyhawk advantage out to 25-6.
Soon thereafter, UT Martin went on a 17-0 run in a span of 4:19. Sears accounted for eight of those points as the Skyhawks took a comfortable 52-19 lead into the half.
Myers' 11 points led all scorers in the opening half while Reed's six points guided the Royals, who committed 16 turnovers in the first 20 minutes.
Three of UT Martin's first four buckets in the second half came from long distance as Sears swished a pair of treys in a three-minute stretch. A fastbreak layup from Williams with 15:37 remaining stretched the Skyhawk lead out to 68-25.
Moments later, UT Martin used a 13-0 run to create more separation as Williams pumped in eight of those points.
A Myers triple with 5:38 left to play gave the Skyhawks 100 points – the third time that the program has reached triple digits on the scoreboard in 2023-24.
MOREHEAD STATE 86, NORTH ALABAMA 77
FLORENCE, Ala. - The Morehead State men's basketball team went into the half trailing North Alabama 37-30, but erupted for 56 points and outscored the Lions by 14 to secure an 86-77 road win at Flowers Hall Sunday.
It marked the Eagle program's first-ever win over UNA after falling in 2019 and last season. It also gave MSU its fifth consecutive victory in the non-conference portion of the 2023-24 campaign.
The Eagles (7-3) had four players score in double figures, led by Jordan Lathon, who had 26 points and six rebounds. Lathon exploded for 20 points in the second half, when the Eagles outscored UNA 56-40. Drew Thelwell added 19 points, four assists and two steals, and Riley Minix helped out with 14 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three blocks. Kalil Thomas hit three triples and finished with 13 points.
The Morehead State offense was efficiently productive from downtown, making 11 threes on 23 attempts for 48 percent - a aseason standard. Lathon was the most prolific shooter for the Eagles, draining four treys in the contest. The Eagles also finished at 30-of-60 shooting, hitting on 50 percent. It's the fourth straight game above .500 shooting, which had not occurred since the 2009-10 season.
Morehead State also did a great job disrupting North Alabama shots in the contest, coming away with a season-high eight blocks. Minix's three rejections led the way individually for the Eagles.
After falling behind 12-7, Morehead State went on a 7-0 run with 14:28 left in the first half, culminating in a bucket from Minix, to take a 14-12 lead. But, the Eagles then surrendered that lead and entered halftime down 37-30.
After intermission, Morehead State managed to gain control and eventually had a 77-70 lead before going on a 7-0 run, finished off by Thomas' layup, to grow the lead to 84-70 with 1:34 to go in the contest. Morehead State shot well from three-point range in the half, hitting eight shots from deep to score 24 of its 56 points.
CENTRAL ARKANSAS 73, EASTERN ILLINOIS 70
CHARLESTON, Ill. - Central Arkansas was 12-for-12 from the foul line including hitting two with four seconds remaining in regulation while Eastern Illinois has a 3-pointer from the corner come up short as time expired that allowed UCA to snap the Panthers four-game home win streak with a 73-70 win on Sunday afternoon at Groniger Arena.
The Panthers took the lead at 70-69 with 1:49 left in the game on a pair of free throws by Tiger Booker. Central Arkansas answered on the other end with a put-back basket by Ubong Abasi Etim on one of his 16 rebounds on the afternoon.
EIU had a look on the next possession but was forced into a turnover under the basket giving the Bears the ball with nine seconds left in the game. Not quite in the bonus, EIU had to foul a number of times with the last sending Johannes Kirsipuu to the line for a one-and-one with UCA leading 71-70. He would sink both as part of his 13 point night.
The Panthers had one more look but their 3-pointer came up short at the buzzer.
The game see-sawed back-and-forth most of the day with nine ties and 25 lead changes. UCA's biggest lead was 11 in the first half with EIU's biggest lead at five early in the second half.
UCA led 38-37 at the break before Nakyel Shelton scored 16 of his team-high 22 points in the second half including ten during an early Panthers run. Shelton just missed on a double-double pulling down nine rebounds.
Jermaine Hamlin led EIU with ten rebounds and Corey Sawyer Jr had 12 points. EIU built its five-point margin in the opening 50 seconds of the second half on a 3-pointer and old fashioned three-point play by Shelton.
Tucker Anderson led the Bears with 22 points knocking down 6-of-10 from 3-point range. UCA was 13-of-29 from long range in the game.
ETSU 73, TENNESSEE TECH 72
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - In the kind of contest you might expect between two in-state rivals, it was ETSU coming out on top of a physical, back-and-forth affair in Johnson City, as the Tennessee Tech men's basketball team fell to the Buccaneer, 73-72, at Freedom Hall.
The Golden Eagles (3-7) very nearly sent the game to overtime, as junior guard David Early's 3-point attempt to tie the contest missed the rim and senior guard Diante Wood was there for a put-back layup. It was a controversial ending to the day, as it appeared Wood was fouled while in the process of tipping the ball into the bucket.
The officials deemed no foul on the play and the Bucs (5-4) held on for the one-point victory. Neither side boasted huge advantages in any area of the contest, with the two sides virtually deadlocked all day.
Tech led the ball game at the half, 34-32, shooting more efficiently than the home squad. In the end, ETSU sunk one more triple than the Golden Eagles, with every other scoring stat matched. Both teams made 24 field goals and 18 free throws in the contest. The Bucs led in 3-pointers, 7-6.
Several Golden Eagles put forth strong individual efforts in the contest, led by senior guard Jayvis Harvey. The veteran dropped 20 points with five rebounds and four assists, sinking 8-of-10 tries from the charity stripe.
Sophomore guard Josiah Davis delivered another efficient performance for the purple and gold, producing a career-high 15 points on 5-for-7 shooting. Draining all five of his free-throw attempts, he also chipped in four rebounds.
Early turned in a pair of steals and four rebounds to go along with 13 points while Wood tacked on 11 points on 5-for-6 shooting from the line in his return to the court. Wood missed the previous seven games due to a lower-body injury.
Leading the purple and gold in rebounds with eight was sophomore forward Daniel Egbuniwe, who added five points, two assists, two steals, and a block to the mix as well.
LIPSCOMB 78, TENNESSEE STATE 71
NASHVILLE - The Tennessee State men's basketball team came up short in a 78-71 loss to the Lipscomb Bisons on the road Sunday.
The Tigers (6-4) had four players score in double figures, led by Christian Brown, who had 17 points. Ej Bellinger tacked on 12 points, two steals, and two blocks and Jaylen Jones chipped in as well with 12 points and two steals.
Bellinger pulled down three offensive rebounds to lead the Tennessee State offense which grabbed 13 boards and turned them into 15 second-chance points.
Tennessee State forced 13 Lipscomb turnovers while committing just eight themselves in Sunday's game. The Tigers turned those takeaways into 13 points on the offensive end of the floor. Bellinger's two steals led the way for Tennessee State.
After falling behind 36-34, Tennessee State went on a 9-0 run with 1:51 left in the first half to take a 43-36 lead, a score that would hold until halftime. Tennessee State relied on its three-point shooting in the period, knocking down six shots to account for 18 of its 43 points.
Lipscomb proceeded to take a 60-55 lead before Tennessee State went on a 10-0 run to seize a 65-60 lead with 5:29 to go in the contest. Lipscomb re-asserted control, outscoring the Tigers 18-6 the rest of the way to hand Tennessee State the 78-71 loss. Tennessee State took care of business in the paint, recording 14 of its 28 points in the lane.