SATURDAY'S SCORES
@Indiana State 98,
Southern Indiana 54
Kansas City 72,
@Lindenwood 67
Western Illinois 68, @Green Bay 59
@Purdue Fort Wayne 89,
Southeast Missouri 80
INDIANA STATE 98, SOUTHERN INDIANA 54
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - University of Southern Indiana Men's Basketball was grounded by Indiana State University, 98-54, Saturday afternoon at the Hulman Center in Terre Haute, Indiana. The Screaming Eagles slide to 2-9 after today's action, while the Sycamores are 9-1 this season.
The first half was rough for the Eagles as the Sycamores bombed USI with 18 first half field goals, eight from long range, and led at halfime, 52-25. USI got scoring from five different players, led by junior guard Jeremiah Hernandez (Chicago, Illinois) with eight points.
USI struggled to find any offense in the first five minutes of the second half, starting the final 20 minutes one-of-12 from the field. The Eagles would finish the half 10-of-34 (29.4 percent) and 21-of-58 for the game.
Indiana State would post a nearly identical half to the first, outscoring USI, 46-29, in the final 20 minutes.
Individually, Hernandez and sophomore guard/forward AJ Smith (Edwardsville, Illinois) led the Eagles in scoring with 16 points and 12 points, respectively. Junior forward Jack Mielke (Downers Grove, Illinois) led USI on the boards with six.
KANSAS CITY 72, LINDENWOOD 67
ST. CHARLES, Mo. - Lindenwood men's basketball (3-6, 0-0 OVC) lose a tough game at home by a final score of 67-72 against cross-state opponent Kansas City (4-6, 0-0 SL). The Lions trailed by as many as 10 with under two minutes to go before making a late push.
Darius Beane was the Lions' leading scorer for the second game in a row with 22 points on 7-15 shooting while also making 8-9 from the line. He also added six boards and two assists.
Despite not scoring, Colin Ruffin had a team-high eight rebounds while posting a season high four steals. He also dished out three assists in 23 minutes of action. As a team the Lions forced UMKC into 16 turnovers while coming up with eight steals.
In a very even first half, both teams battled back and forth through the first eight minutes of action. Beane scored the first four points for Lindenwood as the teams were tied at 13. The Lions had a five point advantage at the 21-16 mark with Beane leading the way with eight points.
Kansas City went on a run to end the first half as the scored was tied 28-28. Lindenwood shot 10-28 from the field in the first while making 3-11 threes. The Roos scored 18 of their 28 points in the first half from three-point range. Anderson Kopp had 10 points for UMKC at the midway point.
Keenon Cole scored the first six points for the Lions coming out of half time to secure his ninth straight double-digit scoring effort. Cole scored 16 in the loss while going 5-12 from the field, picking up three boards along the way.
At the under 12 media timeout, Kansas City held a one point lead 44-45. The Roos would eventually extend their lead to 10 points with just under two minutes with the help of Cameron Faas who scored 18. Faas shot 6-10 from distance along with grabbing four rebounds.
The Lions battled back late in the game to cut the lead to four points, but ran out of time to drop their third game in a row. LU shot 39.2% from the field throughout the game while UMKC shot 42.9%. The Roos made 14 triples in the win.
Isaac Ondekane had another solid outing posting eight points and four rebounds for Lindenwood. Jeremiah Talton also added eight points including two threes. Kopp and Faas were the leading scorers for Kansas City.
WESTERN ILLINOIS 68, GREEN BAY 59
GREEN BAY, Wis. - Western Illinois picked up its first win on the road of the 2023-24 season, as the Leathernecks took down Green Bay 68-59. The win marks the 2nd straight for Western, as the Leathernecks beat Coe College on December 6th. Four Leathernecks, Ryan Myers, Jesiah West, Drew Cisse, and JJ Kalakon all scored in double figures.
Western started out in the first half trading baskets with the Phoenix, as Ryan Myers knocked down a triple to start the scoring for the Leathernecks. Drew Cisse showed some flash with a mind-bending behind the back pass that was finished off by guard Quinlan Bennett. Cisse blocked a pair of Green Bay shots at the 16 minute mark, as the big man would finish with a season-high 5 in the game. Cisse's 5 blocks also marked the most by any player in the Ohio Valley Conference against a Division 1 opponent. The big man also finished with 16 rebounds, as he entered the game ranked fourth in all of NCAA Division 1 in rebounds per game.
The Leathernecks would enter the half with a 35-32 lead, one that they would not relinquish for the remainder of the game. Western went into halftime out-rebounding the Phoenix 16-8, but 9 turnovers and no points off the bench loomed large going into the break.
Western would clean it up in the second half, with only 4 turnovers in the second half, and built on their lead up to 7 two minutes into the period with a pair of buckets from Cisse. With four minutes left in the game, James Dent Jr. hit a massive 3-pointer to give the Leathernecks a 63-50 lead.
JJ Kalakon, who made his 2nd start of the season, came up big in Saturday night's win, as the guard played a season-high 36 minutes, and made big plays on both ends of the floor. Kalakon would finish with 10 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists.
Jesiah West had a huge game on both ends, as the forward put in an efficient 18 points on 8-9 shooting, and made key defensive plays throughout the night. Ryan Myers also made a big impact, pouring on 18 points himself on 7-12 shooting, and tacked on 6 assists as well.
PURDUE FORT WAYNE 89, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 80
FORT WAYNE, Ind. - -TJ Biel scored a season-high 23 points and Rob Martin added a season-best 22 as Southeast Missouri (3-7) played tough in an 89-80 loss to Horizon League leader Purdue Fort Wayne (10-1) Saturday.
Biel went over 20 points for the first time in his career and scored double figures off the bench for the second time in three games. Meanwhile, Martin increased his season scoring average to 10.5 points per game with his fourth double-digit performance in five starts.
SEMO shot over 50 percent (51.7) from the field in the opening stanza for the second-straight contest and led for most of the game's first 20 minutes.
The Redhawks grabbed an early eight-point advantage with a strong start out of the gate. SEMO went on an 11-1 run with Adam Larson and Evan Eursher each burying a 3-pointer along the way. Eursher's pull up three put SEMO ahead, 14-6, a little over five minutes in.
SEMO made eight of its first 10 field goals in the opening 8:09 and later used a 7-0 surge to take its largest lead of the half. Biel, who scored his first 10 points in the first half, drove in for a layup expanding the Redhawks lead to 33-24 with 5:57 to go.
PFW countered with a 17-6 run and pulled ahead by two at the intermission. Rasheed Batello scored a layup with two seconds on the clock putting the Mastodons ahead, 41-39. It was PFW's first lead since the 17:37 mark.
After Martin's 3-pointer regained a 49-46 edge for SEMO with 17:43 remaining in the second half, PFW put together a 12-0 run to get a nine-point lead while the Redhawks were scoreless for 4:40 span.
Quinton Morton-Robertson made a 3-pointer to tie the game and Eric Mulder got free for an open dunk to start things off. Morton-Robertson added three more free throws before Bello's pair of free throws made it a 58-49 game with 13:16 left to play.
Another dunk by Mulder off an assist from Morton-Robertson pushed the Mastodons lead to double figures (62-51) with a little over 12 minutes.
SEMO capitalized on back-to-back stops with driving layups by Eursher and Martin to cut PFW's lead to 69-62 with 6:46 remaining.
The Redhawks got within seven twice more in the final 1:10, but that was as close as they could get.
Biel shot 8-of-11 from the field and 7-of-9 at the free throw line. He also led SEMO with nine rebounds in a season-high 28 minutes.
Martin, now averaging double figures for the first time this season, made 8-of-12 field goals, knocked down two 3-pointers and hit a perfect 4-of-4 free throws. He dished out five assists and tied his season-high of 34 minutes.
Aquan Smart followed with 12 points in his fourth-straight double-digit outing. Smart, too, finished with five assists.
SEMO shot 50.8 percent (30-of-59) for the game and shot just 18 free throws, 23 fewer than PFW's 41. The Mastodons outscored the Redhawks by a +12 margin (26-14) at the free throw line.
All five of PFW's starters scored double figures with Bello's 19 points leading the way.