THURSDAY'S SCORES
@Southeast Missouri 78, Eastern Illinois 64
@Tennessee Tech 77, Lindenwood 68
Southern Indiana 82, @Little Rock 81
@UT Martin 90, SIUE 84
@Morehead State 74, Tennessee State 64
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 78, EASTERN ILLINOIS 64
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Aquan Smart scored 14 points leading four players in double figures and Southeast Missouri (14-14, 9-6) led the entire 40 minutes in a 78-64 win over Eastern Illinois (9-19, 5-10) Thursday night at the Show Me Center.
The Redhaws used a balanced effort that saw eight different players score. SEMO snapped a three-game losing streak and sent the Panthers to their 10th Ohio Valley Conference loss this year.
SEMO scored the first seven points of the game behind a 3-pointer from Phillip Russell and four points by Nate Johnson. The Redhawks later put together a 9-0 run to take a 16-5 lead.
Dylan Branson buried a 3-pointer, Israel Barnes added a layup and Josh Earley scored four points, including two on an alley-oop dunk off a pass from Russell with 14:39 remaining.
The Redhawks extended their lead to double figures (24-14) once Branson buried another 3-pointer with 9:36 left to play.
Behind a 12-0 run, SEMO widened its lead to 20 (42-22) in the last five minutes of the first half. A four-point play by Russell and four points by Mason Hanback polished off that stretch. Hanback scored again and Branson knocked down a 3-pointer to run SEMO's lead to 47-29 at the intermission.
SEMO heated up to shoot 60 percent (18-of-30) from the field and assisted 12 of its makes in the opening stanza. Eight different players scored helping the Redhawks get their big halftime advantage.
The Redhawks continued to pick apart the Panthers in the second half and took a 54-34 lead, their biggest of the game, on a second-chance dunk by Earley.
EIU managed to pull within 11 on multiple occasions, but that was as close as it would get.
Smart shot 7-of-9 at the free throw line, made three field goals and matched a career-high in points. Branson followed close behind with 12 points, while Russell added 11 points and seven assists and Johnson chipped in 10 points.
Additionally, Hanback scored a season-high eight points on a perfect 4-of-4 field goals.
SEMO shot 46.7 percent (28-of-60) for the game and forced 20 turnovers.
Nick Eliington led EIU with 17 points followed by Cape Girardeau native Kinyon Hodges' 12.
TENNESSEE TECH 77, LINDENWOOD 68
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - A back-and-forth affair much of the evening, the Tennessee Tech men's basketball team pulled away from visiting Ohio Valley Conference foe Lindenwood Thursday evening in the teams' rematch in the Hooper Eblen Center, picking up a critical, 77-68 victory.
After falling to the Lions (9-19, 4-11) in their inaugural match-up back on Dec. 31 in St. Charles, Mo., the Golden Eagles (13-15, 9-6) exacted some revenge in Thursday's tilt, staying in a tie for second place in the OVC standings with UT Martin and Southeast Missouri.
Both sides delivered their fair share of mini runs throughout the evening, combining for 13 lead changes and 11 ties. Tech turned in the largest run of the evening to end the contest, flipping a 66-64 deficit with just over four minutes to play into a 77-66 advantage with 30 seconds on the clock.
Jayvis Harvey played a key role down the stretch for the purple and gold, tying the game at 66-66 with a physical layup. On Tech's next trip down the floor, the junior worked his way into the paint before kicking the ball back out to an open Jaylen Sebree, who promptly buried a long triple to put the Cookeville crew back on top.
With just under a minute in the contest and the Golden Eagle defense holding their own, Sebree reciprocated the favor, finding Harvey open beyond the arc for a huge triple and six-point lead. With the Lions fighting to stay in it, Harvey calmly sank each of his four free-throw attempts on the next two possessions to essentially ice the contest.
Tech's 13-2 run to finish the game earned the team its first-ever victory over Lindenwood. It also gave the purple and gold at least one victory over every other OVC team this season, the first time a Golden Eagle squad accomplished the feat since the 2002-23 season. It marked the first time since 2001-02 the team pulled it off in the regular season alone.
The Golden Eagle victory came behind a spectacular effort from junior guard Brett Thompson, who poured in a career-high 28 points and dished out six assists. The Oakland, Calif. native finished 10-for-20 from the field while knocking down four makes from deep and securing a pair of steals.
Harvey contributed 15 points and three dimes while Sebree turned in 14 with a team-high eight rebounds. Sebree also racked up four assists and a pair of steals. Graduate guard Ty Perry put forth nine points and five boards.
Bogdan Zimonjic turned in 10-and-a-half minutes off the bench with clutch rebounding down the stretch, hauling in four boards to help keep Tech in the mix for a league title.
Keenon Cole led the Lions with 23 points and 11 rebounds on the night while Kevin Caldwell Jr. produced 21 points. Cam Burrell tallied seven assists and eight boards.
SOUTHERN INDIANA 82, LITTLE ROCK 81
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - University of Southern Indiana Men's Basketball fought off a late challenge by the University of Arkansas at Little Rock to post an 82-81 victory Thursday evening in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Screaming Eagles go to 15-13 overall and 8-7 in the OVC, while the Trojans are 8-20, 4-11 OVC.
With the win, USI rises into a three-way tie for fifth with Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and Tennessee State University. The Eagles also are within shouting distance of second in the conference, one game behind the three-way tie of the University of Tennessee at Martin, Southeast Missouri State University, and Tennessee Tech University.
USI had to rally to stay in the game during the first half as Little Rock built a lead of as many as 11 points (26-15). The Eagles, trailing 34-26, went on a 9-0 surge to grab the lead, 35-34, with 3:39 left before the intermission.
After USI and Little Rock traded the lead four times in the final four minutes of the half, the Trojans took a 43-40 lead into halftime. USI senior forward Jacob Polakovich (Grand Rapids, Michigan) had a team-best 16 points in the opening 20 minutes, while sophomore forward Isaiah Swope (Newburgh, Indiana) posted 13 first half points.
In the second half, Little Rock had the early momentum and extended the margin to eight points twice (48-40, 50-42). USI came back with an 23-13 run to knot the game, 65-65, and eventually took the lead, 71-70, on an old-fashion three-point play by Swope with 10 minutes on the clock.
After the Trojans briefly regained control and posted a 78-74 lead, USI made their final push to take the lead for good. The Eagles used an 8-0 run, sparked by back-to-back three-point field goals by Swope and senior guard Jelani Simmons (Columbus, Ohio), to pull in front, 80-78.
Polakovich increased the lead to four points, 82-78, with a layup with 2:03 to play before the Eagles' defense took over. USI held Little Rock without a field goal over the last minutes and without a shot attempt in the Trojans' last chance with nine seconds to play.
In the final statistics, Polakovich led the Eagles in the scoring column with 27 points and concluded the game with 10 rebounds for this 12th double-double of the year. The 27 points tied a season and USI career best.
Polakovich was a sizzling 11-of-13 from the field and finished his scoring with five free throws.
Simmons and Swope followed Polakovich in the scoring column with 21 points each. The trio marked the first time since February 12, 2015, that USI had three players with 20-or-more points in a game (Bobo Drummond (23), TeNale Roland (21), Gavin Schumann (21) versus the University of Missouri-St. Louis).
USI graduate forward Trevor Lakes (Lebanon, Indiana) rounded out USI's double-digit scorers with 11 points. Lakes' first two three-point bombs early second half broke Little Rock's momentum, while a third tied the game at 68-68.
UT MARTIN 90, SIUE 84
MARTIN, Tenn. - Sophomore Jordan Sears poured in a game-best 30 points plus tacked on team-highs of eight rebounds and three assists as the University of Tennessee at Martin men’s basketball team bested SIUE by a 90-84 margin at the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center.
A Daytona Beach, Fla. native, Sears reached the 30-point plateau for the second time this season in Ohio Valley Conference play while his eight boards equaled his career-high. The 5-11, 175-pound speedster knocked down 11 of his 18 field goal tries and went 8-for-10 from the free throw line to lead the team in scoring for the ninth time in the past 11 games.
Parker Stewart accounted for 18 points while Desmond Williams tied a season-high with 16 points off the bench to aid the Skyhawks (17-11, 9-6 OVC), who led for 34:38 of clock time.
With the victory, UT Martin improved to 14-1 inside the Elam Center in 2022-23 – tying the program’s NCAA Division I Era (since 1992) record for most home wins in a single season. The triumph also clinched a winning season for the Skyhawks – the seventh such campaign since UT Martin transitioned to the NCAA Division I level.
SIUE (17-11, 8-7 OVC) received 20 points out of Damarco Minor while Ray’Sean Taylor provided 18 points. DeeJuan Pruitt came away with a double-double (12 points, 10 rebounds) and Jalen Hodge tallied 13 points but the Skyhawks tripled up the Cougars in fast break points (18 to six).
UT Martin rode the hot hands of Stewart and Williams in the first half as that duo sank 63.6 percent (7-for-11) of their three-point attempts. The Skyhawks held the Cougars without a field goal for the first four-plus minutes, jumping out to a 7-2 advantage.
Back-to-back three-pointers by Williams and a triple by Stewart – all coming within 46 seconds of each other – expanded UT Martin’s lead out to 20-9 and forced SIUE to burn a timeout at the 12:34 mark of the first half.
The Cougars answered with a 9-0 run and eventually took a brief 26-25 lead with six minutes to play before the halftime break.
The Skyhawks came right back with a 10-0 run of their own, wrapped up by trifectas out of Williams and Stewart on consecutive possessions. UT Martin eventually pushed its lead out to 11 points after a KJ Simon driving layup before settling for a 44-39 lead at the half.
Stewart (14 points) and Williams (10) already reached double figures in the scoring column in the opening 20 minutes while Minor, Lamar Wright and Jonathan Kurtas each scored seven points apiece for SIUE.
Sears scored 20 points alone in the game’s final 20 minutes. Following a Jalen Myers three-pointer from the left wing, Sears went off for 10 consecutive Skyhawk points but six unanswered Cougar points resulted in a 60-57 UT Martin deficit with 9:20 remaining.
Trailing by a slim 62-61 margin, the Skyhawks unreeled a 10-1 run that was completed by three-pointers out of KK Curry and Williams. SIUE wouldn’t get any closer than four points the rest of the way as a pair of Stewart free throws with 45 seconds to go put the finishing touches on an 8-1 run and provided UT Martin with its biggest lead of the evening (83-70).
The Cougars showed no signs of bowing out – hitting four 3-pointers in the final 25 seconds – but Myers, Sears and Williams combined to go 7-for-8 from the charity stripe down the stretch to seal the Skyhawk victory.
MOREHEAD STATE 74, TENNESSEE STATE 64
MOREHEAD, Ky. - - Alex Gross collected a double-double with 19 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Morehead State men's basketball team over the Tennessee State Tigers 74-64 at home Thursday.
In addition to Gross' double-double, the Eagles (18-10, 11-4 OVC) were led by Branden Maughmer, who totaled 12 points and three steals, and by Mark Freeman, who added 19 points. Gross also swatted away a career-high five shots to keep his lead in the OVC for blocked shots. Jake Wolfe had a double-figure game as well, with 12 points.
With the win, MSU sets itself up to try to clinch at least a share of its first OVC regular season title since 2002-03. A win Saturday over Lindenwood will accomplish that feat.
Morehead State out-rebounded Tennessee State 42-28 in Thursday's game, led by Gross' 13 boards.
Morehead State did a great job disrupting Tennessee State shots in the contest, coming away with eight blocks. MSU held one of the OVC's leading scorers, Jr., Clay to just nine points on 4-of-18 shooting.
After jumping out to a 19-15 advantage, Morehead State went on a 9-0 run with 6:45 left in the first half to increase its lead to 28-15. The Eagles then lost some of that lead, but still entered halftime with a 34-24 advantage. Morehead State did most of its first half damage in the paint, scoring 22 of its 34 points close to the basket.
The Tigers proceeded to tie things up at 50-50 before Morehead State went on a 10-0 run, finished off by Wolfe's three, to seize a 60-50 lead with 5:48 to go in the contest. The Eagles held onto that lead for the rest of the game for the 74-64 win. Morehead State got a boost from its bench in the period, as non-starters accounted for 10 of its 40 total points.