THURSDAY'S SCORES
@Morehead State 82, Tennessee Tech 57
@Little Rock 88, SIUE 80
@Western Illinois 68, Southeast Missouri 61
@Southern Indiana 69, Tennessee State 67
Eastern Illinois 79, @UT Martin 72
MOREHEAD STATE 82, TENNESSEE TECH 57
MOREHEAD, Ky. - Jordan Lathon scored a game-high 21 points, while Riley Minix posted his OVC best seventh double-double with 17 points and career-high 19 rebounds to help lead the Morehead State men's basketball team over the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles 82-57 at home Thursday. Leading by just one (33-32) at the half, MSU outscored Tech 49-25 in the final 20 minutes.
Lathon added three steals to his 21-point game to lead the Eagles (11-4, 2-0 OVC), who have now won 13 consecutive home games and are 25-3 in January games over the past four seasons. Kalil Thomas drilled five three-pointers and scored 19 - one short of his season high. Drew Thelwell chipped in with six points, eight assists and four steals.
Morehead State shared the ball well in Thursday's game, racking up 15 assists on 29 made field goals. Thelwell, the league leader in assists, now has 52 teammate helpers in his last five games.
Morehead State did a great job disrupting Tennessee Tech shots in the contest, coming away with five blocks. MSU won its 10th straight home game versus TTU and has now defeated the Golden Eagles in Johnson Arena 17 of the past 18 meetings.
MSU also continued its torrid rebounding pace, grabbing 45 boards with a plus-25 rebound margin. The Eagles entered the night ranked seventh in the nation in rebounding margin.
David Early and Diante Wood both scored 11 to pace the visiting team.
After playing to a 2-2 tie, Morehead State went on a 7-0 run with 18:30 left in the first half to take a 9-2 lead. The Eagles then lost some of that lead, but still entered halftime with a 33-32 advantage. Morehead State did most of its first half damage in the paint, scoring 18 of its 33 points close to the basket.
Following intermission, Morehead State kept widening that lead, expanding it to 47-40 before going on a 9-0 run, finished off by Minix's layup, to grow the lead to 56-40 with 10:54 to go in the contest. Thomas nailed his fifth triple with 2:04 left to widen the lead to 77-55. Morehead State shot well from three-point range in the half, hitting seven shots from deep to score 21 of its 49 points.
LITTLE ROCK 88, SIUE 80
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The Little Rock men's basketball team used a balanced scoring effort Thursday to secure an 88-80 conference win over SIUE at the Jack Stephens Center. Four players scored at least 14 points as the Trojans (8-8, 2-1 OVC) got back in the win column following a split of their first pair of conference contests.
KK Robinson registered a triple-double with 18 points, a career-high 12 assists, and 10 rebounds while adding a pair of steals to lead the way. DeAntoni Gordon had a team-high 19 points with five rebounds before fouling out, Jamir Chaplin had 18 points and five assists on a very efficient 7-of-10 shooting from the floor, and Jaylen Crocker-Johnson had 14 points, five rebounds, four assists and a pair of blocks.
The Trojans finished the night shooting a blistering 57.6 percent from the field (34-of-59), including 7-of-14 from long distance, and converted 13-of-21 from the foul line. Little Rock outscored SIUE by 16 inside the paint and had a 26-8 advantage in points scored on fast breaks.
Little Rock led by as many as 19 with 12:25 to play in the game and trailed for only 51 seconds. The 24 assists for the team are the highest single-game total this season, eclipsing the previous mark of 22, which happened twice vs Northern Illinois and Ball State. The Trojans' 19-point lead is the second-highest lead by the team this season.
SIUE (8-8, 1-2 OVC) shot 44.8 percent from the floor (30-of-67) and made just 9-of-28 from three-point distance (32.1 percent). Ray'Sean Taylor scored 19, Shamar Wright had 17 and Desmond Polk tossed in 15 to lead the Cougars' scoring effort. SIUE was hurt by a poor-shooting first half during which it made just 12-of-231 shots (38.7 percent).
WESTERN ILLINOIS 68, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 61
MACOMB, Ill. - It was a grind, but in the end, it was a victory. And that's all that matters.
The Western Illinois men's basketball team ran its win streak to six straight victories, topping Southeast Missouri 68-61 on Thursday night in the first Ohio Valley Conference game played in Macomb. The victory is also the seventh in eight games for the Leathernecks, who improved to 9-6 overall and 2-0 in the Ohio Valley Conference.
Rebounding, defense and free throw shooting led the way as the Leathernecks outrebounded the Redhawks 50-33, went 19-27 from the line vs. 4-11 for SEMO and for the ninth straight game, held an opponent to 71 points or fewer.
The Leathernecks flexed their muscles on the offensive glass, finishing with 23 offensive boards and 19 second-chance points.
JJ Kalakon led the way for Western Illinois, scoring a career-high 16 points while also grabbing eight points. Ryan Myers continued his steady play, finishing with 16 points as well. Jesiah West added seven and eight rebounds while Quinlan Bennett finished with seven points.
The Leathernecks led for over three-quarters of the game and by as many as 10, but SEMO hung around, even taking a second-half lead before Western Illinois went to work at both ends of the floor and climbed back into the game.
SOUTHERN INDIANA 69, TENNESSEE STATE 67
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - University of Southern Indiana had to fend off a pair of last second shots and held on to defeat Tennessee State University, 69-67, Thursday evening at Screaming Eagles Arena. The Eagles rise to 5-11 overall and start OVC play 2-1, while the Tigers are 8-8 overall, 1-2 OVC.
The USI Eagles soared out to a 17-2 lead before five minutes were gone to start the game. USI hit five of its first seven shots, including a trio of three-pointers, while holding TSU to one-of-four from the field. The game opening run would last through 13:43 and was extended to 20-2. The Eagles would reach a second 18-point lead at 22-4 at 12:45 when sophomore guard/forward AJ Smith (Edwardsville, Illinois), who had 15 first half points, dropped the hammer.
The Tiger offense came to life at the midway half of the opening 20 minutes with 14-2 run of their own to cut the gap to 22-16 at 8:53 before halftime. The Eagle shooters would go cold during the TSU run, going scoreless for 4:33 going 0-7 from the field.
TSU would shrink the USI margin to four points, 35-31, before USI was able to take a seven-point lead into halftime, 40-33.
The second half saw the Tigers outscore the Eagles, 11-4, and tied the game, 44-44, with16:20 to play. A defensive battle would ensue with both teams going scoreless for the next four minutes and without a field goal for over five minutes until USI junior forward Jack Mielke (Downers Grove, Illinois) gave USI back the lead, 47-44, at 11:31.
The Eagles and the Tigers would trade baskets and leads over the next nine minutes (10 lead changes and seven ties) when a quick surge gave TSU a 64-61 lead with 2:33 left in the game. Junior guard Jeremiah Hernandez (Chicago, Illinois) pulled the Eagles back to within one, 64-63, with a rebound and lay in before junior forward Nick Hittle (Indianapolis, Indiana) put USI back in the lead, 65-64, with a jumper in the lane with 1:14 left.
Hernandez padded the USI margin with a pair of free throws, 67-64, but TSU was not done, closing the gap once again to one, 67-66, with 13.5 to play. USI sophomore guard Jack Campion (Milton, Wisconsin) put the Eagles back up three, 69-66, with a pair of charity shots with 10 seconds to play.
The USI defense and Smith would close the door in the final six seconds in the 69-67 win. Following a made free throw on the front end of a one-and-one, USI fended off three TSU shots, including a block by Smith, in a thrilling final sequence.
In the scoring column for USI, Hernandez scored 12 second half points and finished game with a game-high 20 points. The junior guard was five-of-11 from the field and 10-of-12 from the line after drawing 11 fouls in the game.
Smith would round out he double-digit scorers with his 15 first half points and recorded his seventh double-double of the season with 10 rebounds. The seven double-doubles are tied for first in the OVC.
EASTERN ILLINOIS 79, UT MARTIN 72
MARTIN, Tenn. - Eastern Illinois played with its starting five nearly the entire second half with all five contributing during a 79-72 win over UT Martin on Thursday night in a nationally televised game on ESPNU.
The game was tied 38-38 at the half with Tiger Booker scoring the final six points of the first scoring 15 of his 21 points in the opening half.
EIU used a 9-1 run in the second to take a 54-46 lead with 14:26 left in the game. Corey Sawyer Jr scored seven of the nine plus passed out an assist for a Kyndall Davis dunk to end the run. Sawyer scored 20 points, one of three Panthers in double figures.
Kooper Jacobi was the final Panther in double figures hitting a 3-pointer with 11:54 to play putting EIU up ten, 59-49. Jacobi hit five 3-pointers and finished with 19 points and eight rebounds.
UT Martin had a couple of more runs cutting the lead to four points one final time with back-to-back baskets by Jordan Sears as EIU led 70-66 with 4:50 to play.
Booker knocked down a 3-pointer to answer and the Panthers made key free throws and defensive stops to clinch the win.
Nakyel Shelton pulled down 12 rebounds as EIU finished even on the glass on the night with 36-36 total.
Sears led all scorers with 26 points. KK Curry added 16 including a 7-of-10 night at the free throw line as the Skyhawks were 17-of-22 at the stripe.
EIU improved to 7-8 overall, 1-1 in the OVC. UTM dropped to 9-7 overall, 2-1 in the OVC.