FRIDAY'S SCORES
@#20 Cincinnati 83,
Morehead State 56
@#24 Illinois 90,
SIUE 59
@Colorado State 87,
Tennessee State 79 (OT)
#20 CINCINNATI 83, MOREHEAD STATE 56
CINCINNATI - Morehead State men's basketball showed resiliency and fight at No. 20 Cincinnati Friday night but the host Bearcats' offensive efficiency proved to be too much as the Eagles fell 83-56 at Fifth Third Arena.
MSU slipped to 1-2, while UC moved to 2-0. It was the first meeting between the programs since 2014.
UC finished at a 60 percent shooting night. MSU shot 36 percent.
Kade Ruegsegger hit the Eagles' first triple of the game to give MSU a 3-2 lead. The Eagles kept the deficit small for a majority of the first half, but a 10-0 run by UC pushed its margin to 31-14 with just more than five minutes remaining in the opening half. Another Ruegsegger triple stopped the run at 3:51.
UC led 37-19 at the halftime break. The Bearcats' second-half lead ballooned to as much as 34.
Kenny White, Jr., scored in double figures for the third straight game with 10 points to lead the Eagles. Dieonte Miles, who played four years at UC's crosstown rival Xavier, scored nine. Tyler Brelsford had six points and a team-high assists.
MSU tied the Bearcats on the glass, 30-30. Trent Scott tied his career-high with seven rebounds.
#24 ILLINOIS 90, SIUE 59
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - SIUE men's basketball fell to a talented University of Illinois team 90-59 Friday night at State Farm Center.
SIUE dropped to 1-2 on the young year after playing three games in five days. Illinois improves to 2-0 defeating a pair of Ohio Valley Conference teams.
Illinois jumped out to an early 12-4 lead, including a 7-0 spurt. The Cougars fought back to cut the lead to 10 on a three-pointer by Ray'Sean Taylor midway through the first half.
A 6-0 Fighting Illini run pushed the lead back to double digits, but the Cougars had an answer.
SIUE capitalized on a 10-2 run which cut the Illini lead to five, 28-23, on a layup by Myles Thompson with 5:30 left in the first half.
Illinois shot six straight threes, connecting on two of them, to stretch its lead to 18 (46-28) going into halftime. The Illini never looked back.
SIUE came out of the locker room with a quick 5-0 run, but Illinois was quick to answer with a pair of three pointers by Tomislav Ivisic and Tre White.
SIUE would get as close as 52-40 on a tip-in by Jo Valerie, but it wasn't enough to stop the powerful Illinois offense. Illinois grew its lead to 32 in the second half.
SIUE got a valiant effort from 6-5 graduate student Jo Valrie. Valrie scored eight points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field and grabbed 11 rebounds including five offensive rebounds.
Ray'Sean Taylor led the Cougars in scoring with 14 points shotting 4-15 from the field, connecting on two three pointers. Taylor also contributed four assists and two defensive rebounds.
SIUE shot 30 percent from the field and 25 percent from behind the arc. The Cougars shot 47 percent (8-17) from the free throw line. SIUE collected 41 rebounds,19 offensive and 22 defensive.
Illinois got production from its big man, Tomislav Ivisic. Ivisic led all scorers with18 points on 6-9 from the field including two three-pointers. The freshman also recorded seven rebounds.
The Illini also received a double-double from Kasparas Jakucionis who scored 12 points, while dishing out 13 assists and eight rebounds. The 13 assists tied the Illinois freshman assists record.
Illinois shot 28-63 from the field and 15-38 from three-point range. The Illini added 19 points from the free throw line on 28 attempts.
COLORADO STATE 87, TENNESSEE STATE 79 (OT)
FORT COLLINS, Colo. - Aaron Nkrumah knocked down a top of the key lunging three-pointer with two seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime, but Colorado State finished the game on a 7-0 run to narrowly escape an 87-79 win over Tennessee State on Friday evening.
The Tigers (1-1) had five players score in double figures, led by Brandon Weston, who had 13 points, seven rebounds and two steals. Aaron Nkrumah tacked on 12 points and five steals off of the bench and Knute Wood helped out with 11 points off of the bench.
Weston pulled down four offensive rebounds to pace the Tennessee State offense which grabbed 13 boards and turned them into 15 second chance points.
After falling behind 17-12, Tennessee State went on an 11-0 run with 9:21 left in the first half, culminating in a bucket from Ahmir Langlais, to take a 23-17 lead. The Tigers then lost some of that lead, but still entered halftime with a 32-30 advantage. Tennessee State took advantage of six offensive rebounds to score six second chance points out of 32 total in the period
Colorado State proceeded to take a 45-34 lead before Tennessee State went on a 7-0 run, finished off by Josh Ogundele's layup, to shrink the deficit to 45-41 with 13:21 to go in the contest. The Tigers rally continued as they outscored Colorado State 29-25 the rest of the way to tie it at 70-70 and send the game to overtime. Nkrumah's 3-pointer sent the contest to an extra period with just two seconds left. Tennessee State got a boost from its bench in the period, accounting for 22 of its 38 total points.
Colorado State then took control in overtime and won 87-79.