SATURDAY'S SCORES
@Morehead State 74, Tennessee State 68
@Lindenwood 71, Western Illinois 65
UT Martin 77, @Southern Indiana 46
@Southeast Missouri 80, SIUE 64
Eastern Illinois at Little Rock (Postponed)
MOREHEAD STATE 74, TENNESSEE STATE 68
MOREHEAD, Ky. - Led by a career-high day from Kenny White, Jr., Morehead State Men's Basketball improved to 2-0 in the Ohio Valley Conference with a 74-68 win over Tennessee State Saturday afternoon at Johnson Arena. White erupted for career-highs in points (25) and rebounds (17) as the Eagles won their 9th straight game in the TSU series.
MSU (6-6/2-0 OVC) did not gain the lead for good until 6:32 to go on Steven Clay's three-pointer. The Eagles also out-rebounded the Tigers 44-27 as the Tigers entered the game with a plus-10 rebound margin. Twenty (20) of the boards came on the offensive end of the court. MSU won while only committing nine turnovers too, and White added a team-high four assists.
Morton scored in double figures for the second straight game, dropping in 15 points. Tyer Brelsford scored 13, including going 8-for-8 at the free throw line.
TSU led for a majority of the first half, including building its biggest advantage (20-13) with 8:27 left. But the home team chipped away and eventually took a 32-30 halftime lead as Jalen Breazeale nailed a three-pointer as time expired in the opening 20 minutes.
The Tigers continued to hold the lead until Clay drilled a corner triple with 6:32 to go. The Eagles went on to lead by as much as seven (70-63) with less than a minute remaining.
MSU shot 39 percent but outscored the visitors 21-6 at the free throw line. TSU was led by by Travis Harper with 22 points, including 6-of-8 from long range.
LINDENWOOD 71, WESTERN ILLINOIS 65
ST. CHARLES, Mo. - Lindenwood men's basketball (6-7, 1-1 OVC) earned their first Ohio Valley Conference win of the season over Western Illinois (7-6, 1-1 OVC) by a final score of 71-65. The Lions even up their OVC record on the season and head into 2025 with six wins.
Markeith Browning II for the second consecutive game led the Lions in points after scoring 18 against the Leathernecks. The graduate student shot 5-18 from the floor while going 6-9 at the foul line. He also was able to grab five rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Rebounding was key for Lindenwood on Saturday as LU out-rebounded Western Illinois 37-28 including 11-8 on the offensive glass. The Lions scored 14 points on second chance opportunities compared to just six by WIU. Of the 11 offensive boards, Jadis Jones had six of them.
The freshman forward tied his season-high in points against the Leathernecks with 17. Jones shot 8-13 from the field while leading the team with eight rebounds. He also managed to dish out two assists. Reggie Bass was the third Lion in double-digits scoring 10 points and adding a team-high four assists. Lindenwood assisted on 12 of their 27 made field-goals.
Bench points went in favor of the Lions as they scored 19 points from the reserves. Nathan Johnson Jr. scored nine points in the win including a big-time three pointers to put the Lions ahead by four-points late in the game. Johnson also had a team-high four steals. Jordan Wildy also contributed six points, five rebounds and three assists for LU in a reserve role.
Forty-four of Lindenwood's 71 points came in the paint compared to just 32 by the Leathernecks. LU also scored 11 points on fast break opportunities. Western Illinois did have six blocks against Lindenwood while the Lions had none.
Through the first five minutes of action, the Lions found themselves trailing by just one point at 13-12 with 14:35 remaining in the first half. The Lions started the game off shooting 5-8 from the floor, but WIU made three of their first four three-point attempts.
Lindenwood held a slight advantage by three with 6:36 left in the half, but were able to end the quarter on a 10-2 run as they entered the locker room leading 36-25. The Lions shot 16-31 from the floor in the first half while holding WIU to 9-27. Jones had 10 points and five rebounds going into the break.
Western Illinois cut the deficit to under 10 points with 13:25 left in the game as the Lions led by nine (50-41). LU started the quarter shooting 5-9 from the floor bu the Leathernecks were 6-12 and were out-scoring the Lions 16-14 to that point in the second half.
With 7:10 remaining, Trey Deveaux scored to cut the lead to 62-56. Western Illinois was shooting 12-20 (60.0%) from the floor up until that point, but the Lions were getting to the line and had made 7-8 foul shots in the second half with under eight to play.
The Leathernecks got it as close as one points (66-65) before the Lions were able to pull away late to clinch their first OVC win of the season. Johnson scored five of his nine points in the final minute the game to help LU secure the victory.
UT MARTIN 77, SOUTHERN INDIANA 46
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - The largest margin of victory in an Ohio Valley Conference contest in University of Tennessee at Martin men’s basketball history took place this afternoon at Southern Indiana as the Skyhawks dominated on both ends in a 77-46 triumph at Liberty Arena.
UT Martin scored the first 15 points of the contest and led by as many as 47 points with 13 minutes remaining, splashing 18 treys – the most in school history against a NCAA Division I opponent – in 38 attempts (47.4 percent). The Skyhawks allowed just 15 points in the first half and limited Southern Indiana to 4-for-28 (14.3 percent) from beyond the three-point arc. As a direct result, UT Martin’s 31-point decision passed three previous victories (81-51 against Eastern Illinois on Jan. 29, 2015; 92-62 against Southeast Missouri on Feb. 20, 1997; 83-53 against Eastern Illinois on Feb. 13, 1997) for biggest OVC win in school history in terms of point margin.
Tarence Guinyard paced UT Martin (5-8, 1-1 OVC) in scoring for the fifth consecutive contest, tossing in 26 of his game-high 28 points in the first half. He was 10-of-18 from the floor – including a career-best seven trifectas in 10 tries – while adding a career-high nine rebounds with three assists in 27 minutes. Josué Grullon was responsible for 20 points on 7-for-12 shooting (including 6-of-9 from three-point land) in 19 minutes off the bench to round out the Skyhawks’ double-digit scorers.
Vladimer Salaridze (eight points, seven rebounds, career-high five assists) and Afan Trnka (five assists, game-best three steals) additionally performed well for UT Martin.
The Screaming Eagles (6-6, 1-1 OVC) only placed Jayland Randall in scoring figures as he tallied 12 points with three steals. Southern Indiana shot 28.8 percent (19-for-66) during the game and did not convert its first 3-pointer of the day until the 17:09 mark of the second half.
Guinyard accounted for three triples and an old-fashioned three-point play in the first 4:28, helping the Skyhawks grab their 15-0 advantage. The Screaming Eagles began the game 0-for-6 from the field with four turnovers before getting on the scoreboard for the first time at the 13:16 mark.
An AJ Hopkins three-pointer with 9:13 to go in the opening half widened UT Martin’s lead to 32-5. Guinyard added a dagger by scooping up a loose ball from 25 feet out and drilling a three-pointer right before time expired on the opening half, extending the Skyhawk lead to 52-15 at the break.
UT Martin was plus-39 points from three-point land in the first 20 minutes, shooting 13-of-24 (54.2 percent) compared to 0-for-12 for Southern Indiana.
Grullon drilled back-to-back three-pointers to extend the Skyhawk lead all the way out to 69-22 with 13:11 remaining. UT Martin kept a comfortable 40-point advantage until under six minutes to go before cruising to the finish line.
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 80, SIUE 64
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Southeast Missouri Men's Basketball (6-6, 2-0 OVC) downed SIUE (7-6, 0-2 OVC) by a final score of 80-64 to remain undefeated in Ohio Valley Conference play on Saturday afternoon from the Show Me Center.
Three Redhawks finished in double-digits led by BJ Ward with 18 points on 6-for-14 shooting. Teddy Washington and Brendan Terry poured in 17 points each to lead SEMO to a 14-point victory.
As a team, SEMO shot nearly 50-percent from the field (48.4%) and an impressive 86-percent from the charity stripe (13-15). Three Redhawks shot a perfect 100-percent from the line led by Teddy Washington (3-3). BJ Ward (2-2) and Trent Cole, Jr. (2-2) followed suit.
The Redhawks dominated the glass, outrebounding SIUE by a 37-22 advantage led by Terry who finished with eight rebounds. SEMO held the advantage in the paint, outscoring SIUE by a 40-28 advantage near the basket.
SEMO assisted on 14-of-30 field goals in the game, led by BJ Ward who finished with four assists.
The Redhawks controlled the tip and on their first possession, BJ Ward drained a three-pointer off a pass from Rob Martin to give SEMO an early lead.
Forward Brendan Terry scored four quick points with a pair of baskets in the lane. The first came on a fast break layup off another assist from Martin before Terry finished with a hook shot to give the Redhawks a 9-5 lead with 17:53 left in the half.
Senior Teddy Washington, Jr. got on the score sheet after the game's first media timeout with a three pointer off an assist from Ward to give the Redhawks their biggest lead, a five-point advantage, before SIUE's Ray'sean Taylor answered with a three of his own.
Taylor recorded 14 first half points.
The teams would battle back-and-forth as the Redhawks extended their lead back to six points after a second-chance opportunity cashed in by Damarion Walkup with a made jumper off an inbound pass by Ward.
Center David Idada scored four points in a row for the Redhawks over a 42-second span beginning with a pair of free throws to put SEMO up six. Idada would then score over his right shoulder off an assist from Damarion Walkup to make it 40-34 SEMO.
With just 41 seconds to play in the opening half, the Redhawks grew their lead out to 11 after a pair of Troy Cole, Jr. free throws.
Another Taylor three with just under 25-seconds to go cut the SEMO lead to eight as the first half came to a close. The Redhawks led 45-37 at the end of the first 20-minutes.
Teddy Washington, Jr. finished the first half with a team-high 10 points on 3-of-6 shooting including a perfect 3-for-3 from the charity stripe. SEMO shot 50-percent from the field as a team (17-34), 33-percent from three (4-12), and a perfect 100-percent from the free throw line (7-7).
The Redhawks outrebounded the Cougars by an 18-12 advantage in the first half, led by Brendan Terry with who finished with four rebounds.
SIUE shot 47-percent from the field, led by Ray'sean Taylor with 14 points at halftime.
BJ Ward opened the second half with the first basket for SEMO, just as he did in the first half, with a two-point jump shot at the elbow.
After three-straight SIUE baskets, the Redhawks got out in transition as Elliot Lowndes ran the floor and collected a Teddy Washington pass and slammed it home to give the Redhawks a 52-46 advantage.
After a SIUE dunk, five-straight points by BJ Ward beginning with a three-pointer and a pair of free throws made it 57-48 with 15:26 to go in the game.
SEMO never looked back as Brendan Terry scored six straight points beginning at 4:36 to make it 72-60 Redhawks. His 6-0 run eventually made it 78-60 Redhawks as SEMO held on for an 80-64 victory.
EASTERN ILLINOIS, LITTLE ROCK (POSTPONED)
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Saturday's Eastern Illinois at Little Rock men's basketball game has been postponed due to the tragic passing of Little Rock student manager Josh Claxton who died in a car accident. The OVC and the two teams will work to reschedule the game for later in the season.
Our thoughts and condolences are with Josh's family and friends.