SATURDAY'S SCORES
@West Georgia 78,
Tennessee Tech 73
@Southern Illinois 73,
Southnern Indiana 70
@Ohio 88,
Morehead State 76
@UT Martin 112, Montreat 60
@#20 Ole Miss 86,
Lindenwood 53
WEST GEORGIA 78, TENNESSEE TECH 73
CARROLLTON, Ga. - A furious comeback bid just ran out of steam for the Tennessee Tech men's basketball team at The Coliseum Saturday afternoon, as the Golden Eagles fell in their rematch with West Georgia, 78-73 in Carrollton, Ga.
Both offenses lit up the scoreboard to open the day, with the Wolves leading 11-10 at the first media break. West Georgia continued its hot shooting after the timeout, but the Golden Eagle offense went a little flat, allowing the home team to rattle off a 10-0 run.
Starting the affair 8-of-10 from the floor, the Wolves continued to dominate behind a feisty defense that forced seven first-half turnovers by the purple and gold. Outscoring Tech 15-2 off turnovers, the home squad saw its advantage swell to as much as 19 with 90 seconds to play in the opening stanza.
Facing a 49-32 hole walking into the locker room, the Golden Eagles regrouped and began to methodically chip away at the rock in front of them. Within the first six minutes, Tech had the hole down to single digits.
A 9-1 run up to the 28-second mark to play saw the purple and gold close the gap to single bucket at 75-73, but West Georgia hit enough free throws down the stretch to hold on. Tech had a couple of looks from distance, but couldn't connect as the Wolves hauled in a pair of defensive boards.
Senior forward Rodney Johnson Jr. led the Golden Eagles with 17 points, finishing 7-for-10 from the floor. He chipped in seven rebounds and three assists as well. Senior guard Mekhi Cameron finished 5-of-6 from the charity stripe on his way to 15 points for the day, adding three steals and five rebounds for good measure.
Leading Tech with six assists, junior guard Jaylon Johnson secured 12 points with a couple of steals and four boards. Sophomore guard Kyle Layton drained a trio of triples while accumulating 11 points with four rebounds.
Off the bench, junior forward Ola Ajiboye ended the day 4-for-6 for eight points in 19 minutes of action. Fellow junior forward Daniel Egbuniwe led the Golden Eagles with eight rebounds while fighting through a hand injury, ending the day with five points and three assists.
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS 73, SOUTHERN INDIANA 70
CARBONDALE, Ill. - University of Southern Indiana Men's Basketball battled to the last minute, but fell to Southern Illinois University, 73-70, Saturday afternoon at the Banterra Center in Carbondale, Illinois. The Screaming Eagles, whose winning streak stopped at three, are 4-5 overall this season, while the Salukis go to 4-6.
USI and SIU battled back and forth through the first 20 minutes of the game before the Salukis grabbed a 37-34 lead at the intermission. The half featured 13 combined ties and lead changes between the two teams.
The Eagles' largest run of the half was 7-0 to snag a 28-27 lead with 2:53 left in the half, while the largest margin was three points, 11-8. USI sophomore forward Stephen Olowoniyi was the Eagles' main offensive threat, scoring 20 of 34 first-half points.
The second half started much like the first half with the Eagles and the Salukis trading buckets until a three-point bucket by junior guard Jayland Randall put the Eagles up one, 46-45, with 14:58 left. The Salukis would respond to take back the lead and would lead by as many as eight, 62-54, with a 17-8 burst after the 10-minute mark.
USI would battle back to cut the deficit to 69-67 after a pair of Olowoniyi free throws and 72-70 on a three-pointer by Randall, but a SIU bucket and two free throws in the final 10 seconds would seal the Eagles' fate 73-70. SIU also won the important battle of the glass, 35-24.
Olowoniyi was limited to four points in the second half and finished with a team-high and career-high 24 points. He was 10-of-11 from the field and four-of-five from the stripe.
Randall joined Olowoniyi in double-digits with 22 points, two short of a career-best. He was eight-of-14 from the field, three-of-three from downtown, and three-of-four from the stripe.
OHIO 88, MOREHEAD STATE 76
ATHENS, Ohio - A big second-half scoring flurry by the host Ohio Bobcats spelled trouble for the Morehead State Men's Basketball team Saturday at the Convocation Center. Trailing just just six at the break, Ohio broke it open and held on to defeat the Eagles 88-76.
MSU slipped to 3-6 on the season, while OU moved to 4-5. It was the first meeting between the teams since the 2019-20 season.
MSU trailed through the first half, falling behind 14-3 at the 16:06 mark, but then the Eagles held Ohio to just three points over the next eight minutes. The home team pushed back ahead 29-19 at 5:39, but another Eagle push had the visitors back in the game at 31-27 with 4:13 left in the first half after Trent Scott's bucket. Ohio ended with a 39-33 halftime advantage.
Ohio's winning difference came in the first eight minutes of the second half when it outscored MSU 24-9 to catapult ahead by 21 (63-42). The 'Cats eventually built as much as a 23-point lead.
MSU's Tyler Brelsford led the team, which had four in double figures in scoring for the second straight game, netting 16 points to go along with six rebounds and five assists. Kade Ruegsegger scored 12 points to go along with Jalen Breazeale (13) and George Marshall with 10 points.
Ohio shot 58 percent in the second half and finished at 53 percent for the game. MSU managed to hit 41 percent overall for the contest. Rebounds went in favor of Ohio, 35-32.
Jackson Paveletzky led all scorers with 23 points for Ohio.
UT MARTIN 112, MONTREAT 60
MARTIN, Tenn. - The University of Tennessee at Martin men's basketball team had little trouble with Montreat Saturday, defeating the Cavaliers, 112-60, at the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center.
The Skyhawks dominated the game from start to finish, never trailing and leading by as many as 54. UT Martin shot an impressive 52.9-percent from the floor and 33.3-percent from 3-point range Saturday, while holding Montreat to a 31.7-percent field goal percentage and a paltry 14.3-percent 3-point field goal percentage.
The Skyhawks scored 29 of their 111 points at the free throw line, a place they visited 42 times during the game. UT Martin scored an impressive 48 points in the paint, 19 points off turnovers, 24 second-chance points, 34 fast-break points and got 42 points from their bench.
All nine Skyhawks that played Saturday scored, with eight of the nine registering double-digits. Tarence Guinyard led UT Martin with 17 points on the back of an impressive 6-of-12 performance from the field. Andrija Bukumirovic posted a double-double of 16 points and a game-high 10 rebounds, while Stefano Faloppa notched his own double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds.
#20 OLE MISS 86, LINDENWOOD 53
OXFORD, Miss. - It was a tale of two halves for Lindenwood men's basketball (3-6, 0-0 OVC) on Saturday as the Lions fell to #23/20 Ole Miss (8-1, 0-0 SEC) by a final score of 86-53. Lindenwood trailed by only six points heading into halftime, but the Rebels outscored Lindenwood by 27 points during the second half.
"Impressive first half by our guys I thought," said head coach Kyle Gerdeman. "Especially once we lost Anias (Futrell). I thought we had a lot of guys step up and play well. Credit to Ole Miss in the second half, they used their size advantage on both ends of the floor, and really wore us down."
Reggie Bass was the lone Lion to score in double-figures on Saturday with 10 points matching a season-high for the junior guard. Bass shot 3-8 from the field while hitting two three-pointers. He also pulled down a season-high six rebounds while adding two assists.
The freshman duo of Jadis Jones and Clayton Jackson both provided a spark as they started together for the second consecutive game. Jones scored nine points in the loss while adding five rebounds. Jackson shot 3-6 from the floor, scoring eight points and dished out two assists.
Nathan Johnson Jr. and Markeith Browning II each chipped in seven points. Browning shot only 2-12 from the floor but had a team-high eight rebounds and three assists. Johnson contributed seven of Lindenwood's 24 bench points on Saturday.
Lindenwood shot 35.3% from the floor on Saturday which marked their second lowest shooting percentage of the season. Ole Miss shot 31-60 from the floor which was good for a 51.7% field-goal percentage. After starting off 5-10 from three-point range, the Lions finished shooting 6-21.
The Rebels forced Lindenwood into 15 turnovers where Ole Mis scored 12 points. Lindenwood's defense created seven turnovers and had five steals resulting in 10 points. Ole Miss' offense went heavy in the paint in the second half resulting in 38 paint points to just 18 by the Lions.
During the first half, Lindenwood held a three-point advantage at the 14:02 mark after a three-point jumper by Johnson Jr. (16-13). After back-and-forth blows, Lindenwood held a four-point lead with just over seven minutes remaining in the first half after two Bass free throws.
The Rebels after that point would go on a 9-1 run to take back the lead at the 5:02 minute mark by a score of 33-29. Lindenwood would keep it close, but would find themselves down six at the break 39-33. The Lions shot 38.5% from the field in the first half including five triples.
Ole Miss had their first double-digit lead of the night with 15:01 remaining after two foul shots from Dre Davis. Jackson cut the lead to eight points (50-42) with just under 14 to play, but Ole Miss would go on a 12-0 run to stretch the lead to 20 points.
Lindenwood's offense was never able to catch up to the Rebels as they stretched out their lead to over 30 points down the stretch. The Lions were held to just 20 points in the second half while shooting 8-25 from the floor. Ole Miss took advantage in the paint scoring 24 of their 47 second half points down low.