SATURDAY'S SCORES
@Morehead State 67, Lindenwood 49
@Little Rock 81, Tennessee Tech 43
@Western Illinois 76, SIUE 65
@UT Martin 96, Tennessee State 87
Southeast Missouri 70, @Southern Indiana 66
MORREHEAD STATE 67, LINDENWOOD 49
MOREHEAD, Ky. - Riley Minix and Drew Thelwell both recorded double-doubles to help lead the Morehead State men's basketball team past the Lindenwood Lions 67-49 at home Saturday, clinching a share of the 2023-24 Ohio Valley Conference regular season championship.
It's the Eagles' second straight regular-season title, something that hadn't occurred in nearly 70 seasons.
The double-doubles by Minix, who had 23 points and 14 rebounds, and Thelwell, who had 14 points and 11 assists, led the Eagles (23-8, 14-4 OVC) in the contest. Kalil Thomas helped out with 11 points, seven rebounds and two steals.
Minix recorded his ninth consecutive double-double and 18th of the season to lead the league and rank in the top 10 nationally. Thelwell posted his second career double-double. His 11 assists pushed him to 196 for the season, just eight short of the single-season MSU record.
Morehead State grabbed 38 rebounds in Saturday's game compared to Lindenwood's 27, led by Minix's 14 boards. The Eagles also put in work on the offensive glass, turning 11 rebounds into 13 second chance points.
Morehead State's defense held Lindenwood to only 38 percent shooting from the field, including 21 percent from beyond the arc. The Eagles also limited Darius Beane to 3-of-12 shooting and eight points in the game. The Lions did not have much luck cleaning up their misses on the offensive glass either, as they finished with five offensive rebounds and managed two second chance points while Morehead State cleared 27 defensive rebounds.
After jumping out to a 26-22 advantage, Morehead State went on an 8-0 run with 4:51 left in the first half, culminating in a three from Thelwell, to increase its lead to 34-22. The Eagles then lost some of that lead, but still entered halftime with a 36-25 advantage. Morehead State relied on its three-point shooting in the period, knocking down five shots to account for 15 of its 36 points.
Following intermission, Morehead State kept widening that lead, expanding it to 60-47 before going on a 5-0 run to grow the lead to 65-47 with 43 seconds to go in the contest. The Eagles held onto that lead for the rest of the game for the 67-49 win.
LITTLE ROCK 81, TENNESSEE TECH 43
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The Little Rock Men's Basketball team won their ninth-straight game in route to their first Ohio Valley Conference Regular Season title and a No. 1 seed in the upcoming tournament with a 81-43 victory over Tennessee Tech on Saturday. The Trojans had four players in double-figures and now have the fourth longest winning streak in the nation.
KK Robinson led all scorers with 16 points, while Makhel Mitchell recorded 14 points and a team-high seven rebounds and a career-high six assists. Jaylen Crocker-Johnson recorded 12 poins and seven rebounds, and DeAntoni Gordon recorded 11 points in the win.
The Trojans (20-11, 14-1 OVC) held Tennessee Tech to the lowest opponent score the season at 43. Little Rock forced 20 turnovers while scoring 25 points off of those turnovers. The Trojans scored 38 points in the paint and 29 points from the bench.
Little Rock opened the first half on a 5-0 run with a three-pointer by Gordon and put back by Crocker-Johnson. Tennessee Tech answered back scoring seven points to the Trojans' two to take the 7-6 lead with 16:15 on the clock.
Over the next four minutes, each team scored seven points to tie the score at 13 at the 11:55 mark.
With 11:30 left in the half, the Trojans scored 15-straight points including nine from Robinson for the 27-13 lead.
Little Rock maintained the advantage for the remaining of the first half going up 40-21 at the 33.4 mark on a jumper by Gordon, before the Golden Eagles knocked down a basket to end the half.
Tennessee Tech opened the second half with a three-pointer, before the Trojans scored eight-straight including back-to-back layups by Crocker-Johnson for the 48-26 advantage.
With 14:36 left in the game, Little Rock scored three-straight points on free throws by Mitchell and Crocker-Johnson to spark an 8-0 run to extend their lead to 58-31.
The Trojans remained in control of the game winning 81-43 and securing their first-ever OVC Regular Season Championship.
WESTERN ILLINOIS 76, SIUE 65
MACOMB, Ill. - It was a successful Senior Night and a strong way to close out the regular season for the Western Illinois men's basketball team as the Leathernecks wrapped OVC play with a 76-65 win over SIUE on Saturday.
Western Illinois now heads to the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament in Evansville, Indiana to play on Thursday against the winner of Southern Indiana-Tennessee State. The Leathernecks close out the regular season with 20 wins overall and 13 in conference play, the most for the program since the 2012-13 campaign. Western Illinois also clinched fourth in the OVC.
Chad Boudreau also set the record for most regular season wins by a WIU head coach in his first season, breaking a tie with Stix Morley, who won 19 in 1947.
In a season of tight contests, an 11-point win felt comfortable as a 20-9 run turned a two-point lead into a 13-point advantage with 4:04 to go. The Leathernecks led by six at halftime only to see the Cougars fight back into the game.
Myers was big all night, scoring a team-high 24 points while grabbing six rebounds. Jesiah West added 13 points and six rebounds. Quinlan Bennett added 13 points, five rebounds and five assists. JJ Kalakon chipped in with 11 points and eight boards. Drew Cisse finished his night with seven points, seven rebounds and four assists. James Dent Jr. added eight points off the bench.
As a team, WIU went 25-50 (50 percent) from the field, 8-17 (47.1 percent) from three and 18-31 (58.1 percent) from the line. SIUE finished 26-76 (34.2 percent) from the field, 5-24 (20.8 percent) from three and 8-12 (66.7 percent) from the line.
UT MARTIN 96, TENNESSEE STATE 87
MARTIN, Tenn. - For the first time in 15 years, the University of Tennessee at Martin is Ohio Valley Conference men’s basketball champions as the Skyhawks pulled off a come-from-behind 96-87 victory over Tennessee State this afternoon.
Today’s win led to UT Martin’s second OVC regular season championship (also winning in 2008-09) and the fifth overall conference title in school history. The Skyhawks equaled the program record for OVC victories (14), wrapping up the regular season in a three-way tie with Little Rock and Morehead State atop the league standings.
UT Martin (21-10) trailed for 32:34 of clock time and faced an 11-point deficit with 9:23 to go. However, the Skyhawk defense held the Tigers to 1-of-12 shooting down to close out the contest and rode the hot hands of Jordan Sears (34 points) and Jacob Crews (33 points) to the finish line while swishing 94.1 percent (32-for-34) of their free throw attempts.
Sears accumulated 29 points in the second half alone, ending his day with a perfect 13-of-13 effort from the charity stripe to go along with a game-high six assists. Crews tossed in 20 points in the first 20 minutes, concluding his outing with a game-high nine rebounds and an unblemished 8-for-8 performance from the free throw line.
Issa Muhammad (10 points) also reached double figures in the scoring column for UT Martin as all eight players who saw action today scored.
Tennessee State (17-14, 10-8 OVC) was guided by Marcus Fitzgerald, Jr.’s 18 points. EJ Bellinger (15 points), Kinyon Hodges (14) and Jason Jitoboh (12) also added double-digit scoring tallies for the Tigers, who were held to 3-of-13 shooting (23.1 percent) from beyond the three-point arc in the second half.
UT Martin trailed 9-0 to begin the contest before a Crews turnaround jumper got the Skyhawks on the scoreboard. That began a stretch where the 6-8, 210-pound Crews went off for 13 of UT Martin’s first 14 points – including a trio of three-pointers in a 60-second span.
Following a Muhammad hook shot that gave the Skyhawks a 16-14 edge at the 13:04 mark, Tennessee State led for the remainder of the first half. An 11-4 run by the Tigers led to a 35-26 UT Martin deficit with five minutes to go before the halftime break.
The Tiger lead remained at nine with a little over three minutes remaining but the Skyhawks made a charge. Muhammad knocked down four free throws while Crews and Sears each drilled trifectas to whittle UT Martin’s deficit down to a single possession (43-40) at the intermission.
Crews’ 20 points led all scorers at the half while Bellinger’s 12 points guided the way for Tennessee State.
A Desmond Williams driving layup opened the Skyhawks’ second-half scoring and kept it a three-point contest (45-42). The Tigers responded with seven unanswered points as part of a 13-4 run to claim a 58-46 advantage with 15 minutes left to play.
A 25-5 surge from the home squad flipped the script and seized control for UT Martin. A Koby Jeffries driving layup knotted the score at 79-all at the 5:21 mark before a pair of Sears free throws with 4:40 remaining provided the Skyhawks with their first lead since the 13-minute mark of the opening half.
Sears connected on a three-pointer on a possession that was kept alive by a Jeffries offensive rebound before David Kamwanga converted a layup to conclude UT Martin’s run – which made the score 91-82 with 79 ticks left.
Crews splashed a three-pointer from the left wing with 37 seconds to go – giving the Skyhawks their biggest lead of the day (96-85) and sending the season-best 2,453 fans into a frenzy.
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 70, SOUTHERN INDIANA 66
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - – Rob Martin scored 19 points and Southeast Missouri (9-22, 4-14) made eight free throws in the final 55 seconds to complete a season sweep of Southern Indiana (8-23, 5-13) with a 70-66 win Saturday.
SEMO ends its season on a positive note with its first road victory on its last day of the season. The Redhawks beat the Screaming Eagles twice by a combined six points in 2023-24.
In a game that included five ties, nine lead changes, 50 fouls and 65 free throw attempts, the Redhawks prevailed to put an end to a six-game losing streak.
USI either led or trailed by one point a total of eight times before SEMO used a 6-1 run to take a 57-51 advantage. Braxton Stacker scored a layup and BJ Ward followed with a basket to make it a two-possession contest with 5:54 left.
After two free throws narrowed the Redhawks lead to two, David Idada grabbed his own missed layup and scored to give SEMO a 59-55 edge.
Jeremiah Hernandez scored, was fouled and converted a 3-point play to trim SEMO's lead to 59-58, but Martin answered with a 3-pointer on the Redhawks ensuing possession extended with an offensive rebound by Idada.
Idada was fouled and went to the free throw line with 57 seconds left and made one of his two shots to stretch SEMO's margin to 63-58.
Aquan Smart was fouled next and missed the front end of a 1-and-1. USI pulled down the rebound and Hernandez then split two free throws.
After Martin made two free throws, TJ Biel added two more following a USI turnover to widen SEMO's lead to 67-59 with 22.7 seconds.
Ward tacked on one last free throw and Martin dropped in another two to finish off the Screaming Eagles for good.
SEMO got some momentum by making three of its first four 3-pointers of the game.
Martin knocked down two with his second capping an 11-2 run that put the Redhawks ahead, 13-6, with 15:40 remaining in the first half.
USI's next eight points all came from Hernandez, who began that streak by converting a 4-point play when he was fouled making a three. Hernandez's two free throws narrowed the Redhawks lead to 15-14 at the 11:30 mark.
Kiyron Powell's two free throws ended a 10-2 surge giving the Screaming Eagles their first lead at 16-15.
Tied, 17-17, Martin scored four more points to start a 12-4 stretch that pushed SEMO's lead to eight. Gavyn Elkamil came off the bench and buried a 3-pointer to put the Redhawks up 29-21 with 3:52 left.
Smart then drained a 3-pointer to extend SEMO's lead to 32-23 before USI got within six (34-28) at the half.
USI shot a mere 18.2 percent from 3-point range missing on 18 of its 22 shots. The Screaming Eagles shot just 31 percent (18-of-58) from the field.
SEMO made just under 80 percent (23-of-29) of its free throws missing only six times at the charity stripe. Meanwhile, the Screaming Eagles hit 26-of-36 free throws.
Martin shot 4-of-8 from the field, 3-of-5 from downtown and a perfect 8-of-8 at the free throw line en route to his team-high 19th double-digit game of the season.
Smart and Ward followed with 11 and 10 points, respectively. Idada, who started for the injured Josh Earley, fell two points shy of a double-double with eight points and 10 rebounds.
SEMO outrebounded USI, 47-38, as well.