Ohio Valley Conference

EVANSVILLE, Ind. - The Tennessee State men's basketball team out-rebounded the Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles 32-26 on the way to a 78-64 victory at in the first round of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament at the Ford Center Wednesday evening.

The Tigers (18-14) had four players score in double figures, led by Ej Bellinger, who had 17 points, six rebounds, and two steals. Christian Brown tacked on 16 points and seven rebounds while Michael Shanks chipped in with 13 points off the bench.

Tennessee State grabbed 32 rebounds in Wednesday's game compared to Southern Indiana's 26, led by Kinyon Hodges' seven boards.

Tennessee State forced 18 Southern Indiana turnovers while committing 16 themselves in Wednesday's game. The Tigers turned those takeaways into 16 points on the offensive end of the floor. Marcus Fitzgerald Jr. led the way individually with three steals.

After falling behind 5-4, Tennessee State went on a 5-0 run with 15:36 left in the first half to take a 9-5 lead. The Tigers then surrendered that lead and entered halftime down 33-30.

Southern Indiana kept widening its lead after intermission, constructing a 40-34 advantage before Tennessee State went on a 10-0 run to seize a 44-40 lead with 14:14 to go in the contest. The Tigers kept expanding the margin and coasted the rest of the way for the 78-64 win. Tennessee State got a boost from its bench in the period, as non-starters accounted for 12 of its 48 total points.

#6 SIUE 68, #7 EASTERN ILLINOIS 57
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - SIUE men's basketball nearly led wire to wire Wednesday, knocking off Eastern Illinois 68-57 in the first round of the Ohio Valley Conference tournament. The sixth-seeded Cougars will advance to the quarterfinal round for the second consecutive year. SIUE will meet the No. 3 seed and regular co-champion Morehead State Thursday night.

SIUE improved to 17-15. Eastern Illinois ends its season at 14-18.

Ray'Sean Taylor scored a game-high 25 points, including 18 in the first half to lead SIUE.

Damarco Minor collected his fourth straight double-double scoring 16 points and hauling in a career-high tying 14 rebounds. Minor now has double-doubles in four consecutive games.

Shamar Wright scored 14 points and Lamar Wright added 11 points.

The Cougars used a pair of 8-0 runs to take control in the first half. The first broke a 4-4 tie and gave SIUE the lead for good. The second pushed SIUE out to a 27-15 lead.

A Ray'Sean Taylor three at the halftime buzzer gave SIUE at 29-22 advantage at the break.

Eastern Illinois made a push to start the second half, opening the period on an 7-0 run. The Panthers trimmed the Cougars lead down to six (53-47) on a Tiger Booker layup with 7:40 left, but SIUE responded with the next five points to push the lead back out to 11.

Minor and Taylor each sank a pair of free throws in the final 45 seconds to seal the SIUE win.