SATURDAY'S SCORES
@Lindenwood 82, UT Martin 81
@SIUE 67, Tennessee Tech 59
Tennessee State 72, @Western Illinois 52
Morehead State 67, @Southeast Missouri 56
LINDENWOOD 82, UT MARTIN 81
ST. CHARLES, Mo. - Nathan Johnson Jr. was the hero for Lindenwood men's basketball (8-9, 3-3 OVC) after hitting the game-winning three-pointer with five second remaining to defeat the Skyhawks of UT Martin (7-10, 3-3 OVC) by a final score of 82-81. Lindenwood made 10 threes on Saturday afternoon which marked only the third time this season that the Lions have hit over double-digit three-pointers in a single game.
Anias Futrell had himself a night for the second consecutive game. Futrell had his second straight double-double after scoring 26 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Of his 26 points, he scored 24 of them in the first half. Futrell made six three-pointers, the most in a game since Keith Haymon II made six vs. Little Rock last February. He also added three blocked shots.
Markeith Browning II made a living in the paint vs. the Skyhawks scoring 18 points on 7-15 shooting while going a perfect 4-4 at the foul line. Browning also grabbed five rebounds and dished out a team-high six assists. Lindenwood assisted on 14 of their 31 made shots.
Jadis Jones was the third Lion to reach double-figures after scoring 11 points on 4-7 from the field. Fellow freshman Aly Tounkara made his second straight start adding nine points and six rebounds including five on the offensive glass. The hero Johnson Jr. had eight points and two steals for Lindenwood.
The Skyhawks were forced into 12 turnovers resulting in 21 Lindenwood points. Lindenwood also battled down-low outscoring UT Martin 36-24 in paint points. Martin did edge the Lions on the glass 34-33 including 15 offensive rebounds by the Skyhawks. LU did capitalize on their 12 offensive boards scoring 20 second chance points.
Lindenwood finished the game shooting 50.0% from the field while going 10-29 from three-point range, their most attempted threes in any game this season. UT Martin was able to hit 14 threes on Saturday (45.2%) but went 13-26 at the foul line.
The first half opened up with a Skyhawks 7-0 run which was ended by the first of six Futrell threes. UT Martin opened up another seven-point lead with 15:32 left in the first half after a three from Afan Trnka. Lindenwood managed to cut the lead to two at the under 12:00 minute timeout. During the first eight minutes of the game, Futrell had 17 points while shooting 5-9 from three-point range.
Lindenwood took their first lead of the afternoon after a pull-up jumper by Futrell with 12:25 left in the half (18-17). The Lions' biggest lead was eight points before UT Martin went on a 16-4 run to go up 35-39 with under four minutes remaining. Johnson Jr. hit his first three of the night as time expired in the first half to put Lindenwood up 42-40 heading into the locker room.
Futrell had 24 points at the half, shooting 8-13 from the field and 6-11 from three. Jones was the Lions' second leading scorer with six points in the first half. UT Martin went 10-20 from three-point range in the first half while LU went 8-21.
The Skyhawks jumped on the Lions early to start the second half going on a 14-6 run to take the lead at 54-48 with 15:51 remaining. During the second half, UT Martin was up double-digits on two separate occasions before the Lions fought back.
With under four minutes remaining, Futrell made his first shot of the second half to cut the lead to 67-63. After a made UT Martin field-goal by Tarence Guinyard, Browning II scored in the paint to make it a six-point game.
Down four-points with 14 seconds remaining, Jalen Bouknight made a corner three to cut the lead to one point. After Trnka went 1-2 at the foul line to make it 79-81, Johnson Jr. made his game-winning three with five seconds remaining to lift the Lions to a one-point lead. Trnka did get a final shot off with one second remaining but it fell just short as the Lions held on to the win.
Both Lindenwood women's basketball and men's basketball went a perfect 4-0 this weekend in OVC play, the first time this has happened in school history (Division I era).
SIUE 67, TENNESSEE TECH 59
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - SIUE men's basketball erased a 12-point deficit on its way to its fourth win in a row, as the Cougars defeated Tennessee Tech 67-59 Saturday at First Community Arena.
SIUE improved to 11-6 overall and 4-2 in the OVC. The Cougars are now just one game out of first place in the OVC.
SIUE has now held three straight opponents under 60 points and opponents are averaging just 57.3 points against the Cougars during the four-game winning streak.
Tennessee Tech had a five-game winning streak snapped and also is 4-2 in league play. The Golden Eagles are 9-8 overall.
Offense didn't come easy for either side early and SIUE had an 8-5 lead with 11 minutes to play before halftime. The Golden Eagles used a 17-2 run to gain their largest lead of the game at 22-10 with 4:39 left in the first half.
The Cougars flipped the script from there and scored 15 of the final 19 points in the half to go into halftime trailing 26-25. Ray'Sean Taylor scored 12 of those points for the Cougars.
Taylor then opened the second half with a four-point play knocking down a three from right wing and then hitting his free throw to put SIUE up by three.
SIUE never trailed until a pair of free throws by TTU's Ray Glasgow made it 52-51 with 8:15 left in the game. A driving layup from Ray'Sean Taylor with 7:33 left put SIUE back on top and Desmond Polk extended the advantage to three with a jumper. Jaylon Johnson tied the game again with a three-pointer ahead of the media timeout.
Myles Thompson put the Cougars on top to stay with seven straight points following the timeout. Following back-to-back layups and with a four-point Cougar lead, Thompson again had the ball in his hands. With a hand in his face and the shot clock expiring, Thompson nailed a three-pointer from near the right corner to make it 62-55 Cougars with 4:20 left. TTU never got closer than three the rest of the game.
Ray'Sean Taylor led all scorers with 25 points. He added eight rebounds, two assists and four steals. Ring Malith followed with 14 points and nine rebounds. Brian Taylor scored 13 points.
After shooting just 36 percent (11-31) from the field and missing all six three-point attempts in the first half, the Cougars rebounded to shoot 53 percent overall in the second half. SIUE was 16-30 including going 5-11 (46 percent) from three-point range.
The Cougar defense limited the Golden Eagles to just 32 percent (18-56) shooting. Tennessee Tech, which came into the game ranked in the top 50 in three-pointers per game, connected on just 6 of 27 (22 percent). It was the first time this season that the team knocked down fewer than eight threes in a game.
Glasgow led Tennessee Tech with 19 points. Johnson had 16 points.
TENNESSEE STATE 72, WESTERN ILLINOIS 52
MACOMB, Ill. - Ronald Jessamy led the Tennessee State men's basketball team with a team-high 16 points in a 72-52 win over Western Illinois on Saturday.
The Tigers (6-11, 2-4 OVC) got a 24-point performance from their bench and had two players score in double figures, led by Jessamy, added eight rebounds and five blocks. Josh Ogundele added 12 points, eight rebounds and two steals and Brandon Weston added nine points, seven rebounds and four assists.
Tennessee State did an excellent job taking care of the basketball, dishing out 18 assists while turning the ball over nine times. Individually, Justus Jackson was on top of the distribution list for the Tigers with five assists. Aaron Nkrumah also contributed with four assists of his own.
The Tennessee State defense held Western Illinois shooters to only 32.7 percent from the field. The Tigers also kept Marko Maletic to 4-of-14 shooting in the game.
After jumping out to an 18-10 advantage, Tennessee State went on a 9-0 run with 6:52 left in the first half, culminating in a bucket from Antoine Lorick Iii, to increase its lead to 27-10. The Tigers then added three points to that lead by the end of the period and entered halftime with a 39-19 advantage. Tennessee State capitalized on eight Western Illinois turnovers in the period, turning them into 15 points on the other end of the floor.
Tennessee State kept its lead intact before going on an 8-0 run, finished off by Travis Harper Ii's three, to grow the lead to 49-22 with 16:21 to go in the contest. The Leathernecks narrowed the margin somewhat before the game was over, but the Tigers still cruised the rest of the way for the 72-52 win. Tennessee State took care of business in the paint, recording 22 of its 33 points in the lane.
MOREHEAD STATE 67, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 56
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - The Morehead State men's basketball team went on an 16-0 run in the opening portion of the second half and held SEMO without a field goal for more than 11 game-time minutes as the Eagles handed the Redhawks their first home loss of 2024-25 and remained in first place in the Ohio Valley Conference with a 67-56 win at the Show Me Center Saturday.
Anouar Mellouk recorded his first career double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds to lead MSU (10-7, 5-1 OVC) to its third road win in the last four games. The Eagles pounded the home team in the rebound column, 41-18. SEMO (9-8, 4-2 OVC) had just three offensive caroms and ended with zero second-chance points.
MSU has now won eight of the last nine meetings against SEMO at the Show Me Center.
MSU also got 14 points and six rebounds from Kenny White, Jr., 10 points from Dieonte Miles and a career high nine boards from Tyler Brelsford. Point guard Jerone Morton played all 40 minutes for the second straight game and had six points and six rebounds.
Morehead State never trailed in the game, seeing only two tie situations too. After the game was tied 4-4 with 15:33 left in the first half, Mellouk's hook shot put MSU on top to stay. The teams battled throughout the first 20 minutes before MSU led slightly 27-26 at the half. SEMO scored a free throw at the 18:45 mark of the final stanza to trail 29-27. But the Eagles scored the next 16 points, and the Redhawks didn't hit their first second-half field goal until 11:50 remained.
SEMO never cut the Eagle lead to less than 10 the remainder of the day.
MSU hit 56 percent (15-of-27) in the second half and 48 percent (26-of-54) overall. The Eagles held SEMO to just 5-of-18 from outside the three-point arc.
Rob Martin for SEMO led all players with 21 points and also had a game-best eight assists.