SATURDAY'S SCORES
UT Martin 69, Prairie View A&M 68 (Pensacola, Fla.)
UIC 84,
Southern Indiana 73 (Daytona Beach, Fla.)
Morehead State 83, ULM 80 (Johnson City, Tenn.)
UT MARTIN 69, PRAIRIE VIEW A&M 68
PENSACOLA, Fla. - The University of Tennessee at Martin men’s basketball team erased an 11-point halftime deficit to claim a 69-68 triumph over Prairie View A&M in the first game of the Pensacola Invitational.
Two late defensive stands sealed the victory for the Skyhawks (4-1), who trailed by two points with 1:22 to go before Dragos Lungu made a free throw and Andrija Bukumirovic sank the game-winning bucket on a fast break layup off a Luca Colceag block with 41 seconds to go. UT Martin then forced a turnover and swarmed the Panthers on the final possession of the game, not allowing Prairie View A&M to get off a shot attempt before the final buzzer sounded.
Matas Deniusas produced a team-high 20 points – aided by an unblemished 8-for-8 effort from the free throw line – to go along with seven rebounds. Bukumirovic notched his third double-double of the young 2025-26 campaign with 14 points and a game-high 12 rebounds while Drago Lungu (11 points, career-best nine assists) and Filip Petkovski (10 points) also scored in double figures for the Skyhawks, who shot 53.6 percent (15-of-28) in the second half and outscored the Panthers by a 36-24 margin in the paint en route to their first 4-1 start since the 2016-17 season.
Prairie View A&M (2-4) was led by 22 points apiece out of Tai’Reon Joseph and Cory Wells. Dontae Horn additionally provided 11 points but the Panthers shot just 28 percent (7-for-25) with no three-pointers over the final 20 minutes.
A thunderous Deniusas dunk opened the scoring before another Deniusas slam pushed UT Martin’s lead out to 10-5 with 15 minutes to go in the first half. Prairie View A&M then scored eight unanswered and didn’t trail for the remainer of the first half.
A pair of Deniusas free throws pulled the Skyhawks back within a bucket (17-15) at the 7:32 mark but the Panthers went ahead by double figures (28-18) with three minutes to go, leading by as many as 12 before taking a 39-28 lead into the locker room. The UT Martin duo of Deniusas and Petkovski each had team-highs of eight points while Joseph and Horne had 18 and 10 points, respectively, to guide Prairie View A&M.
The Skyhawks came roaring out of the locker room to the tune of an 16-2 run, capped off with a Lungu driving layup that gave UT Martin a 44-41 lead with 13:50 remaining. A Pedro Santos triple at the 12:27 mark extended the Skyhawk lead out to 49-42.
UT Martin kept that lead until five consecutive Panther points resulted in a 62-60 Prairie View A&M lead with exactly four minutes to go. Petkovski (driving layup), Afan Trnka (two free throws) and Bukumirovic (second chance layup) followed with the next six Skyhawk points to set up the aforementioned final 82 seconds of the game.
UIC 84, SOUTHERN INDIANA 73
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - University of Southern Indiana Men's Basketball rallied from a 20-point second half deficit but slow starts to both the first and second halves proved costly as the Screaming Eagles fell to the University of Illinois Chicago, 84-73, to conclude the Gieco Boardwalk Battle Saturday evening.
The Screaming Eagles (1-5) spent the opening half working to overcome an early 8-0 deficit before heading into the intermission in a 37-27 hole.
UIC (4-2) opened the second half with seven straight points to expand its lead to what was then a game-high 17 points.
USI, which trailed by as much as 13 in the opening stanza, was able to cut the Flames' advantage down to five (32-27) when senior guard Cardell Bailey scored on a tip-in layup with just under two minutes before halftime.
The Flames, however, ended the first half on a 5-0 run and their 7-0 run to begin the second period had the Screaming Eagles down 44-27 with 18 minutes left in the contest.
USI's deficit grew to 20 points (67-47) with seven minutes left in the contest, but the Screaming Eagles kept fighting. A 14-3 run in the next three minutes cut the Screaming Eagles' deficit to single digits with four minutes to play.
The Screaming Eagles used a 5-0 run to get to within five points at 76-71 as senior guard Ismail Habib hit a three-pointer with just over two minutes on the clock following a basket by junior forward Tolu Samuels.
UIC, however, answered with eight consecutive points to seal the victory and hand USI its second straight loss.
Samuels had 16 points, three blocks and a game-high 14 rebounds to lead the Screaming Eagles. Habib added 13 points and seven assists, while Bailey chipped in 12 points.
Junior guard Kaden Brown and senior forward Ola Ajiboye each had 10 points to round out USI's double-figure scorers.
UIC was led by junior guard Ahmad Henderson II, who had a game-high 20 points.
MOREHEAD STATE 83, ULM 80
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - Guards Davion Cunningham and Chase Dawson combined for 40 points, and forward Jon Carroll posted his third double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds as the Morehead State Men's Basketball team rallied to knock off Louisiana-Monroe 83-80 at ETSU's Freedom Hall Saturday night.
MSU improved to 3-4.
The Eagles used a 14-0 run midway through the second half to pull ahead. Then, the Eagles held off a late Warhawk charge as they won by three.
Cunningham netted a team-high 23 points, while Dawson had 17 (including 3-of-3 on three-pointers).
The Eagles trailed 58-53 with 13 minutes left, but by the time Dawson nailed a three at 9:03, MSU led 67-58. Later on, ULM crept back and trailed only 80-78 with 10 seconds left, but Dawson and Cunningham combined for three free throws to ice it.
The Eagles shot percent for the night, while ULM hit 41 percent.