Ohio Valley Conference

EVANSVILLE, Ind. - A rock-solid showing from the top of the lineup to the bottom helped lift the Tennessee Tech men's basketball team to its third straight win in Ohio Valley Conference action Saturday evening, as the Golden Eagles topped Southern Indiana, 78-65, at Liberty Arena in Evansville, Ind.

The victory represented Tech's third consecutive triumph on the road as well, marking the first three-game road-winning streak for the purple and gold since the 2006-07 season. Eight Golden Eagles contributed to the scoring effort on Saturday, with seven providing at least seven points to the cause.

Staying undefeated on the Screaming Eagles' home court in the two programs' short series history at 3-0, Tech (12-11, 7-5) led for more than 30 minutes on the day, keeping steady control of the contest. Even when USI (9-13, 4-8) took its largest, and final, lead of the day at four points with 2:33 to play in the opening half, the Cookeville crew never wavered.

The purple and gold closed the first period on a 7-0 run, taking a 34-31 lead into the locker room. Tech took a double-digit lead pretty swiftly to open the second half, but Southern Indiana would not go down without a fight.

With 9:38 to play, the Screaming Eagles squared things up at 48-48, making it easy for the Golden Eagles to panic. Instead, the visitors responded with one of its greatest strengths, the 3-point arc.

Junior guard Ray Glasgow drilled a triple to put Tech back up by three before USI went down the floor and missed its next attempt. The Golden Eagles quickly found sophomore Kyle Layton open from downtown and the sharpshooter answered the call with his own trey for a six-point lead.

The attack for the purple and gold was relentless over a four-minute stretch there, dumping a 16-2 run on the Screaming Eagles from the time of the tie to a 64-50 lead with 5:24 left on the clock. Both Glasgow and Layton knocked down another 3-pointer during the hot streak for the Cookeville crew.

For the remainder of the contest, the Golden Eagles managed the free-throw line as Southern Indiana started to foul aggressively with just over two minutes to play. Over the final four minutes of the ball game, Tech attempted 19 of its 20 free throws for the night, sinking 14 of them.

Five Golden Eagles contributed double figures on the scoreboard in the win, led by senior forward Rodney Johnson Jr. The veteran paced the Cookeville crew with 15 points off the bench, snagging seven rebounds as well. Junior guard Jaylon Johnson filled the stats sheet to the tune of 13 points, six boards, and four assists while sinking two triples.

Junior forward Daniel Egbuniwe notched his fourth double-double of the season, and second against the Screaming Eagles, behind 11 points and a team-high 12 rebounds. He also mixed in three assists.

Local Rickman native Matthew Sells tallied 10 points with a couple of 3-pointers and a 4-for-4 night at the line. Junior forward Ola Ajiboye matched his teammate with 10 points off the bench, just missing a double-double with nine rebounds and a team-high three steals. He finished 5-for-7 from the floor.

For good measure, Layton ended the night with seven points and two steals while Glasgow tacked on eight points off the bench. As a unit, the Golden Eagles sunk another nine 3-pointers in the contest, the 20th time in 23 games this season Tech has drained at least eight attempts from beyond the arc. The purple and gold also dominated the glass with a 47-37 advantage.

SIUE 69, WESTERN ILLINOIS 65
MACOMB, Ill. - Kyle Thomas's put-back dunk with 32 seconds remaining gave SIUE the lead for good as the Cougars outlasted Western Illinois 69-65 Saturday afternoon at Western Hall.

With the win, the first-ever for SIUE at Western Illinois, the Cougars swept the season series from the Leathernecks.

SIUE improved to 8-4 in the Ohio Valley Conference and 15-8 overall. The Cougars remain just a game behind conference leader Morehead State.

Thomas finished with his first career double-double of 15 points and a career-high 11 rebounds.

The game also featured the two most prolific three-point shooters in the OVC in SIUE's Ray'Sean Taylor and WIU's Marko Malatic. Malatic led all scorers with 24 points, which included going 5-10 from three-point range. Taylor scored 23 points and was 5-9 from deep.

Western Illinois has dropped seven in a row and fell to 2-10 in the OVC and 8-15 overall.

SIUE took a 37-29 lead into halftime after shooting 47 percent (15-32) from the field in the first 20 minutes.

Western Illinois got out to a quick start in the second half but couldn't overtake the Cougars until a Malatic three-pointer made it 49-46 Leathernecks with 11:28 to play. Ray'Sean Taylor put the Cougars back up 51-49 with a triple of his own just a minute later.

The second half featured six lead changes and was tied six times.

SIUE shot 40 percent (25-62) for the game overall and 7-17 (41 percent) from three-point range.

Malith added 14 points and seven rebounds for the Cougars.

Three other players score in double figures for the Leathernecks. Trey Deveaux scored 13 points and led WIU with eight rebounds.

EASTERN ILLINOIS 76, LINDENWOOD 70
ST. CHARLES, Mo. - Eastern Illinois men’s basketball had balanced scoring yet again on Saturday afternoon as the Panthers won their third straight with a 76-70 win at Lindenwood.

Obadiah Curtis led the Panthers with 17 points off the bench as EIU finished the game with a 40-5 advantage in bench scoring.  Zion Fruster added 16 points off the bench as part of that effort as EIU had four players finish in double figures.

EIU led 32-29 at the half with Lindenwood opening the second half on a 7-0 run to take a 36-32 lead.  Nakyel Shelton ended the Lindenwood run with a 3-pointer cutting the lead to 36-35.

The game had nine ties and 14 lead changes with the final tie coming with 6:05 to play on free throws by Anias Futrell.  Futrell scored 12 points, one of four Lions in double figures.

Kooper Jacobi hit a 3-pointer on the next possession followed by free throws by Artese Stapleton and EIU never relinquished the lead the rest of the way improving to 8-15 overall, 4-8 in the OVC.

Stapleton had 15 points with Shelton rounding out the EIU double figure scorers with ten points.  Jacobi just missed a double-double with nine points, 11 rebounds.

Lindenwood fell to 10-13 overall, 5-7 in the OVC.  Markeith Browning II led all players with 27 points, going 11-of-17 from the floor.  Reggie Bass had 14 and Jadis Jones ten for the Lions.

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 89, TENNESSEE STATE 87 (OT)
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - – Rob Martin scored 22 points, Brendan Terry added 20 and Teddy Washington, Jr. made the game-winning shot with two seconds left in overtime sending Southeast Missouri (13-10, 8-4) to an 89-87 win over Tennessee State (10-13, 6-6) Saturday afternoon.
 
Washington, Jr.'s shot ended TSU's four-game winning streak and gave SEMO its ninth home victory of the season. The nine home wins tie for the most in a season under Head Coach Brad Korn.
 
TSU scored the first six points of the extra period behind a free throw by Brandon Weston, 3-pointer by Travis Harper and layup from Carlous Williams.
 
The Tigers were ahead by six a second time when Aaron Nkrumah made two free throws to make it an 85-79 game with 2:54 left to play.
 
SEMO got within one when Washington, Jr. splashed in a 3-pointer to drop TSU's lead to 87-86 with 1:20 remaining.
 
Braxton Stacker split two free throws to tie the game with 36 seconds.
 
Following a jump ball that gave SEMO possession, Washington, Jr. drained his game-winner.
 
SEMO and TSU locked up in yet another tight battle.
 
Down, 32-31, at halftime, the Tigers scored 13 of the first 20 points in the second stanza to build a 44-39 lead. Nkrumah's driving layup capped the surge with 16 minutes left.
 
Martin drained a 3-pointer to get the Redhawks within one, 47-46, two minutes and 19 seconds later.
 
TSU began to create some separation when Antoine Lorick drove in for a layup giving the Tigers a nine-point advantage (62-53) with 8:21 left to play.
 
Another layup, this time by Ronald Jessamy, put TSU up by nine again.
 
After Jessamy's hook shot gave the Tigers a nine-point lead once more, SEMO trimmed TSU's lead to 71-68 on a second-chance layup by David Idada. Idada put back a missed 3-pointer by Troy Cole, Jr. with 4:13 on the clock.
 
Stacker hit a step back 3-pointer and Martin followed with a layup to tie the game at 73-73 with 2:27 remaining.
 
On SEMO's next possession, Washington, Jr. gave the Redhawks a 75-73 edge with 1:53 left.
 
Williams countered with a layup of his own to tie things up at 75-75 a quick 20 seconds later.
 
Then, Martin knocked down a step back jumper with 12.4 seconds to grab SEMO 77-75 lead before the Tigers sent the game to overtime on Nkrumah's turnaround jumper with three seconds on the clock.
 
Neither team led by more than four points in a first half that included seven ties and seven lead changes.
 
The Redhawks led, 14-10, on Terry's free throw with 13:33 left to play.
 
TSU answered with a 7-0 run to get a 17-14 edge while SEMO went over five minutes without scoring. Martin's mid-range jumper on a fast break ended the drought with 8:13 to go.
 
A second-chance layup by Terry later gave the Redhawks another four-point cushion at 27-23 with 2:40 remaining.
 
Nineteen seconds after Nkrumah regained a 31-29 lead for the Tigers, Martin pulled up for a 3-pointer with one second to put SEMO ahead by one at the intermission.
 
SEMO, which had 10 turnovers in the first half, did not turn the ball over for the final 15:35 of the game.
 
Martin made 9-of-15 field goals en route to his team-high effort. It was his eighth-straight double-digit scoring performance.
 
Terry made 5-of-10 from the field to go along with a near-perfect 10-of-11 free throws. His 20 points marked a new career-high.
 
Cole, Jr. followed with 14 points and Washington, Jr. added 13.
 
The Redhawks shot 52.6 percent (30-of-57) and made 23-of-30 free throws for the afternoon.
 
Nkrumah finished with a game-high 26 points to lead TSU.
 
SEMO completed a two-game sweep of the Tigers this season with a pair of two-point victories.

LITTLE ROCK 75, UT MARTIN 57
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Senior forward Tuongthach Gatkek had one of the better shooting nights in Little Rock basketball history in a 75-57 win over the University of Tennessee at Martin Saturday evening at the Jack Stephens Center.
 
Gatkek, a 6-foot-9, 187-pounder, was 9-of-10 (90%) from the field and hit both of his free throws to record a 20-point night.
 
The 20 points was a career high for the Florida/Texas State transfer, who also snagged 12 rebounds and totaled 5 assists, 2 blocks and 2 steals.
 
The entire team was on in the second half, as they outscored UT Martin (9-14, 5-7) 39 to 21.
 
Mwani Wilkinson added 16 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks and 3 steals. Johnathan Lawson chipped in 14 points and 5 rebounds and Jordan Jefferson added 11 points and 4 steals in just 24 minutes of action.
 
After a tight first half that saw Little Rock trailing by one at halftime, the Trojans took control of the second half.
 
A three-pointer by Afan Trnka gave the Skyhawks a 41-37 lead with 18:24 to go in the half, but it was short-lived.
 
Wilkinson hit a three-pointer on the Trojans' next possession, and then a Gatkek dunk gave the Trojans (14-9, 8-4) their first lead of the half. The game was tied at 44 with 15:30 to play in the game when Lawson hit one of two free throws to put Little Rock in front by one. They never relinquished the lead the final 12:25 as they went on a 9-0 run to expand the lead to 54-44 with just over 11 minutes left.
 
Little Rock kept the lead at double figures for the rest of the game and led by as many as 23 late in the contest. The Trojans shot nearly 50% from the field and scored 20 points off 19 UTM turnovers. They also scored 28 points in the paint and 12 off of second chances.

The Skyhawks shot 33.9 percent from the field. Josue Grullon led UT Martin with 14 points.