SATURDAY'S SCORES
Little Rock 76, @Morehead State 62
@Tennessee Tech 59, Eastern Illinois 54
@Tennessee State 84, Lindenwood 76
@UT Martin 81, Western Illinois 70
Southeast Missouri 79, @Southern Indiana 74
LITTLE ROCK 76, MOREHEAD STATE 62
MOREHEAD, Ky. - Little Rock outscored Morehead State 26-11 the final 10 minutes to pull out a 76-62 win at Johnson Arena with a ESPNU national-television audience watching on Saturday afternoon. With the win and the sweep of the road trip, the Trojans (16-9, 10-4) are tied with SIUE for first place in the Ohio Valley Conference.
The Eagles (14-11, 9-5) took a 51-50 lead, their only lead of the second half, with 10:47 to play and never led again. Five minutes later, Little Rock went up 62-55 on a Jordan Jefferson dunk and didn't look back. The Trojans pushed the lead to double digits with just under two minutes to go to seal the win.
Johnathan Lawson led all scorers with 24 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the three-point line. Jefferson came off the bench to score 14 points and nab four steals. Isaiah Lewis chipped in 13. The Trojans shot 29-of-54 (53.7%) from the field and 8-of-16 (50%) from the three-point line. The Trojans scored 25 points off 16 Eagles' turnovers.
Little Rock led 39-34 at halftime and pushed the led to 48-38 on an Ante Beljan dunk with just under 17 minutes to play. A 10-0 run over the next six minutes got the Eagles back into the game. Steven Clay's layup gave the Eagles a 51-50 advantage at the 10:55 mark.
However, Lawson answered with a three-pointer which stole the lead back and ignited a 6-0 mini run that was capped with a Wilkinson jumper and Little Rock led 57-51 with 9:16 to play. The Eagles cut the advantage to two moments later, but the Trojans regained firm control after that.
Tuong Gatkek sparked a 6-0 splurge with a layup that was followed by a steal and dunk by Jefferson to make the score 62-55 with 6:47 remaining. A jumper by Lawson pushed the margin to nine. The lead briefly dipped to seven again with 2:27remaining, but Jefferson hit a layup, and the Trojans led 68-59.
Little Rock finished the game on a 7-2 run and led by 16 on a Lawson dunk with just less than a minute to play.
Kenny White Jr., led MSU with 16 points. The Eagles shot 20-of-46 (43.5%) from the field and 6-of-16 (37.5%) from the three-point line.
TENNESSEE TECH 59, EASTERN ILLINOIS 54
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - A great shooting display from beyond the arc and strong defense proved enough for the Tennessee Tech men's basketball team to hold off a suddenly surging Eastern Illinois squad in the Hooper Eblen Center Saturday afternoon by a score of 59-54.
The Golden Eagles (13-12, 8-6) shot the lights of the ball in the opening stanza, hitting 7-of-10 attempts from distance while building a 34-24 halftime lead. Tech opened the contest on a 9-0 run behind a trio of triples, but the Panthers (8-17, 4-10) proved pesky throughout the contest, turning things around and taking as large as a three-point lead.
The purple and gold never panicked, slowly fighting back, taking the lead, and pushing it out to as much as 11 points with 2:32 to go in the opening stanza. It was a mostly back-and-forth affair in the second half, with the Golden Eagles keeping Eastern Illinois at an arm's distance much of the period.
The Panthers eventually trimmed Tech's lead down to just three points with a little over two minutes to play, benefitting from a cold spell by the Cookeville crew. Never deterred, the Golden Eagles found senior forward Rodney Johnson Jr. for a huge 3-pointer to double the lead with 2:18 on the clock.
A layup by EIU with 15 seconds to play cut the advantage to three one final time, but Johnson Jr. sunk back-to-back free throws and the Tech defense held on at the end. It marked the purple and gold's fourth win in the past five games.
Overall, the Golden Eagles sunk 11 treys on 24 attempts during the day, just making up for an 8-for-16 day at the charity stripe. Defensively, the purple and gold limited the Panthers to just 34.4 percent shooting, including a 4-for-18 showing from downtown.
Four members of the Tech crew finished the day in double figures in scoring, led by Jaylon Johnson. The junior guard knocked down a pair of triples while turning in 12 points and team-highs of six rebounds and four assists.
Johnson Jr. produced 11 points on 3-for-4 shooting, backed by a 3-for-3 display from deep. He also corralled six boards with two dimes. Sophomore forward JaJuan Nichols ended the day 5-for-10 from the floor on his way to 11 points, four rebounds, three assists, and three blocks.
Junior forward Daniel Egbuniwe chipped in 10 points, five boards, two assists while knocking down three of his four attempts from beyond the arc. Rickman native Matthew Sells mixed in six points, three boards, and four dimes with a pair of triples for good measure.
TENNESSEE STATE 84, LINDENWOOD 76
NASHVILLE - Carlous Williams totaled 20 points to help lead the Tennessee State men's basketball team past Lindenwood 84-76 at the Gentry Center Saturday.
Williams' 20 point effort led the Tigers (12-13, 8-6 OVC). Aaron Nkrumah helped out with a double double of 18 points and 12 rebounds and Josh Ogundele chipped in with 13 points and seven rebounds.
Tennessee State grabbed 43 rebounds in Saturday's game compared to Lindenwood's 34, led by Nkrumah's 12 boards. The Tigers also put in work on the offensive glass, turning 14 rebounds into 17 second chance points.
Tennessee State did a great job disrupting Lindenwood shots in the contest, coming away with seven blocks. Ahmir Langlais led the way individually for the Tigers with two rejections.
Tennessee State started out the scoring by going on a 6-0 run, culminating in a three from Williams, to take an early lead with 17:56 left in the first half. The Tigers then lost some of that lead, but still entered halftime with a 39-36 advantage. Tennessee State did most of its first half damage in the paint, scoring 32 of its 39 points close to the basket.
The Lions proceeded to tie things up at 44-44 before Tennessee State went on an 8-0 run, finished off by Knute Wood's layup, to seize a 52-44 lead with 14:54 to go in the contest. The Tigers held onto that lead for the rest of the game for the 84-76 win. Tennessee State made the most of seven offensive rebounds to tack on seven second chance points out of 45 total in the period.
UT MARTIN 81, WESTERN ILLINOIS 70
MARTIN, Tenn. - A season sweep over Western Illinois was in store for the University of Tennessee at Martin men’s basketball program as the Skyhawks led for nearly 37 minutes in an 81-70 triumph this afternoon at the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center.
UT Martin (10-15, 6-8 Ohio Valley Conference) only trailed for 1:14 of clock time today, forcing the visiting Fighting Leathernecks into 17 miscues which led to a 22-6 advantage in points off turnovers. The Skyhawk defense held Western Illinois to 39.6 percent shooting (21-of-53) – limiting the opposition to under 40 percent shooting for the 11th time in 2024-25.
Tarence Guinyard went 12-for-15 from the free throw line on the way to a team-high 20 points to go along with team-bests of six rebounds and three assists. Vladimer Salaridze made his return from an injury to score 18 points with team-highs of six rebounds, three assists and two steals while freshman Filip Radakovic added 11 points with a team-best three assists for UT Martin.
The Fighting Leathernecks (8-17, 2-12 OVC) were guided by Marko Maletic’s 27 points off the bench as he shot 8-of-14 from three-point range. Trey Deveaux added 17 points and a game-high seven rebounds while Ryan Myers managed 12 points.
A Matija Žužic four-point play capped off an early 9-2 run for UT Martin. A pull-up jumper from Žužic gave the Skyhawks a 15-14 lead with 13:42 to go in the first half – igniting a 17-2 run as UT Martin would not trail from that point forward.
Afan Trnka splashed a three-pointer with a little over seven minutes remaining in the first half to push the Skyhawk lead out to 31-19. Western Illinois closed to within three points late in the opening half but a Hopkins triple helped UT Martin carry a 38-34 advantage into the locker room.
The Fighting Leathernecks scored first in the second half to pull within two points but the Skyhawks answered right back with an Andrija Bukumirovic three-pointer and Salaridze hook shot that nudged the score back out to 43-36.
After Western Illinois sank a three-pointer coming out of the under-12-minute media timeout to get back within a single possession, UT Martin created some separation with a 14-3 run over a 2:56 span. Salaridze was responsible for eight of those 14 points while Guinyard landed a floater in the lane to give the Skyhawks their biggest lead of the day (67-54) with 8:29 to go.
UT Martin’s advantage was trimmed down to four points with 2:35 left in the contest but another lengthy Skyhawk run – this time an 11-2 surge – put the game away down the stretch.
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 79, SOUTHERN INDIANA 74
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - Teddy Washington, Jr. scored 17 points and made two free throws with 2.4 seconds left to lead Southeast Missouri (15-10, 10-4) to a 79-74 win over Southern Indiana (9-15, 4-10) Saturday in a nailbiter at Liberty Arena.
The victory extended SEMO's winning streak to five games and put the Redhawks in a three-way tie for first in the Ohio Valley Conference with SIU Edwardsville and Little Rock.
SEMO and USI went down to the wire in a slugfest that featured eight ties and 24 lead changes.
Washington, Jr.'s two big free throws came after Jayland Randall missed the front end of a 1-and-1.
There was plenty more drama that preceded Washington, Jr's game-icing free throws.
Brendan Terry pulled down a huge offensive rebound and scored to grab SEMO a 74-72 lead with 49 seconds on the clock.
On USI's ensuing possession, Terry rebounded a missed shot, was fouled and split two free throws putting the Redhawks ahead by three (75-72) five seconds later.
Damoni Harrison's driving layup pulled the Screaming Eagles within one before Terry made one of his two free throws a second time keeping SEMO in the lead, 76-74, with 20.1 seconds.
Braxton Jones then missed a 3-pointer, followed his own shot and missed an open layup that would have tied the game.
Braxton Stacker, who was quickly fouled after getting the rebound, made the second of his two free throws keeping it a one-possession contest at 77-74 with 7.7 seconds.
It was then Stacker who fouled Randall sending him to the line for his 1-and-1.
There were 13 lead changes in the second half and 11 in the first.
The Redhawks jumped out to a 5-0 lead for its largest advantage of the first half during the first 2:03 of the contest.
Meanwhile, USI pulled ahead by six at 15-9 on a 3-pointer by Jack Mielke with 13:57 remaining for its biggest lead in the opening stanza.
After that, neither team led by more than four points for the rest of the first half.
Rob Martin made two jumpers in the final 1:28 to get SEMO a one-point lead twice before Stephen Olowoniyi answered with a layup to regain a 36-35 edge for the Screaming Eagles at the intermission.
Brendan Terry's layup sparked a 6-0 surge for SEMO at the beginning of the second half.
Martin followed with a pair of free throws and Terry hit two of his own to stretch the Redhawks lead to 41-36 less than two minutes in.
USI took back the lead when Randall and Harrison each buried a 3-pointer to put the Screaming Eagles ahead, 47-43, with 15:30 to go.
Immediately after Olowoniyi's dunk capped a 10-0 USI run, Braxton Stacker responded with a 3-pointer on two-straight possessions to narrow the Screaming Eagles' lead to 51-49.
Elliot Lowndes came off the bench to score a couple big baskets, TJ Biel tied the game at 59-59 and Terry added a bucket and a bucket and a free throw to give the Redhawks a 62-59 advantage at the 8:00 mark.
The see-saw battle continued with USI re-claiming the lead on another Olowoniyi dunk. Stacker, however, drained a corner 3-pointer putting SEMO on top again, 65-63.
Right after Martin made a jumper to put the Redhawks up one, Washington, Jr. stole the ball and sprinted the length of the court for a layup giving SEMO a slight 71-68 lead with 4:05 remaining.
Washington, Jr. shot 6-of-14 from the field and scored 13 of his points in the first half. It was his 18th double-digit scoring effort of the season. He added seven rebounds, as well.
Terry followed with 17 points and seven rebounds, while Stacker chipped in 16 and Martin contributed 15. Martin has scored double figures in 10-straight starts.
Harrison and Randall led USI with 25 and 23 points, respectively.
SEMO shot 53.6 percent from the field marking the fourth game in a row where it shot 50 percent or better. The last time the Redhawks shot 50 percent or better in five-straight OVC games was in 2011-12.
The Redhawks, now one of three OVC teams with 10 league wins, matched their most conference victories in a season under Head Coach Brad Korn. SEMO also improved to 6-6 on the road and posted their second sweep of an OVC opponent this year.
Additionally, tonight's win was the 400th in program history since SEMO moved to the NCAA Division I level in 1991-92.