THURSDAY'S SCORES
Morehead State 76, @Little Rock 70
Eastern Illinois 71, @Lindenwood 67
Tennessee State 79, @Southeast Missouri 71
@SIUE 67, Western Illinois 47
@UT Martin 64, Tennessee Tech 49
MOREHEAD STATE 76, LITTLE ROCK 70
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Morehead State Men's Basketball is the Ohio Valley Conference Champions once again! The Eagles fought off Little Rock on the road Thursday night behind 28 points from George Marshall and a 22-point, 13-rebound by Jon Carroll as the Eagles claimed a 76-70 victory and at least a share of the 2025-26 OVC regular season crown.
MSU (19-12/15-5 OVC) won its seventh straight game to close the regular season, winning the program's third regular-season title in the last four seasons (outright in 2022-23, three-way tie in 2023-24). MSU also swept the season series with Little Rock, which is departing the OVC after this year.
Morehead State led for 38:16 of the night, led by 17 first-half points from their senior leader Marshall. He drilled five three-pointers - all in the first half - and finished with 28. That marked his third 20-point game in the last four. Carroll recorded his ninth double-figure rebounding game and tied his career point high for the third time this season.
The Eagles led by 16 early in the second half but had to fend off a pesky Trojan squad that ended up shooting 65 percent in the final half and making it a close call. The home team trimmed the Eagles' lead down to as low as five twice in the final two minutes. But, MSU nailed five free throws in the final 1:07 to keep its distance for the win.
Morehead State, the OVC leader in field goal percentage against conference opponents, finished with a 50 percent field goal accuracy, which marked the 10th time this season it shot 50 percent or better. Eight of those came against league foes, with a 7-1 mark in those games.
Little Rock shot 43 percent overall, but MSU held the Trojans only made 26 percent in the first half when the Eagles led 37-24 at the break. Jonathan Lawson led his team with 15 points.
The Eagles finished with a 37-32 rebound edge on the night. MSU also had a decisive 46-32 advantage in points in the paint.
EASTERN ILLINOIS 71, LINDENWOOD 67
ST. CHARLES, Mo. - Kooper Jacobi scored a career high 30 points and Meechie White helped ice the game at the free throw line as Eastern Illinois remained alive in the hunt for the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament with a 71-67 road win at Lindenwood.
The win moved EIU to 12-18 overall, 8-11 in the OVC and in a three-way tie for seventh place in the conference standings heading into the final game of the season on Saturday. Lindenwood fell to 16-14 overall, 10-9 in the OVC.
Jacobi nearly collected a double-double in the first half on his way to scoring 30 points and pulling down 13 rebounds. His biggest shot of the night was a free throw with 1.7 seconds left that gave the Panthers the four point margin.
EIU led 36-29 at the half and played in front the entire second half. Lindenwood cut the lead down to one point twice in the second half, the last time with 25 seconds left on free throws by Anias Futrell. He had 27 points to lead Lindenwood.
The Panthers finished off the game at the free throw line with the last made field coming with 6:42 to play by Jacobi. White hit 10-of-10 at the foul line to score ten points as EIU scored its last 14 points of the game at the foul line.
Markus Blackwell was a big factor for the Panthers in the first half scoring 11 points off the bench. EIU held Lindenwood to 38 percent shooting picking up 12 steals.
Dontrez Williams had 16 points. Jadis Jones posted a double-double with 11 points, 13 rebounds.
TENNESSEE STATE 79, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 71
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Antoine Lorick III scored 22 points and Dante Harris added 20 as Tennessee State used a strong second-half performance to defeat Southeast Missouri State 79-71 on Thursday night at the Show Me Center.
Lorick III and Harris powered the Tigers (20-9, 14-5) offensively, with Lorick III finishing 6-of-13 from the field and 9-of-12 at the free-throw line while adding nine rebounds and two blocks . Harris shot 6-of-14 from the floor and a perfect 8-of-8 at the line, while contributing five rebounds and four assists. Aaron Nkrumah filled the stat sheet with 12 points, nine rebounds, seven steals and two blocks , and Travis Harper II chipped in 18 points on 5-of-10 shooting, including 2-of-4 from three-point range and 6-of-6 at the line.
Tennessee State shot 36-of-42 (85.7 percent) from the free-throw line and held Southeast Missouri State to 37.9 percent shooting from the field. The Tigers out-rebounded the Redhawks 36-27, including 10 offensive rebounds, and totaled six blocks and nine steals as a team. TSU also scored 21 fast-break points in the win.
After falling behind 17-13, Tennessee State answered with a 6-0 run midway through the first half to take a 19-17 lead. The Redhawks later pushed their advantage to as many as 10 points in the opening period before the Tigers closed the half on a 5-0 spurt, capped by a Travis Harper II three-pointer with 41 seconds remaining, to trim the deficit to 38-33 at the break.
Tennessee State surged in the second half, shooting 43.3 percent from the field and 19-of-21 (90.5 percent) from the free-throw line over the final 20 minutes. Trailing 51-48, the Tigers used an 8-2 stretch to move in front and later extended the margin to eight points in the closing seconds. TSU outscored SEMO 46-33 in the second half to secure the 79-71 victory.
SIUE 67, WESTERN ILLINOIS 47
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - SIUE men's basketball snapped a three-game losing streak with a 67-47 win over Western Illinois Thursday at First Community Arena.
The win, coupled with a loss by Lindenwood secured the fifth-seed in next week's Ohio Valley Conference tournament.
Playing as the 66ers, SIUE improved to 18-12 overall and 11-8 in the OVC.
SIUE limited Western Illinois to just 29 percent shooting for the game. The 47 points scored are the second fewest allowed this season by SIUE.
After a slow start offensively, the 66ers used an 11-0 run to go up 20-5 early in the first half.
WIU used a run of its own to cut the lead back to 26-22 after a three-pointer by Isiah Griffin with 2:11 to play before. SIUE pushed the lead out to 30-23 at half following a jumper from Kyle Thomas.
The 66ers used a 9-0 run early in the second half and led 43-27 following a Tyler King layup with 15:12 to play in the game.
SIUE swelled the lead as many as 24 after a steal and score by King with 3:13 to play in the game.
King led all scorers with 18 points on 7-of-15 shooting. Thomas scored 15 points and led SIUE with eight rebounds. Arnas Sakenis scored 14 points and added four rebounds and four blocks. Jack Campion scored six points and added seven assists.
The 66ers shot 49 percent (27-55) for the game and connected on 54 percent (15-28) of its shots in the second half.
SIUE dominated inside, outscoring the Leathernecks 42-14 in the paint. The 66ers outrebounded WIU 43-32.
Western Illinois was led by Griffin who scored 13 points, including nine in the first half.
UT MARTIN 64, TENNESSEE TECH 49
MARTIN, Tenn. - A stifling defensive effort from the University of Tennessee at Martin men’s basketball team resulted in a convincing 64-49 triumph over Ohio Valley Conference foe Tennessee Tech at the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center.
The Skyhawks held the Golden Eagles to 0-for-13 shooting with 10 turnovers in the first 13:55 of the game, wrapping up the game with their second fewest points allowed by a NCAA Division I opponent this season (only trailing 44 points at Western Illinois on Jan. 31). Overall, UT Martin limited Tennessee Tech to 25 percent shooting (11-of-44) with a 21.7 percent clip (5-for-23) from three-point range to go along with 16 turnovers.
Lamine Niang came off the bench to tie a game-high with 12 points tonight, shooting 6-of-8 from the floor with a pair of blocks in 20 minutes. Filip Radakovic added 10 points while Vladimir Khryapa produced a career-best nine points on 3-of-4 shooting from three-point land. Andrija Bukumirovic hauled in a game-high eight rebounds to pace the Skyhawks, who improved to 21-9 overall (13-6 OVC) on the way to officially clinching a top-four seed and first-round bye in next week’s OVC Championship tournament.
The Golden Eagles (13-17, 8-11 OVC) received 12 points apiece out of Mekhi Cameron and Dani Pounds as the latter also grabbed a game-high eight rebounds. Nearly half (22 points) of Tennessee Tech’s scoring output came from the free throw line.
An AJ Hopkins layup at the 6:38 mark of the opening half gave the Skyhawks their first double-digit lead of the night (14-4). The Golden Eagles made their first field goal of the game on the next possession, starting a 17-4 run that briefly resulted in a Tennessee Tech lead late in the first half.
UT Martin bounced back to take a 23-22 advantage into the locker room thanks to a straightaway Khryapa triple with 48 seconds remaining before the intermission. Niang’s eight points led the way for the Skyhawks while Cameron scored 10 first-half points for the Golden Eagles, who shot 21.1 percent (4-of-19) and 2-for-12 (16.7 percent) from beyond the three-point arc in the first 20 minutes.
After Tennessee Tech scored the first points of the second half, Niang slammed home an alley-oop dunk 16 seconds later to give UT Martin a lead it wouldn’t relinquish the rest of the way. The Golden Eagles closed to within one point (33-32) with a little under 14 minutes to go but the Skyhawks responded with a game-changing 21-4 run, capped off with a Filip Petkovski three-pointer that made the score 54-36.
Afan Trnka buried a three-pointer with 1:44 left to play that gave UT Martin its biggest lead of the evening at 64-42 as the Skyhawks won going away.