THURSDAY'S SCORES
@UNC Wilmington 60, Morehead State 58
@VMI 65, Jacksonville State 55
@LSU 79, UT Martin 56
@Loyola (Chicago) 73, Eastern Illinois 62
@Lipscomb 104, Austin Peay 101 (OT)
UNC WILMINGTON 60, MOREHEAD STATE 58
WILMINGTON, N.C. - Morehead State was beaten at its own game Thursday night, falling 60-58 to UNC Wilmington at Trask Coliseum in a non-conference game.
UNCW won the battle of the boards, 33-32, and MSU played most of the game in foul trouble, accumulating 21 fouls to the Seahawks' 12. The Eagles got to the foul line just nine times, well shy of their 21.5 per-game average, and hit just five of those.
The game was MSU's second in the Global Sports Invitational. The Eagles, who fell to 2-1, play at Florida Sunday and then at Ohio State Tuesday as part of the same tournament.
Morehead State led by five a couple of times during the course of the game, but UNCW closed the gap each time, forcing 10 ties and 13 lead changes in the back-and-forth game.
The close game had a frantic finish, starting with Donte Morales' 3-pointer with 2:21 left that broke a 53-all tie. MSU senior Sam Goodman countered with his own trey 23 seconds later and re-tied the game with 1:58 to play. A bucket by UNCW's Chad Tomko was offset by a Demonte Harper layup with 35 seconds left.
Tomko swished a 12-foot leaning jumper with 3.5 seconds left, giving the Eagles time for a game-winner, but Harper was forced out of bounds along the sideline, ending the game.
MSU senior Kenneth Faried led the Eagles with 16 points, 13 rebounds and four steals and Terrance Hill sunk four 3-pointers, three in the second half, to finish with 12 points. Goodman had 11 points and four assists, and Harper dished out four assists as well.
Trevor Deloach led all scorers and rebounders with 17 points and 14 rebounds. Tomko, the Seahawks' leading scorer, was held to just one field goal in the first half, but finished with the two made buckets at the end of the game to score 12 points along with four assists. Morales scored 11 for UNCW.
VMI 65, JACKSONVILLE STATE 55
LEXINGTON, Va. - Despite holding the nation's leading scoring team 41 points under its average on Thursday night, the Jacksonville State men's basketball team dropped a 66-55 road game at VMI.
The Keydets (4-0) made just two field goals in the game's final 11 minutes and 40 seconds, but they got the opportunities they needed at the free throw line. They shot 37 free throws in the game, 25 in the second half, thanks to 27 fouls that were whistled against the Gamecocks (1-2). VMI had to take just 40 shots from the floor, 47 fewer than the Keydets took their last time out.
Senior Nick Murphy led all scorers with 20 points and grabbed seven rebounds, the only JSU player in double figures. The Bronx, N.Y., native also pulled down seven boards to pass former Gamecock Amadou Mbodji for second on the school's Division I career rebounds list. He now has 535 career boards, just eight behind Div. I leader Rusty Brand.
Stan Okoye led the Keydets with 18 points, thanks to a 10-for-13 night at the charity stripe, and a game-high 10 rebounds. Keith Gabriel added 15 points and Austin Kenon pitched in 13 for the home team.
The Gamecocks won the battle of the boards, 39-35, thanks to eight from senior Sean Thurston. Eight different JSU players pulled in at least one board, while Murphy and junior Dominique Shellman each dished four assists. JSU shot just 50 percent on their 18 free throw attempts.
The Keydets stormed out of the gates in the first half to hit 10 of their first 12 shots from the floor and built and early 25-18 lead. From that point JSU went on a 13-0 run that put the Gamecocks on top for the first time at 31-25.
The lead changed hands three more times before the half time horn sounded, and JSU took a 33-32 lead into the locker room.
The teams exchanged blows for the first 10 minutes of the second half before the Keydets were able to pull away to a 56-48 lead despite going 6:50 without a field goal. During that stretch, they went to the line for eight-straight points.
LSU 79, UT MARTIN 56
BATON ROUGE, La. - The University of Tennessee at Martin men's basketball squad matched LSU blow-for-blow through the game's first 11 minutes tonight, but ultimately the Tigers ended the first half on a 23-6 run and never looked back in a 79-56 decision at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Senior guard Reuben Clayton continued his torrid scoring pace to begin the season, pouring in all of his game-high 19 points in the second half after playing just 1:36 in the first half due to foul trouble. The Memphian made seven of his 14 shots (2-for-3 from beyond the three-point line) and made all three of his free throw attempts in 19 minutes.
Six UT Martin newcomers combined to score 33 of the team's other 37 points, led by freshmen Mike Liabo (nine) and Terence Smith (nine). Chris Richardson also added seven points for the Skyhawks, who fall to 2-1 in the early season.
LSU (2-1) placed all five of its starters in double-figures, led by double-doubles by Malcolm White (12 points, 15 rebounds) and Storm Warren (12 points, 11 rebounds). Andre Stringer scored 12 of his team-high 15 points in the second half, while Aaron Dotson and Ralston Turner tallied 13 and 10 points, respectively.
The Skyhawks led for a portion of the first half, thanks to the hot hand of Liabo. The 6-6 Naples, Fla. native scored the first seven points for UT Martin, including the first five off buckets on each of UT Martin's first two possessions to put the Skyhawks ahead 5-0 just 1:16 into the game. Dotson then scored the next five points for the Tigers to tie the game before Liabo's jumper in the paint swayed the lead back in UT Martin's favor by two with 14:56 to play in the first half.
After LSU had already drawn two fouls on Clayton, they then drew two fouls on Skyhawk center Ron Spencer, who was forced to sit out the last 16:19 of the half. That opened up the paint for the Tigers, as they converted back-to-back layups to take a 9-7 lead. The two teams would battle through three more ties and two lead changes before LSU slightly pulled away by scoring six unanswered points to go on top 19-13.
A jumper by Richardson ended UT Martin's drought, and a layup by Smith a little over a minute later sliced the Skyhawk deficit to five points. However, that would be the last field goal of the half, as they managed two free throws over the last 6:07 while the Tigers jumpstarted a 9-0 run to close out the first 20 minutes with a 36-19 advantage.
Liabo's seven points in 10 first-half minutes led the Skyhawks, as Turner's 10 points led all scorers at the halftime break.
Much like the end of the first half, LSU put together a 13-2 run to begin the second half to build a 28-point lead with 16:06 remaining. A jumper by UT Martin freshman Troy King at the 14:48 mark closed out a stretch of 11:19 with no field goals for the Skyhawks.
A layup by Warren with 9:05 to play gave the Tigers their biggest lead of the night at 62-30, but Smith made a layup and Richardson nailed a floater in the lane and a three-pointer in the span of five seconds. That began a stretch where UT Martin held the Tigers to 3:29 without a field goal, allowing Clayton to heat up. He scored 11 straight and 14 out of the next 16 points for the Skyhawks to cut LSU's lead to 73-54, but time ran out on UT Martin.
LOYOLA (CHICAGO) 73, EASTERN ILLINOIS 62
CHICAGO - Loyola jumped out to a 16-1 run to open the game and Eastern Illinois could never overcome that early lead despite shooting 52 percent from the field. The Panthers fell in Chicago, 73-62.
Jordan Hicks scored seven of his team high 16 points in the opening run for the Ramblers including a 3-pointer at the 14:59 mark that put Loyola up 16-1. Another pair of 3-pointers by Terrance Hill and Geoff McCammon would put EIU down 22-5 before the Panthers could muster any offense.
Tyler Laser and Jeremy Granger would each score eight first half points as the Panthers were able to trim the Loyola halftime lead to 38-23. Laser would hit a lay-up and go 1-of-2 from the free throw line in the last minute.
EIU cut the lead to single digits at the 16:52 mark on a Shaun Pratl lay-up. Walt Gibler would counter with a pair of free throws to push the lead back to double digits. EIU would get the lead back to single digits one more time at the 15:12 mark on a Granger lay-up but could never get closer.
Granger finished with 18 points while Laser led the Panthers with 20. EIU was limited to only four points from its bench while Loyola had 19 points off its bench.
EIU dropped to 0-3 on the season, Loyola improved to 4-0.
LIPSCOMB 104, AUSTIN PEAY 101 (OT)
NASHVILLE - Missed free throws prevented Austin Peay State University from opening the 2010-11 basketball season at 3-0, Thursday night.
Austin Peay missed four free throws in the final 25 seconds of regulation, allowing Lipscomb to tie the game, and then watched the home team score the first five points of overtime as the Governors fell, 104-101, at Allen Arena in the first meeting between the programs in 48 years.
The loss drops the Governors to 2-1, the same record as Lipscomb.
The Govs next will head to Southern Illinois-Carbondale for a 2:05 p.m. , Sunday contest to begin the Chicago Invitational Challenge.
The Governors appeared to have the contest under control in the final minute but a controversial technical foul on Josh Terry with 48.4 seconds remaing helped change the game's complexion. After Lipscomb had cut the lead to four points on an Adnan Hodzic layup, the Governors inbounded the ball to Terry, who called timeout as a Bison draped Terry's arms. As Terry raised his arms to throw the ball to the officials, the Bison player, who was still draped over Terry's arms, flopped to the floor. Terry was charged with the technical, which also was his fifth personal foul, removing the Governors' best defender from the floor.
Not only did Lipscomb get to shoot the free throws, cutting the lead to three points, but the Bisons also got the ball. The Govs were able to thwart that possession, forcing a miss with John Fraley grabbing the rebound. Fraley made both free throws to make it a five-point game with 39 seconds left.
Lipscomb cut it to two when Jordan Burgason knocked down a three pointer with 29 seconds remaining. On the ensuing inbounds pass Melvin Baker was fouled. He missed both free throws with 25 seconds left. Lipscomb grabbed the rebound.
At this point, Lipscomb elected to go for a three pointer with Josh Slater missing. Anthony Campbell grabbed the rebound and was fouled with 6.9 seconds left. However, Campbell also missed both attempts, allowing Lipscomb one last chance to tie it.
They did. Slater drove to the basket. The Govs got a hand on the ball at one point but Slater was able to recover and lay it in with 0.1 seconds left, sending it to overtime.
As a result, Lipscomb carried the momentum into overtime, scoring the first five points and leading by as much as nine. Tyshwan Edmondson knocked down a pair of three pointers to give APSU home hope but Lipscomb was able to hit 6-of-8 free throws in the extra session to put the contest away.
Hodzic, the nation's leading returning scorer, led Belmont with 33 points, on 12-of-15 shooting from the floor and 9-of-9 from the free-throw line, to go with 16 rebounds as Lipscomb outrebounded the Govs 42-32. Slater added 22 points and Jacob Arnett tossed in 19.
That trio offset the balanced Governors placing six players in double figures, led by Tyshwan Edmondson's 21 points off the bench. Campbell added 20 while Caleb Brown contributed 16 points, Baker 14, Terry 12 and Fraley 11. The Governors shot 52.2 percent (36 of 69) from the floor but only 65.8 percent (25 of 38) from the free-throw line compared to 75 percent (30 of 40) by Lipscomb.
In a game of attrition, a total of 58 fouls were called with three Governors players (Terry, Baker and Edmondson) fouling out while four Lipscomb players were disqualified.