Ohio Valley Conference

MONDAY'S SCORES
Tennessee Tech 57, @Morehead State 53
Eastern Illinois 80, @Murray State 63
@Southeast Missouri 69, Austin Peay 60
@UT Martin 105, Tennessee State 90
SIUE 78, @Jacksonville State 57 

TENNESSEE TECH 57, MOREHEAD STATE 53
MOREHEAD, Ky. -  Junior Kellie Cook contributed two of the most critical minutes of her career late in the game Monday night, helping to lift the Tennessee Tech women's basketball team to its fourth consecutive win, a gut-check 57-53 come-from-behind decision at Morehead State.

Cook helped Tech erase an 11-point deficit by scoring eight straight points, including back-to-back 3-pointers, and also blocked a shot and grabbed an important defensive rebound as the Golden Eagles closed the game on a 17-2 run.

The road victory, Tech's second consecutive Ohio Valley Conference win away from home, helped the Golden Eagles stay in the upper ranks of the league standings with a 6-3 record and improve to 10-13 overall. Tech has won four straight and six of the last eight.

Morehead State, which dropped both games in the series to Tech this season, saw its mark slip to 7-13 overall and 4-4 in league play with its third straight loss.

Tech comes home to host SIU Edwardsville Wednesday night, with tipoff at 7 p.m.

The Tech defense held MSU without a basket for a stretch than ran to 16:01, including the final 10:08 of the first half and the first 5:53 after halftime.

Still, despite not yielding a field goal for that long period, the Golden Eagles weren't able to take advantage. When the MSU Eagles finally got their first basket of the second half, broke a 33-33 tie, the fourth time of the night that the teams were knotted up.

In fact, the 3-pointer by Linda Dixon at the 14:07 mark of the second half - Morehead State's first trey of the contest  -- ignited an 18-7 stretch that allowed the home team to build an 11-point margin with 7:20 to play.

The Tech defense rose up again and the 3-pointer by Terrice Robinson that made it 51-40 MSU lead was the last basket allowed by the Golden Eagles for the next 5:28. It allowed the Golden Eagles to slowly trim the difference, starting with a layup by freshman T'Keyah Willams and jumpers by Tacarra Hayes and Jala Harris. Those points made it 51-46, and Hayes added a free throw to pull the Golden Eagles within four.

Williams nabbed a defensive rebound and keyed a break that led to a 3-pointer by Cook from the left wing to get Tech within one point, 51-50. After another defensive rebounds by Williams, Cook knocked down another 3-pointer 28 seconds later, pushing Tech ahead, 53-51.

And, 41 seconds after that, after Cook had blocked a shot, she buried a fadeaway jumper to make it 55-51 with 2:17 remaining.

Courtney Lumpkin's jumper with 1:52 left ended MSU's scoring drought, and made it a two-point game.

Neither team scored down the stretch and with four seconds left,  Kylie Cook blocked Lumpkin's layup attempt. Ashar Harris grabbed the offensive rebounds, her 16th of the night, and drew a foul. However, she missed both charity tries and Rachel Glidden hauled down the rebounds and drew a foul with 2.6 seconds left. Glidden hit both free throws for the final margin.

Tech's stout defense over the final 10 minutes of the first half helped give the Golden Eagles a chance to win the game, after Morehead State had worked its way out to a nine-point lead at 22-13. Tech closed the half on a 15-7 run to pull within one at the break.

Hayes was the top scorer in a balanced offensive night for Tech, netting 16 points on 6-for-11 shooting. She added seven rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots. Glidden finished with 10 points and seven rebounds, while Harris had eight points and six rebounds and Kellie Cook added eight. Brittany Darling managed seven points and six rebounds.

The Golden Eagles had a 46-35 lead in rebounds.

Lumpkin was the game's top scorer with 19 points while Linda Dixon finished wit 15 points. Almesha Jones added nine points, four assists and two steals. Harris, the leading rebounder in the nation, had 16 rebounds, three assists and two steals.

EASTERN ILLINOIS 80, MURRAY STATE 63
MURRAY, Ky. - Five Panthers scored in double figures to overcome a second-half surge by Murray State to pick up an 80-63 road win in women's basketball on Monday night at the CFSB Center. EIU improved to 17-4 on the year and 8-0 in Ohio Valley Conference action. 

The Panthers started the game with a 10-0 run, hitting four of their first five shots from the floor. EIU eventually took its largest lead of the half, 37-17, with two and a half minutes on the clock before the Racers went on a 7-3 run to cut their deficit to 16 points heading into the locker room.

EIU took its largest lead in game, 49-26, with 17:30 left in the game. Murray State would storm back and get within nine points twice, eventually only trailing 70-61 with four and a half minutes left on the clock. The Panthers closed the game on a 10-2 run to win their 10th consecutive game and 17th straight OVC regular-season game dating back to last season.

Sydney Mitchell paced the Panthers with her second career double-double, scoring 20 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Mariah King added 17 points and Ta'Kenya Nixon chipped in 14 points. Kelsey Wyss also scored 12 points while Jordyne Crunk rounded out the double-figure scorers with 10 points.

Defensively, Sabina Oroszova added eight rebounds and two blocks. Wyss also had four steals in the game.

EIU out-rebounded Murray State 45-34 in the win and scored 42 points in the paint to the Racers 26. The Panthers also scored 17 points off of 16 Murray State turnovers.

The Panthers shot 50.9 percent (27-for-53) from the floor and went 24-for-30 from the foul line. Crunk paced EIU at the charity stripe as she went 8-for-8.

Kayla Lowe paced the Racers with 20 points while Erica Burgess added 13 points. Lowe went 6-for-10 from behind the arc.

SOUTHEAST MISSOIURI 69, AUSTIN PEAY 60
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Allyson Bradshaw's career night propelled the Southeast Missouri women's basketball team to a much-needed 69-60 win over Austin Peay at the Show Me Center on Monday night.

Bradshaw tallied a career-high 17 points to lead all players and move the Redhawks (5-17, 2-7 Ohio Valley) past the Lady Govs (5-18, 2-8 OVC) in the conference standings.

APSU held a 19-12 lead with just over 10 minutes remaining in the first half, but Southeast went on a 13-3 run over the next six minutes to grab a 25-22 lead with 3:54 left in the opening stanza. The Lady Govs countered with four free throws in the next minute points to go back in front, 26-25.

Bradshaw took over the first half at that point, scoring the game's next eight points. The freshman drilled back-to-back three-pointers to make it 31-26 with 2:08 showing in the opening frame. On the following possession, the Cape Girardeau, Mo., native got to the charity stripe and drained two more free throws to extend the lead to 33-26. A Bailie Roberts layup in the open court made it 35-26 with 21 ticks remaining, but Whitney Hanley stopped the 10-0 Redhawk run with a jumper at the buzzer to make it 35-28 at the break. Bradshaw finished with 11 points in the first half, making 3-of-5 three-pointers.

Courtney Shiffer opened the second half with a baseline jumper to extend the Redhawks' lead to 37-28. The Lady Govs would not go away, however, as a Leslie Martinez three-pointer capped a 14-5 run that cut the Redhawkss lead to 44-42 with 11:23 remaining.

Undeterred, Southeast went to the low block as Shiffer found Brittany Harriel in the lane. The junior recorded three points the hard way, scoring through contact and making the ensuing free throw to make it 47-42 at the 10:59 mark.

Southeast stayed ahead over the next six minutes, but never by any more than six points. Hanley made it a 55-52 game on a jumper with 4:33 left, but Bradshaw hit her fifth and most important three-pointer 18 seconds later to make it a six-point lead. The Redhawks did not allow the Lady Govs to get any closer the rest of the way.

Bradshaw's outburst gave the Redhawks a 24-14 advantage in bench points. She made 5-of-8 from three-point range. Harriel also scored in double figures with 15 points while Bailie Roberts recorded her first double-double of the year with 10 points and a career-high 13 rebounds. Bianca Beck dished out a game-high six assists and racked up three steals.

APSU was led by Kaitlyn Hill's 16 points. Hanley (15 points) and Jasmine Rayner (10 points) were the other two Lady Govs in double figures.

The teams were nearly even in shooting as Southeast hit 39.7 percent of its shots while APSU made 39.6 percent. The Redhawks made 5-of-19 (26.3 percent) from beyond the arc and the Lady Govs went 4-of-15 (26.7 percent) from long range. The Redhawks made 18-of-29 free throws (62.1 percent) and the Lady Govs went a nearly perfect 14-of-15 (93.3 percent) from the charity stripe.

Southeast dominated on the glass, holding a 43-31 edge in rebounding and grabbed 14 offensive rebounds. Both teams turned the ball over 17 times.

SIUE 78, JACKSONVILLE STATE 57
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - Jazmin Hill led all scorers with 16 points Monday as SIUE cruised to a 78-57 triumph over Jacksonville State in women's Ohio Valley Conference basketball action at Pete Mathews Coliseum.

SIUE won its fifth road game of the season and improved to a 12-8 mark overall.

The Cougars next head to Tennessee Tech for a 7 p.m. Wednesday matchup with the Golden Eagles. As both SIUE and Tennessee Tech are 6-3 in the OVC, the winner of that contest will have sole possession of third place in the league standings.

The Cougars kept their composure despite Jacksonville State hitting eight of their first nine shots from inside the arc over the first seven minutes of play.

SIUE was never down by more than three points and began to pull away with a 10-2 run over the final six minutes of the first half to take a 44-31 lead at halftime.

Hill would hit four three-pointers in the game, the seventh time this season the Cougar sophomore has achieved that feat. Her 16 points were aided by 12 from Tierny Austin and 10 from Michaela Herrod. Austin's 12 would match her season best.

SIUE shot a season-best 50 percent (33-66) from the field. 

Jacksonville State, now 4-19 overall and 1-9 in the OVC, finished with three players in double figures. Brittany Manning led the Gamecocks with 12 points followed by 11 from Danielle Vaughn and 10 from Destiney Lane.

SIUE wreaked havoc on defense and on the offensive boards against the Gamecocks.

The Cougars turned 18 JSU turnovers into 19 points and outscored JSU on second- chance points 20-6.

UT MARTIN 105, TENNESSEE STATE 90
MARTIN, Tenn. - Heather Butler set a new school single-game scoring record with 42 points to lead UT Martin past Tennessee State, 105-90. 

The Skyhawks'  Jasmine Newsome added 22. Jaclissa Haislip (12) and Taylor Hall (11) also scored in double-figures.

Tennessee State's Chelsea Hudson had a career night with 38 points and 17 rebounds. Kim Haynes matched her career-high with 20 points while Jasmin Shuler registered 18. Rachel Allen had nine assists and seven rebounds in the game.

Tennessee State led UT Martin, 45-40, at halftime but was outscored, 65-45, in the second frame.

Jasmin Shuler knocked down a three-pointer to christen the game but Heather Butler answered with a triple to even the score at 3-all. After a couple of empty possessions by both teams, UTM used a 6-2 run to go ahead, 9-5.

Chelsea Hudson scored in the paint before Kim Haynes nailed a triple to pull TSU within one. TSU briefly took the lead on the next possession but a see-saw battle would ensue.

The teams traded the lead over the next few minutes until Kesi Hess drained one from long range to give TSU an, 18-14, lead.

UTM knotted the score and another back-and-forth exchange occurred. Later in the half, TSU managed to build a, 30-25, advantage but the Skyhawks once again closed the deficit.

The score was tied, 38-38, when the Lady Tigers outscored the Skyhawks, 7-2, to close out the half and take a, 45-40, lead into the break.

In the second half, a bucket by Chelsea Hudson gave the Lady Tigers a, 47-40, lead before TSU was outscored, 9-2. A three-pointer by Kim Haynes put TSU on top, 52-49, but UTM posted 10 unanswered points to capture a, 59-52, lead.

TSU fell behind, 73-61, following a UTM three-pointer and called a timeout in an attempt to slow the Skyhawks down.

The Lady Tigers continued to fight but the Skyhawks offense proved to be too much down the stretch. TSU trailed by as many as 20 points before falling to UTM, 105-90.

TSU shot 42.5 percent (31-of-73) from the field, including 40 percent (12-of-30) from three-point range. The Lady Tigers only knocked down 69.6 percent (16-of-23) of their free-throws.

UTM shot 50.7 percent (35-of-69) from the field and 42.3 percent (11-of-26) from long range. The Skyhawks went 24-of-32 (75 percent) from the free-throw line.

TSU had 23 turnovers, off which UTM scored 33 points.