Men's Basketball Recaps - Feb. 2

Men's Basketball Recaps - Feb. 2

THURSDAY'S SCORES
Tennessee Tech 94, @Austin Peay 88
Eastern Kentucky 47, @Eastern Illinois 43
@SIUE 61, Morehead State 53
@#9 Murray State 81, Southeast Missouri 73
Jacksonville State 85, @UT Martin 74


TENNESSEE TECH 94, AUSTIN PEAY 88
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - Tennessee Tech hit 16 consecutive free-throws in the final four minutes to stave off hard-charging Austin Peay on Thursday night, leaving the Dunn Center with a 94-88 victory.
 
Kevin Murphy and Jud Dillard combined for 62 points as Tech won its fourth game out of its last five and improved to 15-9 overall and 7-4 in the OVC. The Golden Eagles moved into a third-place tie with Tennessee State in the conference.
 
Murphy scored 33 points, his third-highest career total, and Dillard tied his career-high with 29 points and set a new career-high for free-throws, going 13-for-14 from the line. Dillard also grabbed nine rebounds while Murphy had seven boards and was 10-12 at the charity stripe. Murphy also added five three-pointers.
 
Murphy has now scored 30-plus points in three of the last four games. Thursday's game also marks the fifth time this season Murphy and Dillard have scored 20-plus points in the same game.
 
Tech built its lead as high as 10 with 5:38 in the second half, but had to hold off the Governors late as Austin Peay trimmed the lead down to two on a Melvin Baker dunk with 20 seconds left. From there, Dillard sank two free throws to build the lead back to four, then Austin Peay's Tyshwan Edmondson missed a three-pointer and Murphy grabbed the rebound and hit two free-throws himself to seal the win.
 
The Golden Eagles have now won four consecutive games over Austin Peay and three straight at the Dunn Center dating back to a victory in the first round of the OVC Tournament.
 
As a team, Tech shot 81 percent from the free-throw line, going 30-for-37, and upped that percentage to 94 percent in the second half at 29-for-31. TTU held a four-rebound advantage over the Govs and snatched 11 steals on the night.
 
Zach Bailey contributed 13 points and four steals while Dennis Ogbe added 10, his second double-figure game of the season. Terrell Barnes added nine rebounds and Zac Swansey led the team with four assists.
 
John Fraley led Austin Peay with 31 points and 17 rebounds, going 10-for-13 from the field and 11-for-12 at the free-throw line. Melvin Baker and Josh Terry also scored in double-figures, scoring 17 points and 10 points, respectively.
 
The game featured six lead changes and four ties, all of which came in the first half. Austin Peay jumped out to a 12-6 lead and held an advantage until the 8:52 mark when a Kevin Murphy layup gave Tech a 19-18 lead.
 
Austin Peay held a three-point lead at halftime, but Tech quickly took control early in the second period, getting three consecutive three-pointers from Murphy and a Liam McMorrow dunk to take a 44-38 advantage. The Golden Eagles didn't trail the rest of the way.
 
With the loss, Austin Peay fell to 9-16 overall and 6-6 in the OVC.

EASTERN KENTUCKY 47, EASTERN ILLINOIS 43
CHARLESTON, Ill. - The Eastern Kentucky University men's basketball team rallied for a 47-43 win over host Eastern Illinois Thursday night. The win snapped a five-game road losing streak for the Colonels.
 
Senior Joshua Jones paced EKU (12-11, 6-5 OVC) with 12 points while sophomore Jeff Johnson led all players with eight rebounds.
 
Jeremy Granger was the lone Eastern Illinois (9-13, 2-8) player to reach double figures (12 points).
 
The Colonels never led in the first half and trailed by eight, 28-20, early in the second half following a Granger three-pointer.
 
Junior Mike DiNunno finally breathed some life into the EKU offense with a three-pointer and a floater in the lane to cut the deficit to four points, 33-29. Joshua Jones then got the scoring itch with a step-back three-pointer to put EKU within one point, 33-32.
 
Two minutes later, Joshua Jones put back a missed D'Mitri Riggs jumper to give Eastern Kentucky its first lead of the contest, 34-33. Baskets by Riggs and senior Jaron Jones capped the Colonel 9-0 run to make the score, 38-33.
 
EKU didn't trail the rest of the way as Eastern Illinois scored just six points in the final 5:55.
 
After shooting 25 percent from the floor in the first half, the Colonels connected on 47.6 percent (10-of-21) of their shots in the final 20 minutes.

SIUE 61, MOREHEAD STATE 53
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - SIUE snapped a season-long six-game losing streak Thursday thanks to a 61-53 victory over visiting Morehead State in Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball.

Mark Yelovich led all players with 20 points, tying his season high. Yelovich connected on 10 of 11 shots from the field. The 10 made baskets also is a season-high and is just one off the junior's career best. He also grabbed five rebounds and dished out three assists.

Corey Wickware equaled his season high, scoring 19 points. Wickware collected five rebounds and added four assists of his own. Kris Davis was the only other Cougar player to score in double figures. The freshman guard scored 12 points. He was 3 for 4 from three-point range to increase his NCAA-leading three-point percentage to .597.

The Cougars, who improved to 6-14 overall and 4-7 in the OVC, fell behind the Eagles 6-2 before using an 11-3 run to take a 13-9 lead on a Yelovich jumper with 7:49 left in the first half. SIUE extended the lead to seven points twice in the half, the last time after a three-pointer from Wickware made it 24-17 1:49 before the break. SIUE led 24-19 at the half.

The Cougars stretched the lead to 10 points (29-19) following another Wickware triple just 1:12 into the half. Wickware's third three-pointer of the game gave the Cougars their largest lead of the game at 45-32 with 10:34 remaining.

Morehead State, now 12-12 overall and 5-5 in the OVC, wasn't going away. The Cougars led by 11 (49-38) when the Eagles reeled off eight straight points. A Milton Chavis jumper made it 49-46 SIUE with 3:22 left.  Drew Kelly cut the lead back to three, at 53-50, with a layup with just 1:45 left. Chavis paced MSU with 16 points and also picked off five rebounds. Kelly scored 10 points and added five rebounds as well.

On the ensuing possession, Wickware drove the right side of the lane before finding Davis in the right corner. Davis buried a three-pointer to put SIUE up 56-50 with 1:06 left. Wickware sank five of six free throw attempts down the stretch to secure the win.

The Cougars used 17 assists to shoot 53.8 percent (21-60) from the field. The Cougars were 12 of 15 from the free throw line for 80 percent. It is only the second time this season SIUE has shot 80 percent or better from the stripe. Morehead State was just 35 percent (21-60) from floor and 20 percent (4-20) from beyond the arc.

#9 MURRAY STATE 81, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI  73
MURRAY, Ky. (AP) - Even though the first half wasn't pretty, Murray State ended the night with its 22nd consecutive victory.

Isaiah Canaan scored 24 of his 32 points in the second half and the Racers (No. 9 ESPN/USA Today, No. 10 AP) remained unbeaten with an 81-73 win over Southeast Missouri State on Thursday night.

Jewuan Long added 13 points for Murray State (22-0, 10-0), which is off to the best start by an Ohio Valley Conference team since Western Kentucky opened 21-0 in 1953-54.

Marcus Brister had 17 points and eight rebounds for the Redhawks (12-10, 7-3).

The lead changed hands three times in the first half and Murray State trailed the Redhawks 39-33 at the break. Murray State took the lead for good less than 10 minutes into the second half.

Southeast Missouri forced 14 turnovers, but Murray State outrebounded the Redhawks 43-34.

With the Redhawks leading 46-40 and 15:38 to go, Long took an elbow to the chin from SE Missouri's Marland Smith. A minute later, after two missed layups and a jumper, Ivan Aska ran down the court, shared a look with Canaan and said, "Let's go bro." Ten seconds later, Canaan connected with his second 3 in a row.

After three Donte Poole free throws, Canaan sank another 3-pointer with 13 minutes to go.

Aska added 10 points and 11 rebounds for the Racers, and his dunk with 1:58 to go gave Murray State a 12-point lead -- its largest of the game.

Murray State trailed by as many as 11 in the first half, but coach Steve Prohm never called a timeout.

JACKSONVILLE STATE 85, UT MARTIN 74
MARTIN, Tenn. - On a night where the Jacksonville State men's basketball team struggled with one of its strengths, the Gamecocks turned to one of their weaknesses to pull away in the second half and hand UT Martin a 85-74 defeat in Ohio Valley Conference play.

The Gamecocks (10-15, 5-6 OVC) entered the game with the second-best field goal percentage defense in the OVC but watched the Skyhawks (3-21, 0-11 OVC) torch the nets by shooting 62 percent from the floor. However, JSU went to the free throw line, where it was ranked 9th in the league, and made 23 of its 24 attempts to hold off a pesky UTM effort. The win was the fourth-straight in OVC play for JSU, its longest win streak since joining the league in 2003-04.

Five JSU players scored in double figures for the third-straight night, something the Gamecocks had failed to do in over a year before snapping that skid last week. Junior Ronnie Boggs led all scorers with a career-high 17 points, thanks to a 7-for-10 effort from the floor on a night that saw JSU shoot 57 percent, despite going just 2-for-9 from behind the arc.

Junior Dion Waiters also scored a career high, getting most of his output at the charity stripe. The Brooklyn, N.Y., native went 8-for-8 from the free throw line to account for more than half of his 14 points. Sophomore Brian Williams added 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting. Freshman Darion Rackley had JSU's lone miss at the line but made seven to put in 13 points. Junior Tarvin Gaines added 10 to round out JSU's quintet in double figures.

Freshman Grant White scored eight points less than a week after scoring in double figures for the first time in his career, while sophomore Nick Cook pitched in six despite playing just 19 minutes due to foul trouble.

The Skyhawks got 16 points from Myles Taylor but only two in the second half, while Mike Liabo and Dane Smith added 15 and 14 points, respectively.

JSU won the battle on the boards, 23-18, and were led by Boggs' five boards, four of which came on the offensive glass.

The first half was back-and-forth, with six ties and six lead changes, but the Gamecocks managed to take a 35-33 lead into the half. JSU shot just three free throws in the first half, but UT Martin went 8-for-11 from the charity stripe and used a 6-for-7 effort from the floor from Taylor, who led all players with 14 points in the first 20 minutes.

All nine Gamecocks scored in the first half, with Williams' six leading the way. White and Boggs each added five, while Cook and Boggs each added four after sitting for at least half of the period because of foul trouble.

The second half started the same way the first played out, but the Gamecocks finally put together an 8-0 run that gave them a 60-50 lead halfway through the second period.

UTM would pull to within four but the Gamecocks kept forcing turnovers and converting at the line to put the Skyhawks away.