After trailing for most of the second half, the Tennessee State defense put the clamps on late in the second half to pull off a come-from-behind win.
Tennessee State led for a long stretch of the first half with Little Rock briefly tying the game at 9 on a Cameron Wallace slam dunk at the 15:42 mark. The Trojans took their first lead of the evening when Braxton Bayless connected from downtown, which made the score 18-17. The game saw ties at 20 and 22 apiece before a 7-0 spurt from the Trojans put them up 29-22 with 4:13 remaining in the opening half. Later back-to-back buckets from Carlous Williams and Travis Harper II trimmed the lead 33-30 with 1:14 left in the half, a jumper from Bayless pushed the Trojan advantage to 35-30, a lead they took into halftime.
Little Rock pushed its lead to double figures for the first time early in the half when Jonathan Lawson personally went on a 5-0 run that made the score 40-30 just 53 seconds in. TSU clawed back to within a bucket with an 8-0 spurt of their own.
This pursuit was the nature of the majority of the half with Little Rock building a lead, Tennessee State drawing near, but never able to completely close the gap. A pair of Carlous Williams free throws once again pulled the Tigers within four at 61-57. Cameron Williams’ slam dunk pushed the Trojan advantage to 63-57 with 6:22 remaining in the contest.
Those would be the last points Little Rock scored on the evening, as they were held to 0/8 from the field and the Tigers forced 5 Trojans turnovers. Travis Harper’s free throws tied the game at 63 and then his shot from downtown put the Tigers up, which proved to be for good, 66-63 with 1:41 left in the matchup.
Aaron Nkrumah led four TSU players in double figures with 22 points along with 7 rebounds. Travis Harper III added 16 points, Carlous Williams scored 14, and Jalen Pitre chipped in 10.
Winners of two straight, Tennessee State (14-7, 8-3) returns to action against Tennessee Tech. The Tigers defeated the Golden Eagles 88-76 in their meeting earlier this season in Cookeville.
