After a brief period of hot shooting early on, Tennessee State’s offense lost its edge, while defensively they were unable to sufficiently impede the SIUE offense, losing to the defending OVC champs 74-66 Thursday night.
The Tigers shot just 32.8% (22-67) on the evening and a putrid 18% (4-22) from downtown. , The SIUE offense had no such issues; the Cougars were an efficient 52.1% (25-48) from the field and 41% (7-17) from the land of three. SIUE really locked in the second half, connecting on 56.5% (13-23) of their shot attempts.
Tennessee State started fast, taking a 16-8 lead on a pair of Travis Harper II free throws at the 14:43 mark. SIUE responded with an 11-0 spurt over the next 2:10 to take a 19-16 lead on Kyle Thomas’ and-one. TSU tied the contest at 19 on Aaron Nkrumah’s three-pointer off a forced turnover and then took a 21-19 lead on Khalil London’s layup off another SIUE turnover. The Tigers extended the lead to 4 before the Cougars tied the game at 30 and 32 before taking the lead on a pair of Jack Campion free throws with 0:25 left in the opening half. Tennessee State tied the game at 34 on Kavien Jones’ layup as time expired in the opening half.
The teams both scored on their opening possessions – an Arnas Sakenis slam dunk for the Cougars and a Dante Harris layup for the Tigers- leaving the game tied at 36. An 8-0 SIUE run put the Cougars up 44-36 with 15:35 remaining in the contest. The Cougars pushed their lead to double digits for the first time at 56-46 on Jo Valrie’s slam dunk and again at 65-55 following Jordan Pickett’s layup, Tigers continued to play from underneath, trimming the SIUE lead to as little as 4 points but could climb no closer, ultimately falling 74-66.
In a losing effort, Travis Harper led three Tigers in double figures with 17 points. Dante Harris added 16 and Aaron Nkrumah chipped in 13 points.
The loss snapped the Tigers’ two-game winning streak and dropped them to 12-7 overall and 6-3 within OVC play. Tennessee State will look to bounce back when they head to St. Charles, MO to take on Lindenwood; tip-off is scheduled for 2:30 pm.
