Courtesy of Tennessee State Athletics.
NASHVILLE — Balanced scoring carried the Tennessee State men’s basketball team to a 76-65 win over UT Martin at the Gentry Center on Saturday night in Ohio Valley Conference action.
Delano Spencer (Atlanta, Ga.) led TSU (11-5, 2-1 OVC) with a career-high 19 points as Tahjere McCall (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Wayne Martin (Brooklyn, N.Y.) added 17 points apiece.
UT Martin (11-8, 1-3 OVC) led by as many as 12 points in the first half and had a 30-26 halftime edge before the Tigers outscored the Skyhawks by a 50-35 margin in the second half.
McCall, who played his first two collegiate seasons at Niagara, scored his 1,000th career Division I point on the night. The redshirt senior scored 330 points at Niagara and now has 683 for TSU for a total of 1,013 points. McCall had another all-around strong game with 17 points and seven rebounds while tying a career high with eight assists.
The Tigers dug themselves a 12-point hole just over 11 minutes into the game with the Skyhawks holding a 21-9 advantage. TSU clawed back into the game, cutting the deficit to single digits on a layup from Jordan Reed (Philadelphia, Pa.).
Tennessee State continued to battle, closing the half on a 7-0 run to trim UT Martin’s lead down to 30-26 at halftime.
Out of the break, TSU was able to take the lead less than two minutes into the half thanks to a pair of jumpers from Darreon Reddick (Belleville, Ill.). A 14-3 run gave the Tigers a double-digit advantage at 49-38 with 12:13 showing on the second half clock.
TSU would go on to lead by as many as 12 points on two occasions later in the half.
UT Martin closed the gap to five points with 6:34 remaining, but the Tigers regained their footing and stretched the advantage up to 11 in the last four minutes.
TSU forced 15 turnovers on the night and shot 48.3 percent (28-for-58) on the offensive end.
Fatodd Lewis paced the UT Martin offense with 11 points on the night.
TSU returns to action on Thursday, Jan. 12, with a road test at Eastern Kentucky.
GAME NOTES: Redshirt senior Tahjere McCall (Philadelphia, Pa.) scored his 1,000th career point on a dunk with 6:34 left in the first half. McCall scored 330 in two seasons while playing for Niagara before transferring to TSU… TSU is now 33-25 in the all-time series versus UT Martin… The win snapped UT Martin’s three-game winning streak in the series… Third-year Head Coach Dana Ford has now beaten the 11 other OVC teams.
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