Courtesy of Tennessee State Athletics.
NASHVILLE — The Tennessee State men’s basketball team could not overcome the hot shooting of visiting Belmont in a 93-76 defeat on Saturday night at the Gentry Center in Ohio Valley Conference action.
TSU (13-9, 4-5 OVC) was led by 22 points from Tahjere McCall (Philadelphia, Pa.) to go with 18 points from Wayne Martin (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and 14 from Armani Chaney (Chicago, Ill.) off the bench.
Five players scored in double figures for the Bruins (15-4, 9-0 OVC), which shot 61.2 percent from the field on the night.
Scoring went back and forth in the early going with a three from Darreon Reddick (Belleville, Ill.) three putting TSU in front, 16-15, with 9:07 left in the first half.
Later in the half with TSU down by one, Belmont reeled off seven-consecutive points for a 29-21 advantage with 3:30 left before halftime. The Bruins were able to score the final five points of the half to take a 39-28 edge heading into the intermission.
TSU picked up the first six points of the second half, including a thunderous breakaway dunk by Christian Mekowulu (Lagos, Nigeria) to trim the Belmont lead to 39-32.
A 9-0 run by the visiting Bruins put the Tigers down 56-40 with 14 minutes to play. Belmont continued to play well on the offensive end, leading by 14 or more points the rest of the way.
Evan Bradds led Belmont with 20 points and eight rebounds with Austin Luke chipping in with 18 points and nine assists.
Next on the schedule is another home game at the Gentry Center on Thursday, Feb. 2, versus Eastern Illinois.
GAME NOTES: Tennessee State is now 11-16 in the all-time series versus Belmont… The official attendance of 7,103 ranks as the 18th largest crowd in the history of the Gentry Center, which opened prior to the 1980-81 season.
Head Coach Dana Ford
“I would just like to compliment Belmont on how good of a game they played; and how good of a team they are. I just have a lot of respect for them and their program, and what they have been able to do. In terms of our guys I just have to do a better job of putting them in a better position to be successful and I failed to do that tonight.”
– Opening Statement
“The first half, we really doubled down on him, and the second half we attempted to do the same thing. Again I have to do a better job of getting the message across on what to do. If you guard him one-on-one he is going to lay it in the basket. That is just what he does, and he is really good at it. They stay true to who they are. Even if you double down in the first half they are going to come out the second half and throw it to him. If you double him he is going to throw it out to the shooters. They just do what they are asked to do; and that is they throw him the ball every time.”
– On Belmont Getting Evan Bradds Involved
“We have a game on Thursday against EIU. We have to rebound, and we have to play. We are kind of stuck in the middle of the pack right now. I think Morehead State is 6-3 we are 4-5 it’s a two game lead and we still have to play them at home. We just have to move on to the next game and do our job. We are like the rest of the league outside of Belmont right now. We are trying to get as many wins as we can to put ourselves in the best position to win and earn that one bid come March.”
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