(St. Louis, MO) – Murray State has taken the lead and there is a three way tie for fourth place in the Ohio Valley Conference.
Murray State (23-5, 15-2) won its tenth straight game (76-66 at Eastern Illinois) and Belmont (22-8, 14-3) dropped its third consecutive decision to Jacksonville State (78-67). Murray and Belmont receive a two-game bye in the OVC Tournament and MSU clinches first place if they win Saturday at Austin Peay.
Third and fourth place receive byes into the second round and Austin Peay (17-12, 12-5) is assured of third place after their 86-82 win at Southern Illinois Edwardsville.
But what about fourth place?
Tennesee Tech’s head-to-head victory over Tennessee State (69-64) catapulted the Golden Eagles into a tie with the Tigers and with Jacksonville State. All three stand at 10-7.
TTU plays their second straight game against one of their closest competitors as they host JSU. Tennessee State travels to Belmont.
Seventh and eighth place are up for grabs too. Current seventh place team Eastern Illinois (10-18, 6-11) clinches that spot if they defend their home floor against SIUE (9-19, 5-12). Eastern Kentucky’s (11-19, 5-12) home win over Southeast Missouri moved the Colonels into a tie with SIUE for eighth, so anything can happen in the bottom half of the standings. EKU finishes the regular season at Morehead State (7-21, 3-14) who knocked UT Martin out of the playoff race with a convincing win over the Skyhawks.
Outstanding Performances.
Jalen Henry
Southeast Missouri’s Denzel Mahoney and SIUE’s Jalen Henry led all OVC Thursday scorers with 26 points. For Henry, he eclipsed the 1,000 point mark (1,025) in the Cougars’ loss. EKU’s Nick Mayo scored 25 and grabbed nine rebounds. The 6’9 junior is averaging 23.3 points-per-game over the Colonels’ last eight games.
Belmont’s Austin Luke recorded another double-double with 15 points and ten assists and Luke’s heir apparent as the best OVC point guard, Murray State’s Ja Morant scored 15 points, grabbed nine rebounds and distributed nine assists.
Do Good
Don’t Forget – You Can Win Free Tickets to the OVC Tournament by tweeting this story and adding the hashtag #OVCEvansville. A random drawing takes place Friday afternoon for ALL SESSION PASSES to the OVC Tournament in Evansville.
Twitter Feed
Flooding, lightning strikes, etc. have cost @RacersHoops two home games. Had to play 'neutral site' tonight instead of at home and Wednesday's goes from home to away. Tough break for the Racers, and the whole area has been hit with difficulties. #FatherHarry
Murray State's scheduled home game Wednesday vs. Southern Illinois being moved to Banterra Center in Carbondale. #ValleyHoops
Gigantic game for @BradleyUMBB today in Des Moines. If they have a chance to catch @DrakeBulldogsMB, they have to win today. The Bulldogs can basically win the title today. @BustingBrackets breaks it all down. #FatherHarry https://bit.ly/3EGiVgi
Not rooting for any particular @ValleyHoops, but chaos is always fun. If things break certain ways, after today there could be a six-way tie for fifth place.
Fun to listen to @MLBLarry on the @SIU_Basketball/@BelmontMBB game tonight. Good job brother. #FatherHarry
