Ohio State Beats Illinois, Area College Roundup

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Published on February 5 2018 10:50 am
Last Updated on February 5 2018 10:50 am

COLUMBUS -- Mark Alstork finished with a season-high 19 points in Illinois' 75-67 loss at No. 17 Ohio State on Sunday afternoon.

Illinois jumped out to a 15-point lead halfway through the first half, but went scoreless in the frame's final 10 minutes and trailed Ohio State 34-30 at halftime.

Freshman Trent Frazier scored all 12 of his points in the second half to lead the Fighting Illini back to a 63-60 lead with 5:20 left before the Buckeyes finished on a 15-4 run to win.

Keita Bates-Diop scored a career-high 35 points and had 13 rebounds for the Buckeyes, who have won three straight and 10 of their last 11.

The Buckeyes, playing without suspended guard Kam Williams, overcame an Illinois lead to tie the score at the 5-minute mark. But they wouldn't get the game in hand until Kaleb Wesson grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back up with 48 seconds left. That gave the Buckeyes a 72-67 lead, and any momentum Illinois had was gone for good.

The loss snapped a two-game winning streak for Illinois (12-12, 2-9). The Illini have yet to win a game on the road this season.

Up next, Illinois hosts Wisconsin on Thursday at 8 pm at State Farm Center.

TEAM NOTES

    Illinois forced 15 Ohio State turnovers, the Buckeyes' third-most this season (24 vs. Butler, 19 vs. Robert Morris) and their most in a Big Ten game. Illinois entered the game forcing turnovers on 24.5 percent of opponent possessions during Big Ten play – the highest rate recorded by a conference team over the last 10 years (Purdue, 25.5, 2008).
    Illinois went on a 11:30 scoring drought (10:11 first half-18:40 second half). The Illini led 30-15 midway through the first half before trailing by four at halftime, 24-30.

INDIVIDUAL NOTES

    Graduate guard Mark Alstork had a season-high 19 points on 6-of-11 shooting. It marked his high point total as an Illini (previous was 17 twice, most recently on Dec. 3 against Maryland).
    Freshman guard Trent Frazier had 12 points, all in the second half. It was his seventh straight game in double figures and 13th time in double figures in the last 14 games.


SIUE 75, Jacksonville State 67

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – The SIUE Cougars led from start to finish and delighted an Alumni Day crowd of 1,507 by toppling Jacksonville State 75-67 on Saturday afternoon at the Vadalabene Center.

The Cougars snapped a five-game losing streak by improving to 8-15 overall and 4-8 in the Ohio Valley Conference. Jacksonville State dropped to 17-8 and 8-4.

"It's a good win for us and great for the guys," SIUE Head Coach Jon Harris said. "We defended strongly for the third game in a row. The effort was there and we found a way to get it done."

David McFarland scored a team-high 15 points, Keenan Simmons punched in a season-best 14 points and Jalen Henry contributed 13 points and seven rebounds for SIUE, which saluted its Golden Anniversary team at halftime. Members of the Cougars' first team in 1967-68, coached by the late Harry Gallatin, were honored at halftime.

"It doesn't seem possible that it was 50 years ago," said Bev Gallatin, wife of the former coach, an NBA Hall of Famer. "It was good to see the players here and I enjoyed the ceremony very much. I know that Harry would have loved to be here and we all miss him."

Harris said Alumni Day was meaningful for the Cougars.

"We're going to meet the guys later on today," Harris said. "It's special to have the alumni guys come back and pretty cool to have all of them in the building."

The Cougars took that to heart, building a 6-0 lead, shooting head 33-16 at one point and owning a 38-30 halftime advantage. Jacksonville State closed to within 43-40 early in the second half, but SIUE wouldn't let the Gamecocks snare the lead.

Then the Cougars closed it out in style with McFarland and Simmons, among others, supplying some key points down the stretch. Simmons sank four free throws in the final 35.8 seconds to put the finishing touches on the victory.


EIU Men 79, Tennessee Tech 71

CHARLESTON, Ill. – Mack Smith set the Eastern Illinois freshman single game scoring record with 31 points and walk-on guard Shawn Wilson provided key minutes as the Panthers picked up a 79-71 win over Tennessee Tech on Saturday afternoon.

EIU improved to 8-15 overall, 4-8 in the OVC.  The Panthers play at SIUE on Thursday night.  TTU fell to 16-9 overall, 8-4 in the OVC.

Shaq Calhoun was explosive for Tennessee Tech in the first half as the Golden Eagles built an early six point lead.  The South Alabama transfer had 17 points in the first half as TTU took a 32-29 lead into the locker room.  EIU’s defense would hold Calhoun in check in the second half as he finished with 23 points and did not score again until 1:36 remained in the game.

After TTU pushed the second half lead to five points on free throws by Courtney Alexander, EIU answered with an 8-0 run as Montell Goodwin and Ray Crossland hit 3-pointers followed by a Smith jumper in the lane.   Another 3-pointer by Goodwin gave EIU a four-point lead with 13:56 to play at 42-38.  Goodwin finished with 23 points going 4-of-5 from 3-point range as the senior moved into 10th place on the EIU career 3-pointers made list.

Kajon Mack trimmed EIU’s lead back to one point with 12:39 to play only to see EIU go on a 12-2 run over the next three minutes to give the Panthers a comfortable margin.  Smith scored the first ten points of the run as he knocked down 12-of-17 from the field and 5-of-7 from 3-point range.  Smith broke the previous EIU freshman game scoring record of 28 points set by Joey Miller during the 2012 season.   Wilson capped the run with a drive to the basket as he had five points and six assists in 27 minutes of action.

TTU continued to battle into the final minute with a 3-pointer by Mack cutting EIU’s lead to four points with 31 seconds remaining.    Each time TTU scored in the final 30 seconds, Goodwin was fouled on the inbounds for EIU and sank all six free throw attempts.  EIU was 14-of-20 from the stripe for the day.

Aboubacar Diallo led EIU with 11 rebounds as the Panthers won the battle on the glass by a 37-29 margin.

Mack had 13 points for TTU as he was one of four Golden Eagles in double figures.  Alexander and Mason Ramsey each added ten.


Tennessee Tech Women 60, EIU 57

Tennessee Tech's Abby Buckner came away with a steal on an EIU inbound pass with 12 seconds left to play. Buckner passed it down court to Jordan Brock for the go-ahead layup giving TTU their second conference win of the season. The visiting Golden Eagles defeated the Panthers 60-57 Saturday afternoon in Lantz Arena.

The Panthers fall to 2-21 overall, 1-11 OVC. TTU improves to 5-18 overall, 2-10 OVC.

Jalisha Smith scored on a layup at the 1:05 mark in the first quarter to give the Panthers the lead through most of the game. The Golden Eagles didn't take control again until Yaktavia Hickson knocked down a pair of free throws with a little under four minutes left to play. Danielle Berry and Taylor Steele scored back-to-back buckets with two minutes left giving the Panthers a 57-54 lead, but Buckner's steal with 12 second left ended the Panthers' momentum.

Karle Pace finished a game-leading 18 points, while Carmen Tellez added 10 points, two rebounds, two assists, and a steal. Steele grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and recorded seven points in the loss.

Four players scored double-figures for the Golden Eagles. MacKenzie Coleman recorded a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Buckner had 14 points and eight boards. Yaktavia Hickson and Jordan Brock scored 12 and 10 points, respectively.

The Panthers travel to SIUE Wednesday Feb. 7 for a 7 pm tip-off. They will then return home Saturday Feb. 10 to play Austin Peay at 1 pm.