NASHVILLE, Tennessee -- The eighth-seeded Tennessee State men’s basketball team suffered a 78-75 overtime loss to fifth-seeded Southeast Missouri in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament First Round at Municipal Auditorium on Wednesday night. Wayne Martin (Brooklyn, N.Y.) led four Tigers in double figures with 19 points and eight rebounds.
TSU (17-13) held a 34-28 halftime edge over Southeast Missouri (15-17) before the Redhawks outscored the Tigers by a 36-30 margin in the second half. In the five-minute overtime period, Ken’Darrius Hamilton (Montgomery, Ala.) drilled a three pointer with 7.2 seconds left to level the scoring, but SEMO’s Tahj Eddy answered with the game-winning three with 2.2 seconds to go to pull out the victory.
For TSU, Armani Chaney (Chicago, Ill.) tallied 14 points with Tahjere McCall (Philadelphia, Pa.) adding 12 and Hamilton scoring 10. The Tigers held a 49-30 rebounding edge and limited the Redhawks to 35.0 percent shooting.
Southeast Missouri jumped out to a 16-8 lead eight minutes into the contest before pair of Chaney three-pointers got the Tigers back in the game.
Another Chaney three with 7:38 left in the opening half put the Tigers up 24-21 as part of a 10-0 run over a three-minute span. McCall’s layup with 2:10 remaining before halftime gave TSU its largest lead of the opening half of eight points at 34-26.
TSU, which shot 52.0 percent from the floor in the opening 20 minutes, carried a 34-28 lead into halftime.
Out of the break, Tennessee State stretched its lead to 14 at 44-30 thanks to a 10-2 run to open the half.
The Tigers continued to lead by double figures until SEMO’s Trey Kellum hit a layup to trim the TSU advantage down to 48-39 with 11 minutes to play. The Redhawks continued to press and cut the deficit to just two at 51-49 with 7:18 left.
With four minutes to play, TSU led 58-54 and the game remained close throughout the rest of regulation.
TSU found itself down by two with 27.8 seconds left when Chaney tied things up at 64-64 with two made free throws. The Tigers came up with a stop on the defensive end on SEMO’s final offensive possession to force overtime.
TSU trailed by five points in overtime when Delano Spencer (Atlanta, Ga.) hit a free throw and Darreon Reddick (Belleville, Ill.) followed with a layup to put the Tigers down just two at 72-70 with 27.5 seconds to go.
After SEMO made one free throw on the other end, Reddick hit two from the line, again cutting TSU’s deficit down to one point at 73-72. Two more SEMO free throws put the Tigers down three until Hamilton tied the game at 75-75 and Eddy answered with the winner.
SEMO’s Denzel Mahoney led all scorers with 34 points.
GAME NOTES: TSU is 12-25 all time in the OVC Tournament… TSU was the eighth seed in the OVC Tournament for the fifth time… The Tigers are now 25-20 in the all-time series versus Southeast Missouri.
TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY ATHLETIC MEDIA RELATIONS
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