By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – It came down to the closing seconds, but the Tennessee Tech men's basketball team held off the Tigers of Tennessee State to collect its second win of the season Saturday night. Leading wire-to-wire, the Golden Eagles pulled off the 74-71 victory in the Eblen Center.
"We feel very fortunate," Tech head coach John Pelphrey said. "Tennessee State came in here with a very aggressive basketball team on both ends of the floor. We got off to a pretty good start in the first half, but still turned the ball over too many times. You have to give them credit for that."
Over the opening six minutes, Tech was playing stellar defense to the tune of a 12-2 advantage and saw as much as a 12-point lead with under five minutes to play in the opening half. The Tigers cut it to seven points at the break, however, forcing a pair of Tech's 10 first-half turnovers in the closing two minutes.
"It was kind of the same thing in the second half," Pelphrey explained. "We started playing very well and then had another 10 turnovers in the second half. We have to grow up and move on from that. It is very difficult to win a conference game turning it over 20 times – really any game – but especially a conference game. I thought our defense slipped there a little bit in the second half."
Tech once again led by 12 points in the second half, but a quick run by the Tigers closed the gap to four with just under 12 minutes to play.
"They got really aggressive in around the basket and got hot there for a little bit from the 3-point line," Pelphrey continued. "They capitalized. Then it came down to having to make some plays."
The Golden Eagles expanded it back out to 11 behind a stellar effort from JUCO transfer Marcus Hopkins. In the second half alone, the big man scored six points, hauled in four offensive rebounds – five total – and hit four free throws. He finished the night with season-highs of 10 points, six rebounds and nearly 18 minutes of action.
"I thought Marcus Hopkins was awesome," Pelphrey expressed. "I thought he was the player of the game, quite honestly. Marcus has been out for quite a while and still trying to get back into shape, but I thought he just made some unbelievable plays in the basketball game. He was in a good place mentally. He stayed calm. It wasn't like he was getting the ball thrown to him in the post. He was making it happen on offensive rebounds, drawing fouls and then going to the free-throw line and cashing them in.
"I thought he was the best frontcourt player tonight, defensively as well. I'm really proud of him. His challenge will be now can he have repeat performances like this. If he does, this could be really helpful for us moving forward."
Tennessee State trimmed its deficit to just two with 2:48 on the clock. Chattanooga native Jr. Clay drilled a clutch 3-pointer to push the lead back to five. After a Tiger layup, sophomore Keishawn Davidson laid in a fast-break score with 48 seconds to go to put Tech back up by five.
Davidson was the offensive force for the purple and gold on the night, scoring a career-high 19 points on 7-for-9 shooting and a perfect 3-for-3 from downtown. He snagged three rebounds and two steals while dishing out six assists with no turnovers in just 31 minutes.
"Keishawn Davidson also had an outstanding game…he had a career-high in points," Pelphrey said. "He was outstanding in the first half. Really the only thing he didn't do well is he had some foul trouble there, but it's hard to fault that because he was in there competing with rotational block-outs versus a big guy. He also had six assists and no turnovers, which is outstanding. So we're proud of him."
The Tigers drilled a triple with 16 seconds left in the game, cutting things to just two points. Tech was able to pass the ball around and burn all but 1.6 seconds off the clock before the visitors could get a foul and send graduate transfer Shandon Goldman to the line.
The forward hit his first free throw for the three-point lead. His second shot was just a bit short and to the left, allowing a TSU rebound, but the subsequent shot came too late as the Golden Eagles held on for the win.
In the second half, Clay tipped in one of his own missed layup attempts for his first bucket of the game, giving the junior his 1,000th point of his career. He is just the 37th member of the Tech 1,000-point club and already passed Mitch Cupples to move into 36th on the program's all-time scoring list with his nine points on the night. He also dished out four assists with six rebounds and two steals.
"We're proud of Jr. Clay for getting his 1,000th point," Pelphrey expressed. "That's a really big-time accomplishment to do that in two-and-a-half years. So it was a positive night for us."
JUCO transfer Damaria Franklin had a strong night with 16 points, four assists and four rebounds while freshman Austin Harvell turned in a team-high eight rebounds with eight points.
"We know we were fortunate to win," Pelphrey added. "The exciting thing too for us is there are so many things, just from playing a little smarter and not making mental errors – which we can correct – that I think would put us in a situation to compete even better. So we'll go back, watch the film and try to learn from that and see if we can't improve here moving into next week."
Tech will continue Ohio Valley Conference play Thursday, Jan. 21 with a trip to Clarksville, Tenn. and match-up with in-state rival Austin Peay at 7:30 p.m. CT.
Photo by Matt Dexter, TTU Athletics
