By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee Tech men's basketball wraps up the 2024-25 regular season Saturday afternoon in the Hooper Eblen Center with a 3:00 p.m. CT affair against Lindenwood.
The contest will represent Senior Day, with Rodney Johnson Jr., Grant Slatten, Matthew Sells, Bogdan Zimonjic, and graduate manager Jonas Alger all being recognized between the women's game with the Lions at 1:00 p.m. and the men's contest.
The action can be followed live via radio with Roger Ealey and Metz on the call on 106.1 The Eagle while Dylan Vazzano and Steve Smith will provide video coverage of the contest on ESPN+. The contest will also be featured live locally on WCTE.
Having already secured a berth into the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament next week in Evansville, Ind., Tech will be jockeying for position in the tournament seeding on Saturday, with the opportunity to climb as high as the No. 5 seed while finishing no lower than the No. 6 spot.
Saturday's match-up marks just the fourth in program history between Tech and Lindenwood, with the Golden Eagles holding a 2-1 advantage. After falling in the inaugural meeting between the two programs in St. Charles in 2022, the purple and gold have claimed each of the past two contests.
Tech squared the series with a 77-68 win in Cookeville on Feb. 16, 2023 and then took the lead in last season's lone match-up. Competing in St. Charles once again, the Golden Eagles used overtime to take a 62-53 victory back home with them.
When the two sides met this season back on Dec. 19, the Golden Eagles made it rain from distance at Hyland Arena, sinking 11-of-24 tries from downtown on their way to a 79-73 win. After the purple and gold fell behind by nine with just under six minutes to go in the first half, Matthew Sells doubled down with back-to-back buckets from deep for the second time on the night, cutting the deficit to just three.
In the second half, Tech poured it on early, methodically pushing its advantage over the Lions out to 13 points with a little under 10 minutes to play. Lindenwood held the Golden Eagles scoreless for nearly six minutes to pull back within just two points, but the Cookeville crew made its free throws down the stretch to lock down the win.
Topping the scoring charts on the night with 22 points, junior guard Jaylon Johnson tallied a pair of treys with six free throws and seven assists in 38 minutes of action. Sells closed his night with 12 points and a pair of dimes. Sophomore guard Kyle Layton tacked on 11 points with a team-high three steals in the affair, draining a trio of triples and snagging four boards. Junior forward Ola Ajiboye just missed a double-double, ending his night with 10 points and nine rebounds.
Lindenwood enters Saturday's contest after falling at Western Illinois, 86-81 in overtime, on Senior Night in Macomb on Tuesday evening. The OVC's leading 3-point shooter, WIU's Marko Maletic, delivered the shot of the night, draining a game-tying bucket from beyond the arc with one second left to force the extra session. In overtime, the Macomb mob outpaced the Lions 13-8 to collect its fifth league win of the year.
Tech takes on the Lions after also dropping a tilt with the Leathernecks on Thursday evening, an 82-69 decision in the Hoop. The Golden Eagles had no answer for the hot-shooting visitors and their 53.3 percent touch, falling behind by as much as 24 with 7:30 to play.
The Cookeville crew fought back to within 12, but the visitors finished things off in their final contest of the season.
Even with the loss, Jaylon Johnson delivered one of the top shooting displays in school history on his way to a season-high 31 points. The Houston, Texas native buried eight triples to tie for the second-most by a Golden Eagles in program history and the first since Hakeem Rogers hit eight against Crowley's Ridge on Dec. 4, 2016.
Johnson concluded the night with seven boards, three assists, and four steals to go with his 31 points, converting 8-of-14 attempts from distance and 11-of-20 field goals overall. Grant Slatten chipped in eight points, three rebounds, and three steals in 19 minutes off the bench, making his minutes count while sparking the Cookeville crew in both halves.
Junior forward Daniel Egbuniwe contributed 12 points and eight boards to the mix while hitting a trio of treys. Senior forward Rodney Johnson Jr. tacked on 11 points five rebounds, and three dimes in 25 minutes of action. JaJuan Nicholls rounded out the scoring for Tech, producing seven points in nearly 19 minutes.
Photo by Jim Dillon
