Men's Hoops Falls at Texas Southern, 66-49

HOUSTON, Texas (EMUEagles.com) — The Eastern Michigan Univeristy men's basketball team could not handle a hot three-point shooting Texas Southern University team here Tuesday night, Nov. 15, in a Auto Owners Spartan Invitational game played in the H & PE building, falling to the Tigers, 66-49.

Texas Southern, now 1-1 on the year, made 13-of-22 three-point field goals in the game with Lawrence Johnson-Tanner, a redshirt sophomore from Detroit Academy of Business and Tech, and junior Omar Strong combining for 11 triples with Johnson-Tanner making six and Strong five. The Tigers also shot 64.1 percent from the field, hitting 25-of-39 field goals. Johnson-Tanner finished with 20 points while Strong scored 15.

The Eagles, now 1-1 on the young season, were led by senior guard Darrell Lampley (Linden, N.J.-Linden-Lakeland C.C.) with 15. EMU shot just 36.4 percent from the field, making 10-of-31 field goals. Eastern did manage to win the rebound battle, 30-24.

The Eagles jumped out to a 5-3 early lead on a triple to start the game followed by an Antonio Green (Inkster, Mich.-Dearborn Heights Robichaud) dunk at the 16:48 mark.

At that point a three-point contest broke out with TSU gaining the upper hand on five triples by Johnson-Danner.

The home squad built its lead to as many as 13, 24-11, with 9:02 left in the first half before the Eagles managed to trim the deficit to five, 29-24, on a three by Lampley at the 3:02 mark.

Strong would then hit his second three of the half to make it 32-24 with 2:37 left before senior center Kamil Janton (Tarnow, Poland-Chicago Bartlett) scored on a putback to close out the first-half scoring at 32-26 with 1:55 left.

The Tigers would connect on eight triples in the first 20 minutes while the Eagles would six of their own, with redshirt sophomore J.R. Sims (Fort Wayne, Ind.-Snider) and Lampley both making two.

Lampley hit a long three to start the half to cut the deficit to three, 32-29, at the 19:34 mark, but TSU inched its way back to a six-point lead, 39-33, on a layup by Aaron Clayborn with 16:24 on the clock.

The two teams continued to trade buckets over the next four minutes before Strong would hit his fourth three of the game to stake the Tigers to a 12-point advantage, 52-40, at the 10:38 mark of the second half.

Texas Southern would build its lead to 17, 62-45, on another Strong triple with 4:31 remaining and the Tigers would cruise the remainder of the game.

The Eagles will be idle until Friday, Nov. 18, when they return home to the Convocation Center to square off against the University of Arkansas-Little Rock in their second game of the four-game Auto Owners Spartan Invitational.

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Team Stats

Darrell Lampley

Antonio Green

J.R. Sims

Quintin Dailey

Eastern Michigan Athletics