Brandon Shingles made seven of his eight 3-point shots and scored 23 points to lead fourth-seeded Chattanooga State to a 91-70 thrashing of fifth seed Walters State in the men's quarterfinals of the TCCAA/NJCAA Region VII basketball tournament Thursday at Memphis. The Tigers (16-9) will play tonight at 7 EST in a semifinal against tournament host and top-seeded Southwest Tennessee (23-3), which beat Roane State 74-62 behind 23 points and five steals from Rasheed Brooks. Cleveland State lost 94-77 to No. 2 seed Motlow and third-seeded Columbia State won by forfeit over Jackson State in later games. Jackson State couldn't get its team there because of slickening highways. Ugo Mmonu scored 12 points, Delmont Walton and Chaunce Watkins added 10 apiece and William Davis had seven assists for Chattanooga State, which shot 68 percent from the field in the first half and 60.3 percent for the game. The Tigers led by 13 at halftime and by 22 less than three minutes into the second half. Reggie Williams scored 22 points with four 3s and Dequon Miller was 5-for-7 on 3s and had 20 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds for Motlow (23-5), which got 17 and 15 points from Jaylen Barford and Terry Holt. Darrion Leslie had 24 points, 11 rebounds, five steals and four assists for Cleveland State (11-17), while Rico Overall had 16 points and five assists.
* Top-seeded host Lee University beat Hiwassee College 102-49 in the semifinals of the National Christian College Athletic Association Mid-East Region women's basketball tournament Thursday and will play Tennessee Temple tonight at 6 for a berth in the NCCAA Division I nationals. Third-seeded Temple edged No. 2 seed Bluefield 65-64 with 17 points from Bree Smith and 16 points, 12 rebounds, three steals and three blocked shots from Angel Foster. Shelby Brown had 20 points and eight rebounds and Carrie Cheeks had 18 points, seven rebounds and four blocks Thursday for Lee's Lady Flames (19-8), while Kayla Beavers scored 16 points, Christina Johnson added 12 plus eight rebounds, Erin Walsh tallied 11 points and Alex Swope provided 11 assists. For Hiwassee (14-19), which trailed 55-15 at halftime against the NCAA Division II team, Haylee Morrow and Dominique Stinger scored 16 points and Takyah Gilmore had 13 rebounds with 10 points. In other highlights for Temple's Lady Crusaders (15-15), Kristiana Purvis scored 14 points, Amanda Rector had 11 points and eight assists and Kirsten Fowler had nine rebounds and five steals.
* Top-seeded Dalton State survived a scare from Brewton-Parker and won 68-64 in the Southern States Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament Thursday night in Montgomery, Ala. Dalton State, 26-3 and ranked fifth in NAIA Division I, let a 17-point lead shrink to four but prevailed with Ladaris Green combining 18 points with 11 rebounds and four blocked shots, Jordan Bowling scoring 16 points and Anthony Hilliard and Sean Tate adding 11 and 10. Cameron Bokenham had 20 points for the Barons.