Seventh-seeded host Cleveland State beat 10th-seeded Jackson State 76-61 in the TCCAA/NJCAA Region VII men’s basketball tournament Friday night and will play No. 2 seed Motlow at 6 p.m. Sunday. Earlier Friday, Volunteer State defeated the Dyersburg State women 77-71 but lost 85-83 to Roane State’s men. The women’s quarterfinals are Saturday with Vol State challenging top seed Walters State at 2 p.m., Roane facing Jackson State at 4, Cleveland State meeting Motlow at 6 and Chattanooga State taking on Southwest Tennessee at 8. The Chattanooga State men face Dyersburg State at 4 p.m. Sunday. Cleveland State’s Delaino Walker had 16 points and nine rebounds and Jonathon King had 12 points, six rebounds and five assists in Friday’s win for the Cougars (12-15), countering 22 points on 9-of-13 shooting by Jackson State’s Famous Jones. Roane’s James Jordan and Vol’s Justin Goodson scored 29 and 28 points in the first men’s game. Tasia Bland had 22 points and 14 rebounds in a losing cause for the Dyersburg women; Shalaya Armstead had 19 points and 14 rebounds and Aliyah Miller had 18 points and nine assists for Vol State, which got 15 points from Tatiyana Lavender and seven steals with 11 points from Xavia Williams.
» The excellent Sewanee men’s basketball season ended at 22-7 with a 97-59 loss Friday night to Guilford at Guilford in the first round of the NCAA Division III tournament. Jordan Warlick scored 14 points and Hunter Buescher added 11 to lead the Tigers, while Southern Athletic Association tournament most valuable player Luke Smith was held to nine points but did have six assists. Buescher and Smith were a combined 8-of-29 from the field and 2-of-15 on 3-point shots. Marcus Curry led five double-figure scorers for the Quakers (22-7) with 17 points, and Kyler Gregory had 11 rebounds with 13 points.
» Bryan College is a No. 4 seed in the 2019 NAIA Division II women’s tournament and will face Indiana Wesleyan University at 8 p.m. EST Thursday in Sioux City, Iowa. This is the Lady Lions’ third appearance in three years and fourth in five under coach Jason Smith, but for the first time they are 31-1 – the best record in both NAIA women’s divisions – with 30 wins in a row. They were ranked 12th in the final regular-season poll. IWU is 20-12 this season and 28-13 with two championships in 14 previous national tournament appearances. This is Bryan’s seventh.
» Covenant College received the USA South team sportsmanship award for men’s basketball for the fourth year in a row Friday – after a season in which coach Neal Young’s Scots went 18-9 and won the USAS West Division.
Baseball
» Gabe Howell was 3-for-4 with two home runs, a triple and four RBIs as Bryan College battered visiting St. Andrews 13-3 in their Appalachian Athletic Conference opener Friday night. Also for the Lions (12-4), David Scoggins was 3-for-3 with two runs, Jacob Justice was 2-for-2 with two RBIs, Marcus Catalano hit a two-run homer and Wade Weinburger scored three runs. Ernesto Romero, Samuel Salyers and Tristan Allison pitched a combined four-hitter. The teams will play two games Saturday, beginning at 1 p.m.
» Covenant’s scheduled home game Friday against Wheaton was rained out, but the teams will play a doubleheader Saturday, starting at noon. The same goes for Tennessee Wesleyan’s AAC visit from Montreat and the TCCAA matchups of Chattanooga State at Walters State and Cleveland State hosting Jackson State.
Tennis
» The Sewanee men’s team was 23rd in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings for NCAA Division III going into this semester, and now the Tigers are five spots higher. With a 6-1 record for 2019, they are 18th this week in the Oracle/ITA rankings.
» The 12th-ranked Sewanee women lost 9-0 to No. 2 Emory (4-0) as the eight-team ITA Indoor National Championships got underway Friday in Nashville and Murfreesboro. Sewanee (3-2) is seeded seventh. In a similar grouping last year in Chattanooga, the Tigers lost their opening match to Emory but won their next two for a fifth-place finish.
» While the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women (7-2) put a seven-match winning streak on the line Saturday at 4 p.m. at Tennessee, the UTC men will be home for a noon matchup against four-time 2018 Ohio Valley Conference champion Tennessee Tech. The UTC men are 8-4 with five wins in a row.