Tennessee State notched another win and continues to make a push to the NCAA Tournament in the process.
The Tigers rolled past SIU Edwardsville 80-53 on Saturday in Nashville for their second straight win to improve to 19-9 overall and maintain the top spot in the Ohio Valley Conference.
The Tigers knocked down 57 percent of their shots and went 8-19 (42 percent) from three-point range. TSU also outrebounded SIUE 37-21.
Aaron Nkrumah led the Tigers with a game-high 26 points on 11-15 shooting. Antoine Lorick added 15 points.
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The latest victory for Tennessee State was only indicative of just how well the Tigers have played under first-year head coach Nolan Smith.
Smith, who was part of national championship teams as a player and assistant coach at Duke, has the Tigers on the cusp of the program’s first regular-season conference title since 1999, the last time it appeared in the NCAA Tournament.
“Pretty much my whole life, I have always won,” Smith, who owns the second-most wins for a rookie Tigers coach since 1960, recently told The Tennesseean. “I don’t take winning for granted.”
