ST. CHARLES, Mo. - Lindenwood men's basketball (7-9, 2-3 OVC) earned a gritty 72-62 victory over the Tigers from Tennessee State (5-11, 1-4 OVC) by a final score of 72-62 in Hyland Arena on Thursday night. It became the first ever victory for the Lions over the Tigers in program history. 

Anias Futrell posted his second double-double of the season after tying his season-best in points (24) and grabbing a team-high 10 rebounds in the win over TSU. Futrell shot 7-17 from the floor while going 4-10 from three-point range. All 10 of Futrell's rebounds were on the defensive glass and he added a team-high three steals.

Nathan Johnson Jr. provided a spark in just his fourth start of the season after scoring 11 points on 3-9 shooting from the field. Johnson Jr. was also active on the glass adding seven rebounds in 30 minutes of action. He has now started the last three games for the Lions.

Markeith Browning II was the third Lion to score in double-figures after scoring 10 points against Tennessee State. The graduate transfer also dished out a team-high four assists and went 4-6 at the foul line. Lindenwood went 18-27 at the foul line including a few important ones down the stretch of the second half.

Aly Tounkara made his first career start during his freshman campaign on Thursday and did not disappoint. The 7-footer scored seven points while grabbing seven rebounds, five on the offensive glass. On defense, he led the team in blocked shots with a career-high four. Tounkara has now played over 20 minutes in his last two games. Jaids Jones also had nine points, six rebounds and two steals for the Lions.

For the night, Lindenwood shot 38.7% from the floor while going 6-18 (33.3%) from beyond the arc. TSU was held to under 40.0% shooting going 23-59 (39.0%) and 3-22 from three-point range. The Tigers also struggled at the foul line going 13-21 in the loss.

Lindenwood capitalized on the Tigers' 19 turnovers scoring 22 points off of those. LU also won the battle in the paint 36-34 and on second chance opportunities 22-14. Tennessee State did out-rebound the Lions 43-39 but both teams had 13 offensive rebounds.

It was a slow start for the Lindenwood offense as the Tigers led 10-5 with 15:13 remaining in the first half. The Lions started the game shooting 1-10 from the field and 0-3 from three-point range. TSU held an early advantage on the boards out-rebounding LU 9-6 in the first five minutes of the game.

Tennessee State stretch the lead to 28-18 with just under six minutes left in the half. Aaron Nkrumah made a layup off a turnover by the Lions to give TSU a double-digit lead. At that point in the game, TSU was shooting 43.5% from the field while Lindenwood was shooting 25.0%.

Going into halftime, the Lions managed to go on a 5-0 run to cut the lead to 34-29. Futrell scored 13 of his 24 points in the first half while shooing 4-11 at the foul line. LU shot under 30.0% from the field in the first 20 minutes of the game, but held TSU to 2-12 shooting from beyond the arc.

At the first media timeout, Lindenwood's offense exploded starting the second half on a 12-0 run (17-0 run overall) while shooting 4-7 from the field and 3-4 from the foul line. Lindenwood's defense forced three early second half turnovers as they now led 41-34. Johnson Jr. made two free-throws with 18:09 left to give LU their first lead of the evening.

Tennessee State managed to cut it to a two-point lead with 14:00 minutes remaining, but Lindenwood responded with a 13-4 run capped off by a Jalen Bouknight three with 9:47 left to play putting Lindenwood back up 11, 55-44.

Lindenwood managed to maintain at least a five-point lead for the majority of the second half answering every shot Tennessee State threw at them. Jones had a huge offensive rebound with 2:02 remaining in the game that lead to a Johnson Jr. two-point basket and put Lindenwood up 66-59. In the last 22 seconds of the game, Futrell made three out of his last four free throws to ice the game for the Lions and helped them pick up their second OVC win of the season.

The Lions will return to action on Saturday, Jan. 11th at 3:30 p.m. CT when they take on UT Martin for another OVC showdown. For more information go to lindenwoodlions.com.