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LOGAN, Utah--Morehead State men's basketball recovered from a second-half seven point deficit and held on to a tight lead in the final three minutes to defeat Cal State Fullerton, 69-62 in their final game of the Basketball Travelers Invitational.
It was MSU's first win in the three-game tournament after dropping a pair of heartbreakers, losing by a combined nine points in the previous two games. Senior
Maze Stallworth and junior
Kenneth Faried both earned a spot on the BTI All-Tournament Team.
"I thought our kids played extremely hard all three nights and tonight we finally go in the win side of the column," Eagle coach
Donnie Tyndall said.
MSU took a lead with 3:40 to play on a lay-up by junior
Demonte Harper. The Eagles pushed that lead out, and secured the win by sinking 4-of-6 free throws in the final 30 seconds. Morehead State did not allow the Titans to sink a field goal in the final five minutes of play, forcing five turnovers during that stretch and keeping CSF at 0-for-6 from the field.
The Eagles (5-6) had played that same stifling defense the entire game, forcing the Titans into 23 turnovers, 13 of which came off steals. MSU turned turned those 23 takeaways into 25 points. On the flip side, Morehead State only committed 10 turnovers.
"Tonight we only turned the ball over 10 times. If we play with 12 turnovers or less we are going to be a tough team to beat, regardless of who we are playing," Tyndall said.
Morehead State also was more effective in driving the basketball against Fullerton. MSU scored 28 points in the paint and made 28 trips to the charity stripe compared to 14 trips by the Titans.
"The other thing is we got to the foul line more than our opponent," Tyndall said. "Not only did we get there more than them, we doubled them."
Faried scored 19 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season. Faried, who entered the game 22 points shy of 1,000 for his career, needs just three points to become the 29th player in MSU history to hit the millennium mark. Harper added 18 points and Stallworth scored 13 points. Senior
Brandon Shingles tallied five assists.
Devon Peltier scored 15 points and Orane Chin scored 11 to lead Fullerton. Jer'Vaughn Johnson scored 10 points and eight rebounds. It marked the 24th straight game the Titans have lost in Utah State's Spectrum.
The Eagles will be off through Christmas before resuming play at South Dakota Dec. 28 at 8:00 pm ET
