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MOREHEAD, Ky.— Maze Stallworth poured in a season high 26 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field and tallied 11 rebounds to lead Morehead State to a 94-75 victory over Jacksonville State Thursday night in Johnson Arena.
The Eagles (16-7, 10-2 OVC) came out firing, jumping out to a 10-2 lead on treys from
Terrance Hill and Stallworth, and lay-ups from
Kenneth Faried and
Sam Goodman.
MSU continued to maintain its lead throughout the first half and Hill’s third 3-point bomb of the period stretched the Eagle lead to 15 at 35-20.
JSU clawed back into the game however, using an 8-1 run to cut the MSU advantage to eight, 36-28 with 5:58 to go in the opening stanza. That was as close as the Gamecocks would get as two freebies from Stallworth and a
Ty Proffitt alley-oop to Faried stopped the Gamecock run and elevated the MSU lead back into double-digits. Stallworth’s free throws started a 10-3 MSU run that stretched the Eagle lead back to 46-31.
Treys from
Brandon Shingles and
Steve Peterson sandwiched around two Gamecock scores made the half-time score 52-36 in favor of MSU.
Faried totaled 10 points and eight rebounds in the half and the Eagles shot 53 percent from both the field (18-of-34) and from behind the arc (8-of-15) en route to their highest scoring half of basketball this season. MSU also held an outstanding 25-7 edge on the boards at the half.
MSU opened the second¬ half much the same way they opened the first, this time going on a 9-4 run during the first four minutes. Buckets by Faried, Peterson, Goodman and a triple by Stallworth contributed to the scoring spurt that pushed the lead over the 20 point mark, 61-40.
The MSU offense continued to fire on all cylinders, despite Faried fouling out with 11:15 to go in the game, and the Eagles cruised home from there to a 94-75 victory. The season-high 94 points was the most scored by an Eagle squad since MSU also put up 94 against Tennessee State last season. The Eagles shot a season high 53 percent from the field and nailed a season high 13 3-pointers in the contest.
“I would have taken [Faried] out with eight minutes left in the game anyway,” said MSU coach Donnie Tyndall, “but he wanted to play.”
MSU dominated the glass in the contest, outrebounding the Gamecocks 41-20. 17 of those rebounds came on the offensive end.
“Our goal is to lead the country in rebound margin and I think we have a chance,” stated Tyndall.
Stallworth led MSU with a season high 26 points to go with 11 rebounds, his second double-double of the year. Harper led three other Eagles in double figures with 18, 12 in the second half, Faried tallied 12, and Peterson finished with 10. The Eagles also tallied a season high in assists with 26 led by Shingles with seven while Proffitt dished out a career high six.
“We were unselfish, and we put a very big emphasis on getting the ball out of our hands,” said Tyndall.
Nick Murphy tallied a double-double for JSU, scoring 22 points and 12 rebounds. Jeremy Bynum had 15 points, Dominique Shellman had 14. Morehead State held OVC scoring leader Trenton Marshall to 10 points, 8.6 points shy of his season average.
MSU is back in action Saturday night when the host Tennessee Tech. Tip is set for 8:00 pm in Johnson Arena.