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MOREHEAD, Ky. – The Morehead State men’s basketball team soared to victory, 87-54, over the No.7 seeded Gamecocks of Jacksonville State in the first round of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament in Johnson Arena Tuesday night.
The Eagles advance to the OVC tourney semifinals in “Music City” Nashville, Tenn., against No. 6 Tennessee Tech, an upset winner over third-seeded Austin Peay. Tip-off will be 9 p.m. EST.
Morehead State improved its record to 22-9 and also extended its home winning streak against conference teams to 19. The 22 wins is the second most in school history.
The Eagles shot 48 percent from the field against Jacksonville and 44 percent from beyond the arc, and outgained the Gamecocks on the glass 44-27. The Eagle defense did well throughout the game and held Jacksonville State to 37 percent shooting from the field.
“I thought our team definitely came ready to play tonight and I thought we did a really nice job in our zone defense,” said
Donnie Tyndall. “There was a huge emphasis on fronting the post and limiting their touches inside, and I thought we did a pretty good job of that.”
Leading the Eagles was
Kenneth Faried, who notched his 22nd double-double of the season, pulling down 19 boards and tallying 24 points, one rebound shy of his second 20-20 game this season.
Steve Peterson reached double digit points for the sixth time in nine games scoring 14. Demonte Harper scored 13 points and dished out four assists, and
Terrance Hill added 11 total points.
Maze Stallworth scored seven points and grabbed five rebounds in his final game in Johnson Arena.
“I was kind of hard on Kenneth the last couple of days, but he responded tonight and played like the best player in our league,” Tyndall said.
The Eagles flew out of the gate on a 28-5 run to start the game and never looked back. The first half run was sparked by a pair of treys by Peterson and Stallworth, and included Faried scoring six consecutive points on three monstrous dunks, and finally was capped by a high flying tomahawk jam by
Sam Goodman at the 4:53 mark. Peterson nailed a 3-pointer as time expired in the half to give the Eagles a 43-14 lead over the Gamecocks.
Jacksonville State didn’t reach double digit points until 2:16 remaining in the first half. The Eagle defense was relentless in the first half as they forced the Gamecocks into 14 turnovers, leading to 19 points. MSU held Jacksonville State to 5-of-19 (26 percent) shooting from the field for the first half.
The Gamecocks were already without leading scorer Trenton Marshall due to a suspension and also played minus starting point guard Dominique Shellman, who had been suspended prior to the game for a violation of team rules.
“I have so much respect for coach Green and the job he has done with that program, but they were just a little short handed tonight,” Tyndall said.
In the first half the Eagles were led by Faried who grabbed nine rebounds and scored 10 points. Sophomore guard
Ty Proffitt added eight points, draining two long balls and Stallworth had seven points and grabbed four caroms. MSU shot 15-27 (56 percent) from the field and 6-10 (60 percent) from beyond the arc.
The second half was more of the same for the Eagles as they extended their largest lead of the game to 35 points with 2:36 remaining in the game after a Peterson made free throw.
The Eagles went on another 11-2 run at the 4:11 mark, sparked by two three’s from downtown by Harper. The run was capped by a sweet alley-oop stuff by Peterson delivered from
Aaron Williams at the 2:08 mark.
The Eagles were plus six in the turnover battle forcing 17 Gamecock turnovers and only relinquishing 11 of their own. They scored 22 points off of the Jacksonville State miscues. Jacksonville State never led in the game as the Eagles went wire to wire.