On the heels of an exciting season opener versus No. 4 Kentucky, Morehead State opens its home slate Monday night at 7 p.m. in Johnson Arena with a different type of in-state foe, Brescia.
The Eagles (0-1) lost to UK 75-59, but played well versus the fourth-ranked Cats. Kentucky’s size in its inside game and MSU’s struggles in perimeter shooting doomed the visiting Eagles.
Junior Kenneth Faried scored 17 points and had seven rebounds and junior Demonte Harper added 12 points in the loss. In addition to Faried and Harper, MSU senior Brandon Shingles dished out five assists versus UK and Harper had three steals. The Eagles shot 38.5 percent as a team from the field, but just 16.7 percent from long range. The one thing MSU did extremely well versus Kentucky was force turnovers. UK gave the ball away 24 times, double what MSU surrendered.
So the focus now shifts to Monday’s home opener against Bresica, who is 0-2 after losing its first two games. The fell in their opener to Northwestern Ohio, 61-58 and then dropped the next game to Freed Hardeman, 111-60.
This will be just the second meeting between the two teams and the first since the 1990-91 season. It was a decisive 93-68 win for the Eagles. A member of NAIA and the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (KIAC), Bresica sponsors 15 sports and has an enrollment of 750. Brescia is led by two players in double-digit scoring. Andrew Howard averaged 18 points per game on 41 percent shooting and Andrea Sharp tallies 14 points per game, shooting 52.6 percent. No Brescia player averages more than 4.5 rebounds per game.
After Monday, the Eagles return to the Division I ranks to face Louisiana-Monroe at 7:30 pm in Johnson Arena.
