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MOREHEAD, Ky.— Morehead State men’s basketball was in a defensive mood Thursday night.
The Eagles routed Ohio Valley Conference foe Southeast Missouri State 80-40 at Johnson Arena to win their seventh straight game. It was the fewest points scored by an MSU opponent since the 1983-84 season when Morehead State held Tennessee-Wesleyan to 36 points.
MSU (11-6, 6-1 OVC) forced 20 first-half turnovers out of SEMO, 11 off of steals resulting in 17 points for the Eagles. Morehead State held the Redhawks without a field goal for a 10-minute span in which they scored four points, all at the line and led 40-10 at halftime.
“The final score tonight was not indicative of the difference in these two teams,” Morehead State coach
Donnie Tyndall said. “We played the best we have all year, and we know to expect a hard-fought, physical game when we travel to Southeast Missouri.”
Five Morehead State players scored in double digits and junior
Kenneth Faried tallied his 11th double-double (12 points, 16 rebounds). Senior
Maze Stallworth led the Eagles with 13 and junior
Sam Goodman, a transfer, added a career-high 12 points, his best in an MSU uniform. Junior
Demonte Harper and sophomore
Steve Peterson each tallied 12.
Brandon Shingles dished out seven assists for MSU.
Ten of the 11 Eagle players that played scored, including freshman Jamel Marshall, who played a career-high 14 minutes, tallying his first points at MSU and finishing with six.
MSU shot 47 percent from the field, collected 15 steals and 17 assists.
“We had 17 assists on 31 field goals,” Tyndall said. “I thought our team really played unselfishly and shared the basketball well.”
The Eagles opened the game with junior Kenneth Faried scoring four points before SEMO was able to get a shot off. Sam Pearson broke through with a jumper at 16:38 to cut the MSU lead to two, and answered a lay-up by Marshall with a lay-up from Rae-Vonn Banks. The well then went dry for the Redhawks. The next SEMO field goal came on a lay-up by LaQuentin Miles with 4:45 left, their third and final field goal of the first half.
Southeast Missouri (5-11, 2-4 OVC) was led by Derek Thompson’s 10 points and LaMont Russell’s eight rebounds. SEMO improved in the second half, shooting 25.8 percent to score 30 points. The Redhawks finished with 27 turnovers.
A 12-2 run at the start of the second half extended the MSU advantage to 40 points early in the second half. The Eagles held that lead for the remainder of the contest.
Morehead State will host Eastern Illinois at 4:30 pm on Saturday at Johnson Arena.
