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MOREHEAD, Ky.—Four of Morehead State’s five starters scored in double figures and the Eagles overcame early shooting woes to cruise to a 90-49 season-opening men’s basketball win over Asbury Friday night in Johnson Arena.
It was fifth-year MSU coach Donnie Tyndall’s first win in a season opener at Morehead State. It also marked the first time Tyndall has opened the season on his home court. MSU moved to 9-0 all-time versus the NAIA Asbury.
Morehead State (1-0) missed 13 of its first 14 field goals, but
Kenneth Faried had a layup, a jumper and a dunk seven minutes into the game to pull the Eagles out of their offensive funk and erase an eight-point Asbury lead. Faried had his first double-double of the new season with 21 points and 13 rebounds. It was the senior’s 57th career double-dip.
“We didn’t have the energy we needed, especially defensively,” Tyndall said of his team’s early struggles.
After Morehead State closed the gap, the teams traded points until junior
Ty Proffitt scored five straight for MSU, giving the home-standing Eagles the lead for good. Proffitt hit five of his perfect 7-for-7 free throws in the final 4:13 of the first half en route to a career-high 13 points.
Seniors
Demonte Harper and
Sam Goodman tallied 14 and 10 points respectively, with Harper recording nine rebounds, one shy of a double-double.
MSU led 32-22 at halftime and a pair of triples from Phillip Morrison and Adam Delph offset two Faried baskets to cut the Morehead State lead at the start of the second half. The host Eagles took over from there, rolling off a 16-3 run to open a 21-point lead.
The tenacious MSU press kept Asbury under 30 points in each half and forced 20 turnovers, half of which came from steals. Morehead State also dominated the glass, outrebounding the visiting Eagles on both ends of the court for a total of 56-28.
“I thought we did do some good things, particularly in the second half,” Tyndall said. Driving the ball, getting to the free throw line, finishing some plays at the rim. That allowed us to get into our press and our press slowly wore them down. Our press is slowly but surely getting a little bit better.”
Asbury (1-3) had two players Austin Flannery and Delph in double figures. Flannery tallied 15 and Delph 10. Jamal Morris and Morrison each had four rebounds to lead AU. MSU held Asbury to 28.1 percent shooting.
Morehead State returns home Sunday to face North Carolina A&T. Tip time is 2:00 pm.
“[North Carolina A&T] is a good team. They’ve got a 6-9 kid I tried to recruit here, he’s had a great career at A&T to this point. They’re going to press us much like we press them, so it should be a high-scoring entertaining game,” Tyndall said.
