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MOREHEAD, Ky.—Maybe it was apropos that it was Kent State, the last team to win in Johnson Arena.
Morehead State men’s basketball snapped a three-game losing skid and extended its home winning streak to 20 games with a 76-59 non-conference win over Kent State Tuesday night at Johnson Arena in front of 2,328 fans.
KSU edged out the Eagles last season in Johnson Arena, after which MSU rolled off 14 wins at home to round out the year. MSU is now 6-0 at home this season, making the streak 20, which is tied for the seventh-best home stand in the country. Morehead State improved to 7-6 and also snapped a three-game losing streak to the Golden Flashes, which fell to 9-4.
Four of the five Eagle starters scored in double figures, led by
Kenneth Faried’s 24-point, 10-rebound double-double. Faired and
Ty Proffitt, who scored 10 points in his best performance in a month, combined for 13 of MSU’s final 15 points of the first half to spur a 13-4 run. That run gave the Eagles a comfortable nine-point cushion, 35-26, at halftime.
Demonte Harper finished with 18 points, two shy of his fifth 20-point game this season. Harper was perfect from long range, hitting 3-of-3 and
Terrance Hill missed just one triple, scoring 16 points, 12 of which came from 3-pointers. The good shooting percentages, 55.6 percent for the game from the field, including 71.4 percent from beyond the arc in the second half helped MSU stave off Kent State’s second-half comeback attempts.
The Morehead State advantage got as high as 13 early in the second half, but Kent State whittled away at the lead and got it to five following a Michael Porrini layup and a 3-pointer by Sherman Rodriquez. Sherman’s triple at 6:31 was the Golden Flashes last field goal and their only point in the final minutes came on a Mark Henniger charity toss. KSU shot 38.7 percent from the field, a drop of almost 14 percent from the first half.
“I thought tonight we weren’t great defensively in the first half percentage wise, but we held them to a nice number point wise. In the second half we held them to a better field goal percentage, we guarded better, limited them to one shot for the most part,” MSU coach
Donnie Tyndall said. “I thought our whole team did a nice job. It was a good solid win against a very well coached team.”
Kent State had three players in double figures, led by Randal Holt’s 21 points on seven made 3-pointers, but it was the Eagles’ defensive efforts on Justin Greene that was the most noticeable part of the KSU scoring. Greene, the Golden Flashes leading scorer at 18.1 points per game entering Tuesday, was held to two points and fouled out with 5:36 left in the game.
“It was a huge emphasis to front [Greene] on the post in our zone and limit his catches around the rim. He’s a really good a pick and pop guy and when you play a lot of zone that takes pick and pop situations for him out of his game,” Tyndall said. “We did a good job blocking him off not giving him any second chances. That’s a good job defensively by our whole team, a collective team effort to guard a really good player.”
Sherman had 15 points and a game-high six assists. Porrini finished with 13 points and both players had three steals. No KSU player had more than four rebounds.
The game marked the first of a five-game home stand for the Eagles, who next host Binghamton
Thursday at 7 p.m. Admission is free to all MSU faculty and staff with valid ID.
