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CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo.--Fresh off sweeping a five-game home stand and picking up a pair of Ohio Valley Conference wins, Morehead State heads west for the annual Southeast Missouri-Eastern Illinois road swing. Up first this year is a much improved SEMO team that shares the same OVC record as the Eagles. Tip-off for Thursday’s game at the Show Me Center is set for 8:30 p.m. Eastern.
Morehead State is 21-16 all-time against the Redhawks and 2-0 versus a Dickey Nutt-coached SEMO team. MSU has reeled off six straight victories and has won 14 of the last 17 meetings between the two teams.
The Eagles were strong at home, beating all but one of those five home opponents by at least 12 points to extend their home winning streak to 24 games, currently ranked fourth in all of Division I. In the midst of the five-game streak, MSU had breakout games from Drew Kelly and Lamont Austin, and strong performances by Terrance Hill, Demonte Harper and Kenneth Faried. The Eagles also were served notice that Faried was added to the prestigious Wooden Award Midseason Watch list.
MSU will need all of those talents and tools to pick up a road win Thursday at SEMO. The Redhawks started the year 0-10, but have since reeled off five wins in their last six games and are now 5-11 overall. Those five wins include four OVC victories, two of which came on the road at Tennessee Tech and Jacksonville State.
SEMO is led by Leon Powell, who averages 14.7 points and 7.3 rebounds and Anthony Allison checks in with 12.8 points per game to round out the Redhawks’ double-digit scorers. SEMO has no problems scoring, shooting 42.8 percent from the field, but allows its opponents to shoot 44.3 percent, and the Redhawks have a -2.6 turnover margin.
Following Thursday’s game, MSU heads north to Charleston, Ill., for an always-difficult matchup at Eastern Illinois Saturday.
