BOX SCORE (HTML) | BOX SCORE (PDF)
MURRAY, Ky.— Morehead State men’s basketball couldn’t overcome a long scoring drought and a couple of substantial Murray State runs as the Eagles dropped a 70-62 game at the CFSB Center Thursday night.
Morehead State fell to 20-9 and 12-5 in the OVC. Murray State claimed a share of the OVC regular season title, improving to 21-8 and 13-4 in the league.
The Eagles were led by Demonte Harper, who had his fourth career double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds. Kenneth Faried tallied his 81st career double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Terrance Hill scored 13.
B.J. Jenkins was 9-of-11 at the free throw line and 6-of-10 from the field to score a game high 25 points. Isaiah Canaan had 14, and Isacc Miles notched 10 for the host Racers.
Morehead State managed to take 16 more shots than the Racers, but the Eagles hit only 36.5 percent of their attempts. Murray State also hit 12 more free throws and made 9-of-17 three-pointers as they shot 43 percent for the game. The Eagles out-rebounded the Racers 42-32.
The visitors broke a 7-7 tie with a three-pointer by Sam Goodman, and that ignited a 9-2 run that was capped by a Terrance Hill free throw at 11:15. The Eagles led 16-9 at that point. Morehead State extended that lead 20-14 at the 8:28 mark, but the Racers ended the half on a 14-2 run, including scoring the final nine.
Drew Kelly hit a layup at 3:16 and was fouled. He missed the charity toss, and the Eagles led 22-19. Murray State held Morehead State without a field goal in the final three minutes and outscored them 9-0 to lead 28-22 at the break.
The Racers began the second half on a 17-2 run as the Eagles only made one field goal in the first six minutes. The host team hit five three-pointers, and Murray State built a 45-24 lead with 14 minutes left.
Morehead State rallied midway through the final half. Harper and Ty Proffitt nailed back-to-back three pointers to bring the Eagles within 12, 49-37, with 8:44 left. Hill got the second of two breakaway layups to fall, and the Eagles finally cut the Murray State lead under double digits. With 3:35 left, the Eagles trailed 54-45.
Canaan connected on a trio of free throws to push the margin back out to double digits, but Faried got a board and putback, and Hill drained a 10-footer as Morehead State trimmed it to eight, 57-49. Murray sunk their free throws down the stretch, keeping the Eagles from trimming the lead under eight.
The Eagles will close out the regular season Saturday at UT Martin. Game time is set for 7 p.m. EST.
