Arrington's 24 points propels Eagles past Belmont, 78-77

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MOREHEAD, Ky.—Senior guard Brent Arrington tied a career-high with 24 points to help propel Morehead State men's basketball to a 78-77 win over Belmont on Saturday afternoon at Johnson Arena.
 
The Eagles move their record to 14-11 and 8-5 in OVC play. Belmont remains atop the OVC with an 18-9 record, they are 10-3 in the OVC. The two teams repeated the same results from a year ago, as each team won at home.

"We were so hyped in the first half, we just needed to settle down. We knew that if we guarded and if we controlled the glass, we would have a chance to win this game. We just needed to do it one stop at a time," said head coach Sean Woods. "Brent (Arrignton) was huge for us today. I told him that he needed to carry us and that's exactly what he did."
 
With 9.5 seconds left in the contest, senior forward Anthony Elechi stepped to the line with the Eagles trailing, 77-76. He hit both attempts from the charity stripe, giving the Eagles a 78-77 lead.

Following a Bruins' timeout, guard Craig Bradshaw's 15-foot jumper from the right side of the floor came up short and junior guard Ronnye Beamon snatched the game-ending rebound in front of an excited home crowd.
 
Leading up to the clutch free throws by Elechi was the strong second half performance of Arrington. He scored 19 of his 24 points in the half, leading the Eagles back from a 14-point halftime deficit.

At the 17:40 mark, Belmont led 47-34 and had not trailed. The Eagles went on a 27-12 run, capped off by a 15-0 spurt, to take their first lead of the game with 8:08 to play at 61-59. The Eagles expanded their lead to as many as six at 70-64 with 4:11 left in regulation, but the Bruins fought back with a 13-5 run to retake the lead at 77-75 with 1:06 to go.

In the closing minute, Arrington hit one of two from the free throw line to trim the lead to one, setting up Elechi's heroics at the stripe on the next possession.
 
Arrington shot 9-of-15 from the floor and 3-of-5 from three-point range, as he played the majority of the second half in foul trouble. With 24 points, he also surpassed the 1,000 point scoring mark at Morehead State.

"I wasn't trying to force anything, I just wanted to take shots in rhythm and I was confident in our team," said Arrington. "We got each other open in the second half and we got each other some easy buckets. It was a hard fought game, which is the case every time we play Belmont."

Elechi finished with 11 points and seven rebounds, six of which came on the offensive glass.

Junior forward DeJuan Marrero recorded his team-leading sixth double-double in the win, finishing with a career-high 21 points and a team-leading 11 rebounds. Like Elechi, he had a strong night on the offensive glass, recording six offensive rebounds.
 
The Eagles outrebounded the Bruins, 38-23, and finished with 19 offensive rebounds to Belmont's seven. The offensive boards led to more opportunities as the Eagles accumulated 28 second chance points and finished with 24 more shot attempts.
 
Bradshaw scored a game-high 28 points for Belmont, tying a season-high. Forward Mack Mercer added 12 points and nine rebounds and point guard Austin Luke dropped a career-high 13 assists.
 
Morehead State welcomes in St. Catharine (Ky.) on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. ET.