By Matt Schabert, Morehead State Athletic Media Relations
GAME NOTES (PDF) | LISTEN | STATS
MOREHEAD, Ky. -- Morehead State men's basketball headed west on Wednesday as the Eagles will take part in the Cheney (Wash.)Â Subregional of the 2K Empire Classic this weekend. MSU faces Missouri-Kansas City at 5:35 p.m. ET Friday at Eastern Washington's Reese Court.
The other game has the host EWU Eagles facing Green Bay Friday. The winners will play Saturday with the losers taking part in the consolation contest. Regardless of Friday's outcomes, If the Eagles play EWU it will be at 6:15 p.m. Saturday, while a matchup with Green Bay would be at 4:05 p.m.
UMKC enters the weekend at 0-3, while Eastern Washington is 0-2 and Green Bay is 1-2. Morehead State is 1-2 after close calls at UConn and Syracuse in the 2K Empire Classic last weekend.
Both games can be heard live on the Eagle Sports Radio Network (WIVY-96.3 FM). If the Eagles play EWU, the game will be streamed on the Big Sky Digital Network.
GAME NOTES
FROM A LAND DOWN UNDER
Morehead State and the UMKC Kangaroos have actually met four times with the 'Roos winning all four. The first meeting came in 1987-88 (an 81-77 UMKC win in Morehead). The teams also played in 1988-89 before playing a home-and-home series in 1992-93.
NOT A MAIDEN PHOENIX
The Eagles have Phoenix have only ever met twice, in back-to-back seasons. The Eagles lost 66-50 at Green Bay in 2014-15 and fell 78-72 at home in 2015-16.
EAGLES VS. EAGLES
Morehead State has only played Eastern Washington once, an 88-86 EWU win in overtime in 2015. In that game, now senior
Lamontray Harris had 22 points, while now junior
Jordan Walker scored 12. The teams were supposed to play in Cheney in 2014 but weather did not allow the Eagles to make it out west.
HANGING WITH THE BIG BOYSMorehead State has put together a great showing in its two 2K Empire Classic games. The Eagles only trailed UConn and Syracuse by a combined 10 points at halftime and had both games within a 10-point margin with less than seven minutes remaining.
A RARE OCCURRENCE
Morehead State scored 70 points in the Carrier Dome at No. 14 Syracuse last Saturday. That marked only the third non-conference opponent to score at least 70 points against Syracuse on their home floor in the last four seasons, joining Maryland (70 in 2017-18) and Buffalo (74 in 2017-18).
SYRACUSE GAME RECAP
More than 20,000 fans in the Carrier Dome may have been a bit nervous for their No. 14 Syracuse team Saturday. Morehead State battled the Orange for the entire 40 minutes before finally falling 84-70 in the second game of the 2K Empire Classic. Junior guard
Jordan Walker had just five points at the half but erupted for 19 in the final half and finished with a game-best 24. He drilled six of his 10 three-point shots in 36 minutes. His point total came within two of his career high. Senior forward
Lamontray Harris nearly had his second straight double-double with 14 points and nine rebounds. Sophomore forward
Malek Green posted his third double-figure effort of the season with 12. The Eagles fell behind 25-11 in the first 10 minutes of the opening half, but just like at UConn Thursday, the Eagles refused to be blown out. MSU outscored the Orange 19-11 in the final 10 minutes of the half and trailed just 36-30 at the break.
REBOUNDING IS OUR NICHEThe Morehead State men have either led the Ohio Valley Conference or ranked in the top four in rebounding margin now in 12 consecutive seasons.
HARRIS COMING INTO HIS OWN
Senior forward
Lamontray Harris registered his ninth double-double at UConn. Last season, Harris posted four straight double-doubles from Jan. 11 to Jan. 20. Harris nearly had another double-double at Syracuse, posting 14 points and nine rebounds. He has 32 career double-figure scoring efforts.
WALK(ER) THIS WAYJunior guard
Jordan Walker nailed six three-pointers and scored 24 points at Syracuse, just two shy of his career high. He nailed 30 consecutive free throws from Nov. 30-Jan. 4 last season. So, in fact Walker never missed a free throw in the month of December, going 23-of-23 in six games.
PASS IT ONSenior guard
A.J. Hicks ranks second in the OVC with 7.3 assists per game. He now has 144 assists in 131 career games (4.4 per game). This season, Hicks currently enters the weekend ranking 30th nationally in assist per game.
TURNING MISTAKES INTO POINTSIn two of the first three games, the Eagles forced more turnovers than their opponent. In all three games, the Eagles have led the points off turnovers stat category and are averaging 18.6 points via mistakes per game.
