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MOREHEAD, Ky. -- Morehead State's men's basketball team has a chance to gain an early advantage in the Ohio Valley Conference standings and go above .500 in the league and overall when the Eagles host the SIUE Cougars Friday night. Tip time is 6 p.m. ET.

The Eagles (4-4/1-1 OVC) have won three straight games, while the Cougars (2-4/0-0) haven't played since Dec. 9 due to a cancelation at Northwestern. The game will air live on ESPN+ as well as MSUEagles.com (WIVY-96.3 FM audio).

LAST TIME AGAINST SIUE
Morehead State may have had its toughest first-half shooting night of the season, but the defense clamped down as well en route to a 58-49 win at SIUE on Feb. 6, 2020 at SIUE. The Eagles, who scored only 16 first-half points, also held the host Cougars to only 15 in the first 20 minutes and limited SIUE to 1-for-17 from three-point range overall and to 30 percent from the field in the game. 

INSIDE THE SERIES



















GAME NOTES
• Morehead State owns an 11-3 advantage in the all-time series with SIUE, dating back to the 2009-10 season. The Eagles won both regular-season meetings last year and an OVC Tournament game in 2018-19. SIUE owns just one win in eight tries against the Eagles in Johnson Arena.

• Morehead State has won five straight home games dating back to the final contest in 2019-20.

• KJ Hunt, Jr., registered a career-high 17 points in the win over Eastern Kentucky Monday. In the two games with EKU, Hunt scored 30 points and shot 10-of-14 from the field and 9-of-12 from the free throw line.

• KJ Hunt, Jr handed out seven assists at Eastern Kentucky, a high for any Eagle this year, tying his Division I career-high he set with seven against Lamar while at McNeese State in 2018-19. 

• One area where MSU has excelled at recently is defense. The Eagles rank second in the OVC in scoring defense at 68.0, and MSU ranks third in rebounding margin at +5.0.

• MSU leads the conference in total blocked shots with 38. While still early, it's the third consecutive season MSU has been in the top three in the league in rejections and averaging more than 4.0 per game.

• Freshman forward Johni Broome ranks third in the conference in rebounding with 7.9 per game. He is the league's best freshman rebounder in terms of average. Broome already has three double-digit rebound games in his first eight college outings, including back-to-back 10 board efforts heading into this game.

• Bench play has been elite for the Eagles, especially in the win over EKU Monday where KJ Hunt, Jr., and James Baker, Jr., came off the bench to score 29 points. Overall, the Eagles average 26.1 points from non-starters.

• Sophomore guard Julius Dixon registered his best Eagle game yet on Dec. 9 vs. Transylvania. Dixon hit four three-pointers en route to a career-high 16 points while also grabbing a career-best five rebounds.

• Junior guard Skyelar Potter has averaged 11.7 points per game in his last five. He had a streak of nine straight games with a three-pointer (dating back to his time at Wright State) ended Monday with an 0-for-4 day behind the arc.

•  Sophomore guard Ta'lon Cooper ranks fifth in the OVC in assists, handing out 4.0 helpers per game. The Spartanburg, S.C., native recorded 94 assists as a freshman last year, which was the second highest total for a freshman in the conference.