BOX SCORE
MOREHEAD, Ky. -- Morehead State may have had its toughest first-half shooting night of the season, but the Men's Basketball Eagle defense clamped down as well en route to a 58-49 win at SIUE Thursday night.
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. The Eagles swept the season series from the Cougars and improved to 12-12 overall and 6-5 in the OVC.
The 15 first-half points allowed tied for the program's lowest since allowing 15 to host Saint Louis University in a road victory in the 2010-11 season.
MSU also heated up finally in the second half, shooting 59 percent, as the Eagles used a late surge to thwart the Cougars' win hopes.
Junior guard Juice Thomas led the surge with 11 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals. Freshman forward
Tyzhaun Claude cashed in a team-best 12 points and hauled in nine rebounds.
The Eagles continue the Land of Lincoln road swing at Eastern Illinois Saturday. Game time is 4:15 p.m. ET.
KEY MOMENTS
- Sophomore
LJ Bryan broke a 27-all stalemate with 13:34 left in the contest with a pair of successful free throws. His free tosses gave the Eagles a lead they never relinquished.
- MSU missed its first 17 three-pointers, but freshman
Ta'lon Cooper drained a long ranger with 5:25 that kept the Eagles a nice distance ahead, 46-40.
- Leading 46-42, the Eagles got buckets from Thomas, Claude and a three-ball by sophomore
Malik Riddle to build their largest lead (55-44) with 1:09 remaining.
KEY STATS
- SIUE out-rebounded MSU 53-40 and nabbed 21 offensive boards but only generated 11 second-chance points.
- The Eagles only committed eight turnovers as the league's best at fewest turnovers per game. It marked the seventh game this year with less than 10 mistakes in a game.
- MSU also leads the league in blocks and had six more rejections tonight.
- The Eagles shot 17-of-29 in the final half.
QUOTING COACH SPRADLIN
"It wasn't our best offensive night, but I thought our defense was incredible. The positives we take away from this is obviously the win, but it's more so that we found a way to win on the road. We did the things we needed to do. I thought we did a nice of being aggressive and driving the ball. We were able to get out in transition and convert, that's where out points came from."
