Men's Basketball Keeps Winning Streak Rolling in 76-65 Win Over SEMO

BOX SCORE

MOREHEAD, Ky. -- In a slugfest that featured 62 combined free throw attempts, the Morehead State men's basketball team kept its current winning streak intact Thursday night, besting visiting Southeast Missouri 76-65 at Johnson Arena in a game featured on ESPNU.

The Eagles, who swept back to back games against the Redhawks, improved to 10-6 overall and 7-2 in the OVC, the best conference start since being 9-0 at that point in 2009-10. SEMO fell to 4-9 and 2-5 in the league.

MSU is now 18-3 in the last 21 games against Southeast Missouri and has won 14 of the past 16 games played against the schools in Johnson Arena. Morehead State's six-game winning streak is its longest since a seven-game success run in 2015-16.

Four-time OVC Freshman of the Week Johni Broome posted a strong start for another weekly award in recording his fourth career double-double with 14 points and a team-best 10 rebounds. Junior guard DeVon Cooper led the Eagles with 17 points, two shy of his career high. Sophomore guard Ta'lon Cooper registered a season-high 15 points and hit all three of his three-pointers, including a buzzer beating triple to put the Eagles up by five at the half. Senior forward James Baker scored 11, reaching double figures with an emphatic run-out slam in the final 15 seconds of the game.

The Eagles won despite hitting just 19 of 35 free throws, while the Redhawks canned 18 of their 27 free tosses.

KEY MOMENTS

- SEMO ran out to a 7-2 lead but Ta'lon Cooper quickly erased that with his first triple at 15:10 to tie the contest.
- MSU held a first-half lead of six on three occasions, but a three-ball by DQ Nicholas at 4:14 had the Redhawks back on top 26-25.
- Tied at 29-all, Baker canned a layup with 40 seconds left in the half, and Ta'lon Cooper got free to nail the half-ending three-pointer for a 34-29 lead.
- The Eagles never trailed in the second half. SEMO did cut the deficit to 53-50 with 6:35 left but Broome went on a 5-0 run by himself with a bucket and a three-point play as MSU increased its lead. 
- MSU's largest lead proved to be 74-62 with 19 seconds left after Baker hit a free throw.

KEY STATS

- SEMO hit just 37 percent from the floor (20-of-54) as the Eagles have now held the last six OVC foes (all wins) to less than 38 percent field goal accuracy.
- Morehead State, meanwhile, hit 52 percent from the floor, its fifth game this year better than 50 percent.
- The OVC leader in blocked shots, Morehead State had five more swats tonight.
- MSU was 7-of-14 on three-pointers. 
- Junior guard Skyelar Potter scored seven and also grabbed seven rebounds.
- SEMO did manage to out-rebound MSU 35-33. the Redhawks won the rebound battle in both games this year, grabbing more than the OVC leader in rebounding margin.
- Nicholas led SEMO with 17 points. Leading scorer Chris Harris had 10 points but shot 1-of-12 from the field. SEMO's leading scorer was held to 3-of-22 from the field in the two game set.

UP NEXT

Morehead State stays at home and will look for win number seven in a row when UT Martin visits Saturday at 4 p.m. ET.