OVC Championship: Men's Basketball Looks to Knock Off Belmont for Tournament Trophy
By Matt Schabert, Morehead State Athletic Media Relations
GAME NOTES | ESPN+ | EAGLE SPORTS RADIO NETWORK | WESTWOOD ONE RADIO (SIRIUS 132/XM 202) LIVE STATS
MOREHEAD, Ky. -- It all comes down to this. Morehead State men's basketball has earned the right to play for an Ohio Valley Conference Championship. The Eagles will face top-seeded Belmont Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET for the chance to head to the NCAA Tournament and win the OVC for 2020-21.
The Eagles (22-7) just defeated the Bruins (26-3) last Saturday in an epic overtime thriller in Morehead. The Bruins got the better of MSU in Nashville earlier in the season on Feb. 13.
Morehead State has only ever met Belmont once in an OVC Tournament, falling 86-63 in the 2014 semifinals. Morehead State has an all-time tournament record of 10-3 as the No. 2 seed. This will be Morehead State's first championship game appearance since winning the title in 2010-11, but the Eagles have a 4-1 record all-time in championship games.
The game will air live on ESPN2 as well as MSUEagles.com (
WIVY Radio audio). It will also be live on Westwood One Radio (Sirius channel 132 or XM channel 202).
LAST TIME AGAINST BELMONT (Full Recap | Box Score)
Belmont's Grayson Murphy hit a three-pointer with three seconds left in regulation to force overtime, but Morehead State hit 13 of 14 free throws in the extra period as the Eagle men's basketball team ended the regular season with an 89-82 victory over the Bruins at Johnson Arena last Saturday afternoon. Freshman forward
Johni Broome had a team-high 20 points while grabbing 12 rebounds, his 10th double-double and his seventh effort of 20 or more points. Junior guard
Skyelar Potter also joined Broome in the double-double department with 18 points and a team-best 13 rebounds.
INSIDE THE SERIES
Record vs. Belmont: 3-16
First Meeting: Jan. 24, 2013 (BEL won 64-63)
Streak: MOR, 1 game
Record in Nashville: 0-9
Record in Morehead: 3-6
Last 5 Meetings
2/9/19 MOREHEAD, KY. L 96-86
1/18/20 Nashville, Tenn. L 77-59
2/20/20 MOREHEAD, KY. L 80-67
2/13/21 Nashville, Tenn. L, 73-58
2/27/21 MOREHEAD, KY. W 89-82 (OT)
NOTABLE
Morehead State enters the game winners of 18 of the last 19 games. That ties the success string held by the 1983-84 squad, which won the OVC Tournament. The Eagles also tied the 1983-84 team's program record of 12 straight wins this season.
• Freshman
Johni Broome earned OVC Freshman of the Year honors, First-Team All-OVC and All-Newcomer. The 6-10 Plant City, Fla., product set a program record with nine OVC Freshman of the Week accolades (just two short of the league record). Broome leads all OVC freshmen in rebounds, offensive rebounds, blocked shots and field goal percentage. He is just the third Eagle frosh to earn the major accolade, joining Erik Brown (1998-99) and Ricky Minard (2000-01).
• Head Coach
Preston Spradlin is the 2020-21 OVC Coach of the Year, leading the Eagles from an eighth-place predicted OVC finish to second. Spradlin put high praise for the honor on his staff as well with assistants
Scott Combs,
Jonathan Mattox and
Dominic Lombardi as well as managers of operations
Adam Gage and player development
Brent Arrington. He is the fifth MSU bench boss to win the award and first since Donnie Tyndall (2007-08).
• Junior guards
DeVon Cooper and
Skyelar Potter also earned all-conference awards. Cooper, who leads MSU with 22 double-figure scoring games, was named to the second-team. Potter, who had three double-doubles and averaged nearly 12 points a game, earned an All-Newcomer honor.
•
Johni Broome has set two Morehead State freshmen records. Broome eclipsed Kenneth Faried's freshman rebound mark of 241 Friday night and now has 250 boards this season. He has also shattered the freshman mark for blocked shots with 51 (previous mark was 28). He is one of only three DI players to lead his team in points, rebounds and blocked shots, joining Michigan's Hunter Dickinson and USC's Evan Mobley.
• Morehead State's 22 wins this season are the fourth highest in program history, trailing just the 25 wins in 1983-84 and 2010-11, 24 in 2009-10 and 23 in 2015-16.
•
DeVon Cooper has hit 24 consecutive free throws, including all 14 in the two tournament games. He hit four charity tosses in the final 18 seconds against Eastern Kentucky. Cooper hit 10 of 10 free tosses in the win over Belmont last Saturday.
• Sophomore guard
Ta'lon Cooper tied his season high with 17 points in the first round win over Southeast Missouri.
