MOREHEAD, Ky.. -- It took a little longer than what they had likely expected, but the Morehead State Men's Basketball team finally surged in the second half, scoring 57 points, as the Eagles opened the 2025-26 season with an 89-84 win over Midway (Ky.) at Johnson Arena Monday night.
MSU shot 73 percent in the final 20 minutes and erased a 12-point halftime deficit. The Eagles also got 66 of their 89 points and 14 assists from players who did not start. The NAIA Midway Eagles had the hot hand in the first half and from three-ball range overall, nailing 11 triples on 23 attempts on the night.
Transfer center
Jon Carroll provided the spark down low, and point guard
Josiah LeGree supplied the energy and boost from the back court. Carroll finished with a team-high 20 points and was a perfect 7-of-7 from the field. LeGree finished with 12 points - all in the second half - and dished out a game-best eight assists in his first Eagle game since transferring from Indiana State. Only two players in the past ten seasons have recorded eight assists in a home opener (Drew Thelwell on Nov. 8, 2023 and now LeGree).
LeGree talks about tonight's game.
MSU also got 13 points off the bench from returnee
Anouar Mellouk, and 12 from newcomer
Davion Cunningham. Mellouk, LeGree and Carroll combined to hit 17 of their 18 shots.
The effort offset an especially en fuego shooting night from a pair of Midway players. Decoreio Smith led all players with 26 points, while Amari Wales cashed in 24. Midway ended up shooting 56 percent for the game.
Morehead State won its 28th consecutive home opener and is now 66-0 against non-Division I opponents since 1992.
With the game tied at 26-all with 5:57 left in the first half after freshman
Clayton Parker's layup, Wales buried a triple to push Midway ahead 29-26. The visiting Eagles held the lead all the way until 6:19 left in the game when Mellouk connected on his lone three-pointer of the game. That gave the home Eagles a 70-68 lead. LeGree then sank a layup seconds later for a 72-70 lead. That bucket ended a span of 11 consecutive made field goals by MSU.
Neither team held more than a two-point cushion for the next five minutes until LeGree drove and hit a layup with exactly one minute left to push MSU on top 83-81.
A subsequent turnover by Midway gave MSU the ball, and returnee
George Marshall, Jr., drilled a wide-open triple with 15 seconds left to effectively ice the win.
Morehead State finished shooting 61 percent for the night, marking the highest field goal efficiency for the program since hitting 67 percent at Eastern Kentucky in 2020. The Eagles also held advantages in points off mistakes (15-8), points in the paint (54-40), points from free throws (16-1) and fast break points (23-6) tonight.
MSU gets back to action for its first road test of 2025-26 Friday at Wake Forest at 7 p.m. ET.
