Men's Basketball Rallies for Amazing 73-72 Win at SIUE

MOREHEAD, Ky. -- Morehead State Men's Basketball erased a 15-point second-half deficit and pulled out an incredible 73-72 victory at SIUE Saturday afternoon at First Community Arena.

MSU improved to 7-8 overall and 3-1 in the OVC, while SIUE fell to 9-6 and 2-2 in the league.

A close game at halftime turned into a double-digit cushion for the Cougars in the final half. SIUE outscored the Eagles 11-0 from 10:40 to 5:47 and built its lead to 67-52. But SIUE went 1-for-10 in the final 3:51 of the game and MSU finished the game on an 11-1 run. That was part of a larger 18-2 run.

MSU trailed 71-64 with 3:37 left but started the comeback shortly after. Vince Dawson III nailed a transition three at 1:24 to cut it to 71-67. George Marshall then drilled a three-ball with 47 seconds left to make it a one-point deficit (71-70). After Davion Cunningham forced a turnover, he pushed the ball up the floor, passed to Marshall, who then hit Chase Dawson in the corner for what was the game-winning three-pointer with just 15 seconds left.

Marshall fouled SIUE's Jack Campion with 8.7 seconds left, but Campion was forced the leave the floor with an injury. The sub, Darius Robinson, only made one of the two free throws. But, the Eagles turned it back over on the inbounds play. However, with 0.5 seconds left Jon Carroll swatted CJ Hall's final shot attempt.

MSU led 13-6 with 12:07 left in the opening half after Tamaury Releford's bucket in the paint, and the Eagles led 17-10 with 9:27 left when Tyonne Farrell got a steal and a coast-co-coast layup. But the Cougars went on a 13-2 scoring flurry over the next four minutes and pulled ahead 23-19. A triple by Dawson put MSU back ahead 33-32 with 25 ticks in the half, but Jack Campion sank a three-ball as time expired to give SIUE a 35-33 halftime advantage.

Carroll paced the Eagle offense for the second straight game as he finished with 17 points and eight rebounds (along with three blocked shots). Dawson also contributed 17 points, his highest output since Nov. 22.

Darrion Baker led the home team with 15 points. 

The Eagles ended up shooting 53 percent for the game against SIUE's defense, which was only allowing 39 percent to its previous opponents.

Morehead State returns home for a pair of OVC games next weekend, starting with UT Martin Thursday at 7:30 p.m. ET.