Morehead State ends Murray State’s 25-game home win streak, 61-56

MURRAY, Ky. (MSU Athletics) – Led by a career-high 19 points from junior guard DeVon Cooper, Morehead State men’s basketball led nearly wire-to-wire and ended two long streaks at Murray State Saturday night as the Eagles upended the Racers 61-56 at the CFSB Center.

The Eagles (5-6/2-2 OVC) halted a 13-game losing streak at Murray State (4-5/1-3 OVC) since Jan. 23, 2003 and put a halt to Murray State’s 25-game home winning streak. The last time the Racers fell on their home court was to Belmont in 2019, the fifth longest current streak in the nation. The last time an Eagle team beat Murray State in Murray, all-time leading scorer Ricky Minard had 28 points.

Morehead State led for 36:19 of the contest and only trailed in the first three minutes of the night for a total of 59 seconds.

Helping out Cooper in the scoring column was the other Cooper on the roster, sophomore guard Ta’lon Cooper. He scored a season high 12 points, while junior forward LJ Bryan got the starting assignment with freshman forward Johni Broome out. Bryan scored a season-best 10 – all in the first half.

KEY MOMENTS
– The teams jockeyed early on before a three-pointer by Baker lifted the Eagles ahead 15-8 with 13:42 left in the opening half.
– Potter was fouled on a three-pointer and hit all three free tosses at 11:35.
– Potter then drilled a transition three-pointer just 19 seconds later to push the visitors ahead 23-10.
– An offensive rebound and bucket by junior forward Jaylen Sebree catapulted the Eagles’ lead to 29-16 with 6:32 left in the first half, forcing a Racer timeout.
– Tevin Brown caught fire late in the half, scoring eight straight Murray State points, but the Eagles still led 36-29 after one period.
– The Eagles pulled ahead 54-45 with two Ta’lon Cooper free throws with 5:48 remaining.
– Murray State then outscored Morehead State 11-2 over the next three minutes, finally knotting the game 56-all with 2:02 left.
– DeVon Cooper sank two charity tosses with 58 ticks left for a two-point lead before Murray State missed three point blank chances to tie at the other end.
– Cooper got free to seal the win with an uncontested layup off an in bounds play with 15 seconds left.
– Murray State misfired on two three-point attempts in the final five seconds before Ta’lon Cooper made the final of 10 straight free throws for the winning team with 0.8 time left.

KEY STATS

– Morehead State made just seven field goals in the second half but hit 10 consecutive free throws at one point. Despite hitting just 30 percent in he final 20 minutes, Morehead State limited the Racers to only 29 percent (8-of-27).
– Thirty-eight (38) of the Eagles’ 61 points were scored inside the paint.
– The Eagles out-rebounded the Racers 39-37. Morehead State ranks in the top three in the league in rebounding margin.
– Morehead State came up with six blocked shots to up its OVC lead to 53 rejections this year.
– Sebree came off the bench to score his first points as an Eagle and finished with career highs in points (5) and rebounds (3).
– Senior forward James Baker, Jr., pulled in a team-high seven rebounds, his season best total.

UP NEXT
Morehead State is set to return home for a matchup with Tennessee Tech Thursday evening. Tip-off at Johnson Arena is set for 7 p.m. ET.