MONDAY'S SCORES
@Morehead State 75, Eastern Kentucky 62
@Austin Peay 82, McKendree 68
MOREHEAD STATE 75, EASTERN KENTUCKY 62
MOREHEAD, Ky. - Despite 20 turnovers, Morehead State's men's basketball team outscored visiting Eastern Kentucky 25-8 at the free throw line Monday night and evened the season series with a 75-62 dispatching of the Colonels at Johnson Arena.
Morehead State won its third straight game and improved to 4-4 overall and 1-1 in the OVC while staying perfect (4-0) at home in 2020-21. The visitors slipped to 5-2 overall and 1-1 in the league.
Junior guard KJ Hunt, Jr., came off the bench to ignite the Eagles to the tune of a career-high 17 points. He was one of four Eagles to score in double figures. A week after hitting 67 percent from the floor but falling at EKU, the Eagles nailed 51 percent (25-of-64) tonight and forced EKU into just a 4-for-25 performance from three-point range.
-MSU led 40-35 with 18:35 remaining in the game, but EKU guard Wendell Green scored seven consecutive points to give his team its only lead of the second half (42-40) with 16:65 left. However, buckets by Hunt, junior guard Skyelar Potter and senior James Baker keyed a 6-0 run and MSU never led again.
After building as much as a 12-point cushion later, Green cut the Eagles' advantage to 65-58 with 4:18 left. But a pair of missed free throws by Tre King, followed by a two-pointer from Baker and a triple from junior guard DeVon Cooper, pushed the lead back to 12 (70-58).
Besides Hunt, the Eagles got double-digit scoring efforts from Potter (13), Baker (season-high 12) and sophomore guard Julius Dixon (11).
AUSTIN PEAY 82, MCKENDREE 68
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - Just like last year, McKendree visited the Dunn Center for a date with Austin Peay State University's men's basketball team and gave the Govs a fight.
And just like last year, Terry Taylor hung up more than 30 points, proving once again that simply having the senior from Bowling Green on the roster is a difference-maker for the Govs. Taylor had another of his routinely fantastic showings and the Govs took down the Bearcats in an 82-68 decision, Monday night.
For a team that had seen some struggles from beyond the arc early in the 2020-21 season, a welcome sight for Austin Peay was Reginald Gee and Terry Taylor both getting threes to drop in the opening minutes en route to a 12-4 lead for the Govs. Making his first start in over a year, Gee was active in the opening minutes as was true freshman Tai'Reon Joseph in his first appearance in the lineup.
McKendree hung tough against the Govs through the early part of the half, with the game tied at 15 at the 11:45 mark and briefly led at the halfway point in the first half. But a Taylor bucket and Mike Peake slam brought the Govs back ahead, and Austin Peay would outscore McKendree 25-18 over the final 9:25 of the half, with Taylor providing a dozen of those points and Alec Woodard capping the effort with a three just ahead of the halftime horn.
Out of halftime, Austin Peay extended the lead into double digits thanks to an 8-2 run highlighted by another Taylor three-pointer and it looked like Govs had begun to pull away.
The plucky Bearcats refused to go quietly; after the Austin Peay lead extended to 13 points, a quick 7-0 McKendree run cut the deficit to six before a thunderous Elton Walker dunk brought the Bearcat scoring burst to an end. Walker's slam started an 18-9 Austin Peay run that put the game away for good.
Taylor didn't reach the heights he enjoyed in last season's meeting with McKendree, when he nearly hung 40 on the Bearcats; he would settle for 31 points and eight rebounds instead. He also didn't need to bear much of the scoring burden, with Joseph hanging up 20 points in his first start and Gee chipping in with 13 and five boards.