WEDNESDAY'S SCORES
@Morehead State 89, Boyce 48
@Eastern Illinois 97, Earlham College 61
@#17 Indiana 80,
SIUE 61
@Pepperdine 77,
Western Illinois 64
MOREHEAD STATE 89, BOYCE 48
MOREHEAD, Ky. - Morehead State men's basketball used a hefty advantage in the specialty stats Wednesday night to eventually distance itself and defeat visiting Boyce College (Ky.) 89-48. The win was historic for new bench boss Jonathan Mattox, his first as a collegiate head coach.
MSU (1-1) totaled 54 points in the paint, 28 points off Boyce mistakes, 28 fast-break points and 35 points off the bench. While the three-point shooting wasn't stellar (5-for-24), the Eagles used their size and speed advantage to shoot 48 percent for the game. MSU also gained a 46-31 advantage in rebounding.
Four Eagles dotted double-figures in the points column, led by graduate transfer Tyler Brelsford with 16 markers. Senior Kenny White, Jr., scored 15 - his second straight game in double digits. Graduate student Kade Ruegsegger helped MSU on the glass with a team-high 10 rebounds and completed the double-double with 10 points, while point guard Jalen Breazeale scored 10 as well.
Ruesgsegger also added a team-high four assists and four steals. The Eagles forced 21 Boyce turnovers.
After a slight;ly slow shooting start, MSU took the lead for good at 6-5 with 16:28 left in the first after White's layup. A couple of Boyce free throws at 8:55 had them within 25-20, but the Eagles proceeded to push it out using a 14-2 run. Sophomore Trent Scott's free toss at 3:16 pushed the margin to 39-22.
A couple of second-haf flurries had MSU leading by 30+ for most of the final 20 minutes, and the final 89-48 margin turned out to be the Eagles' largest lead of the night.
Louisville transfer Josh Sangalli led the Bulldogs with 12 points.
EASTERN ILLINOIS 97, EARLHAM COLLEGE 61
CHARLESTON, Ill. - The Eastern Illinois men's basketball team (1-1, OVC 0-0) came away with a 97-61 victory over Earlham College (0-0, HCAC 0-0) at Groniger Arena to secure their first win of the 2024 season. The Panthers finished the night with four double-digit scorers.
Artese Stapleton led the Panthers offense with17 points, shooting six of ten from the field. Kooper Jacobi also finished the evening as second leading scorer for EIU, recording 16 points and 11 rebounds on his way to his first double-double performance of the year.
The Panthers shot 52.2% from the field, marking their best shooting performance since posting a 59.4% shooting percentage on Dec. 17, against Blackburn College. EIU also shot 35.7% from behind the arc while holding the Quakers to 22 of 65 shooting on the night.
Eastern Illinois out rebounded Earlham 52-27 while grabbing 18 boards on the offense end of the court. Ken Walker led Earlham in scoring as he finished the night with 17 points, shooting 43.8%.
#17 INDIANA 80, SIUE 61
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - SIUE hung with the Hoosiers for much of the night before ultimately falling at Indiana 80-61 Wednesday night.
The Cougars evened their record at 1-1. The game was the first regular season contest for the Hoosiers.
SIUE stayed within striking distance of Indiana through much of the first half. A Ray'Sean Taylor three from the left side capped a seven-point run to tie the game 27-27 with 4:48 to play in the half. Indiana called a timeout and then ran off a 15-3 run to end the half with a 42-30 lead.
An 8-2 SIUE run got the Cougars back within nine (47-38) with 14:18 left in the game before Indiana stretched its lead again. The Hoosiers got up by as many as 22 (74-52) before an SIUE 8-0 run made it 14-point game with 2:34 to play.
Ray'Sean Taylor paced the Cougars with 17 points. He added two assists and three steals. Myles Thompson scored 10, grabbed four rebounds and also added three assists. Darrion Baker scired nine points and added two assists.
Arnas Sakenis, making just his fourth career start, scored eight points, hauled in nine rebounds and finished with two blocked shots.
Overall, SIUE shot 35 percent (25-71) from the floor and connected on just five of 26 three-point attempts.
Indiana held a 43-34 rebounding edge, but SIUE collected 16 offensive rebounds and scored 13 second-chance points. The Cougars forced 16 Indiana turnovers while turning the ball over just 12 times themselves. SIUE scored 36 points in the paint and outscored Indiana 15-12 on fast-break points.
The Cougar bench outscored the Hoosiers' reserves 26-8.
Indiana's Mackenzie Mgbako led all scorers with 31 points on 13-for-17 shooting. He added nine rebounds. Malik Reneau and Oumar Ballo each scored 15.
Indiana shot 53 percent (30-57) overall and was 14-17 at the free throw line.
PEPPERDINE 77, WESTERN ILLINOIS 64
MALIBU, Calif. - The WIU men's basketball team split their west coast trip falling to Pepperdine on Wednesday night. Sean Smith had another strong performance against the Waves, scoring a team-high 18 points to go along with five rebounds and three assists.
The first half started out slow for both teams as Pepperdine would be up 13-11 with 13:02 remaining in the opening frame. The Leathernecks would go scoreless for the next four minutes in which the Waves would go on an extended 5-0 run to take the lead at 18-11 with 10:07 to go. After a Pepperdine turnover, Marko Maletic would hit a three from the left wing on a pass from Trey Deveaux to end the drought for WIU. Rodrick Payne would score the next five points for the Leathernecks followed by back-to-back threes from Julius Rollins and Ryan Myers as a part of a 14-4 run that gave WIU the 25-22 lead with 4:17 to play in half number one. Pepperdine would go on a 12-2 run to close out the half and would take a seven point lead into the locker room by a score of 34-27. Western Illinois forced 8 turnovers in the first half and committed only three turnovers to win the turnover battle in the opening twenty minutes of play.
In the second half, Pepperdine would start on a 10-2 run going up 44-29 with 16:39 to go in the game. WIU would cut the Wave deficit to 10 seven different times in the half and got it down to as close as eight with 6:50 remaining. Pepperdine responded with a 9-2 run putting the Waves up 71-56 with 3:50 to go. The Leathernecks would continue to fight in the final minutes of the game as Marko Maletic would hit a three and Sean Smith would get a layup with 2:45 left on the clock. WIU would go scoreless for nearly two minutes down the stretch, as the final score would be 77-64. Smith had 12 second half points on 5/9 shooting and Marko Maletic would add 10 second half points to lead the way for the Leatherneck offense in the second half. The Leathernecks shot 41% from the field for the game and had 15 points off of Pepperdine's 13 turnovers. WIU won the turnover battle committing only 9 turnovers for the game.