Victory parade is March 30
The Morehead-Rowan County community will host a victory parade to celebrate the great basketball seasons of the Lakeside Christian Academy Women (state champions), Rowan County High School Men (Sweet 16 State Championship Runners-Up) and the MSU Eagle Men (OVC Champs and Round 3 NCAA Tournament). The parade will take place at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, March 30 and will begin at the parking lot on West Main (formerly Mullins IGA) and continue to the Family Dollar on West Main, near MSU's Academic-Athletic Center.
For more information about the parade, call the Morehead-Rowan County Chamber of Commerce at 606-784-6221.
FANS welcome the EAgles home
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Eagles season ends with loss to Richmond
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View ASAP Sports' transcript of MSU's postgame media conference.
View ASAP Sports' transcript of Richmond's postgame media conference.
It was a magical season for the Morehead State men’s basketball team, but unfortunately for the Eagles, they ran into one of their strongest opponents Saturday in the NCAA Third Round at the Pepsi Center.
Twelfth-seeded Richmond shot 47 percent, committed only six turnovers, and led wire-to-wire, defeating the 13th-seeded Eagles 65-48 to advance to the Sweet 16 in the Southwest Region. MSU finished its OVC championship season at 25-10, tying the school record for wins.
“First and foremost, a guy that means the world to me in Wayne Martin (former MSU coach), he had the school record for 25 wins. So for us to tie the school record of 25 wins is quite an honor and quite a privilege for me. When you look at our five years, we went from 12 wins to 15 to 20 to 24 and now to 25. So we've improved the program each and every season,” said coach Donnie Tyndall. “Attendance has grown dramatically every year. We have a true program now with some good players returning, although they didn't get to show it a lot this season because we played seven guys, most of those guys were upperclassmen.
MSU just could not reproduce its efficient performance from Thursday when it upset Louisville. MSU was held to 38 percent shooting (18-of-48) and was 2-of-14 from three point range. The Eagles did out-rebound the Spiders 34-32 with Kenneth Faried grabbing a team-high 13. He finished his career with 1,673 rebounds, just two shy of MSU career leader Steve Hamilton.
Faried also scored 11 points for his 86th career double-double. He’ll finish second, just one behind only Tim Duncan in doubles-doubles in NCAA Division I history. Faried’s first basket, a dunk, also signified his 2,000th career point as he finished his four-year MSU career with 2,009 points for third all-time.
MSU had four players in double figures, led by Faried and Sam Goodman with 11. Terrance Hill and Ty Proffitt scored 10. Demonte Harper struggled with a 2-for-15 night shooting, but did tie his career high with 11 rebounds.
Richmond was led by Justin Harper’s 19 points. Kevin Anderson had 14, and Dan Geriot scored 13. The Spiders forced just nine MSU turnovers, but the zone defense they played never rally allowed MSU to get into its best offensive rhythm.
“I want to congratulate Richmond. They have a very, very good basketball team. Similar to us, they're an upperclassmen oriented team and they play like it. They're poised, disciplined, they don't take bad shots,” said Tyndall. “I thought that their defense was tough, it's kind of a sagging man to man, and sometimes it's a matchup zone. It's very complicated to really run any set offense against it. So you have to space the floor and drive the basketball.”
Richmond went on a 10-2 run to lead 12-4 with 12:53 left in the first half. MSU was able to creep back to within 22-19 with 3:41 remaining after a Faried layup, but the Spiders ended the half on an 8-2 flurry to lead 30-21 at the break.
MSU could not generate enough of a rally to make it a game in the final half. The Eagles cut the Richmond advantage down to six (45-39) with 11 minutes left and had it at eight (51-43) with 6:52 left. But, Richmond got a layup from Harper to make it a 10-point game, and the Spiders never relinquished their double-double lead.
Eagles upset Cardinals
Eagles Relive Upset of Louisville video
Photo gallery from MSU v U of L
Video highlights of MSU vs. U of L
View ASAP Sports' transcript of MSU's postgame media conference
View ASAP Sports' transcript of U of L postgame media conference
Demonte Harper hit the shot heard ‘round the Bluegrass.
Harper’s three-pointer with 4.3 seconds left swished through the nets and gave the Morehead State men’s basketball team the biggest win in school history as they knocked off fourth-seeded Louisville 62-61 Thursday in the Pepsi Center in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
"During the media timeout, coach said, I dreamt about this last night, this exact position we would be in this situation. He said, I know exactly where I'm going to, I'm going to put it right in your hands, Demonte. I don't want you to drive it to the hole, I want you to pull up and win the game off a three-pointer. He told me in the media timeout. I said, Coach, I'm going to hit the shot. He said, At six seconds, I want you to attack him hard, pull up and hit the shot. I hit the shot and it feels unreal right now (smiling)," said Harper.
The Eagles’ win against their in-state rivals was the first against Louisville since 1956-57. The Cardinals and Eagles had played the last three times MSU appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 2008-09, 1983-84 and 1960-61. U of L won by double digits every other time.
The Eagles improved to 25-9. They will now play no.12 Richmond, which beat Vanderbilt, 69-66, on Saturday in the third round. Tip time will be announced a later time. It marked the third straight season an OVC team has won an NCAA Tournament game after the Eagles did in 2008-09 and Murray State upset Vanderbilt last year.
"I think it's, without question, the biggest win in the history of our program. Coach (Wayne)Martin, who is the best coach to ever coach at Morehead State, had some big wins during his time. I think to be a first-round game against an in-state power, to be able to knock them off, I don't think it's ever been bigger than that in the history of our school. It ties us for 25 wins, for the single-season most victories in the history of the program. It doesn't get any bigger than that," said coach Donnie Tyndall.
MSU, seeded no. 13 in the NCAA Tournament Southwest Regional, trailed by four (61-57) with 1:20 left after a Terrance Jennings’ dunk. But moments later, Jennings fouled Kenneth Faried, and the MSU big man drained both charity tosses to bring MSU to within 61-59.
"Louisville is a great team. But we got a group here that has no quitting in them and a group of coaches that won't let us quit. We just stayed focused and stayed the course, came out with the win," said Kenneth Faried.
Harper fouled Elisha Justice immediately, but Justice misfired on the front end of a one-and-one (U of L was 7-of-16 from the free throw line). That set up the final play. Harper ran the clock down to about six seconds and fired up a three-pointer from the top of the key over Peyton Siva. The shot went down and pandemonium broke out in the Eagle crowd and bench area. Louisville had a final shot attempt by Mike Marra in the corner, but Faried denied the attempt and the celebration ensued.
Harper, coming off an OVC Tournament MVP effort two weekends ago, only hit one three-pointer in the game and finished with eight points. Terrance Hill scored a career-high 23 points, hitting 5-of-6 three-pointers, 6-of-9 from the field overall, and 6-of-8 from the free throw line. Ty Proffitt notched 13 points, while Faried recorded his 85th career double-double with 12 points and 17 rebounds. He is now just two points shy of 2,000 for her career and is just 15 rebounds shy of breaking Steve Hamilton’s career rebounding record.
Besides Chris Smith’s 17 points, no other Cardinal player reached double figures. MSU also out-rebounded U of L 41-29
MSU came out with a vengeance, scoring the game’s first 10 points before the ‘Cards hit their first field goal, a dunk by Gorgui Dieng. The Eagles went on to lead 19-7 before U of L scored six straight to cut it to 19-13.
Hill hit a pair of free throws at 6:32 to build the Eagles lead out to 23-14.
Dieng hit a jumper at 1:10 to tie the game at 30. Kuric drilled a three-pointer with 35 ticks left to give the Cardinals their first lead at 33-30. But, as the final horn went off for the half, Hill knocked down a three-ball to send the teams to the locker room tied at 33-33.
U of L opened the second half on an 11-4 run to take a seven-point lead (44-37) with 14:44 remaining. The Cardinals actually led by as much as eight (47-39), but the Eagles erased that margin quickly with three-pointer by Proffitt and Hill. Another Hill trey at 7:01 lifted MSU to just its second lead of the final 20 minutes at 52-50. Hill buried his final three-pointer two minutes later, and MSU led 57-52.
MSU did not score again until Faried’s free throws with 31 seconds left. Louisville went on a 9-0 run to take the 61-57 lead.