By Matt Schabert, Morehead State Athletic Media Relations
GAME NOTES | ESPN+ | EAGLE SPORTS RADIO NETWORK | LIVE STATS BBC
MOREHEAD, Ky. — A season-long four-game road swing will finally finish up for the Morehead State men’s basketball team on Monday night at SIUE, and it will mark the final true road contest for the Eagles as well. Tip off for the game that was rescheduled from earlier this season is at 6 p.m. ET from First Community Arena in the Sam Vadalebene Center.
Morehead State (17-7/14-3 OVC) will be looking to even the season series with SIUE (8-14/6-10 OVC) after the Cougars upended MSU 69-65 in Morehead back on Dec. 18. SIUE is one of only three league teams to hand the Eagles a loss. MSU still leads the overall series 11-4.
With a win over SIUE, Morehead State would tie its program record for OVC wins with 15. The 2009-10 team finished 15-3.
The game will air live on ESPN+ as well as MSUEagles.com (WIVY Radio audio).
LAST TIME AGAINST SIUE (Full Recap| Box Score (PDF))
Junior guard Skyelar Potter recorded his first career double-double with 12 points and a career-best 14 rebounds on Dec. 18, 2020, but the Eagles could not fully recover after seeing a big scoring flurry from SIUE in the first half, and the Cougars handed the Eagles a 69-65 setback at Johnson Arena. On the defensive end, the Eagles could not slow down the Cougars’ pace as the visitors shot 50 percent (26-of-52) and hit eight three-pointers. Sidney Wilson paced the visitors with 18 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
INSIDE THE SERIESRecord vs. SIUE: 11-4First Meeting: Jan. 19, 2010 (MSU won 66-46)Last Meeting: Dec. 18, 2020 (SIUE won 69-65)Streak: SIUE, 1 gameRecord in Edwardsville: 3-2Record in Morehead: 7-2 Last 5 Meetings1/31/19 Edwardsville, Ill. L 83-763/6/19 Evansville, Ind. W 72-681/9/20 MOREHEAD, KY. W 83-772/6/20 Edwardsville, Ill. W 58-4912/18/20 MOREHEAD, KY. L 69-65
NOTABLE
• Morehead State is 7-1 in OVC road games, setting the program mark for road OVC victories in a single season.
• Sitting two games ahead of Eastern Kentucky in the OVC race, a loss by the Colonels Monday at Southeast Missouri would secure the No. 2 seed in the OVC Tournament for MSU. It would mark the first time the Eagles garnered the second seed since doing so in back to back seasons 2009-10 and 2010-11. The Eagles can also secure the spot with at least two more wins.
• Johni Broome has earned seven OVC Freshman of the Week honors. Broome’s seven awards is tied with Ricky Minard (2000-01) and Erik Brown (1998-99) for the program record for Freshman of the Week Awards and is the fourth highest number of awards earned by one player in OVC history.
• Johni Broome is one of just three freshman in Division I to lead his team in scoring average, rebounding average and blocked shots. The other two are from USC (Evan Mobley) and Michigan (Hunter Dickinson).
• Sophomore guard Ta’lon Cooper leads Morehead State with 90 assists, marking the second consecutive season he has recorded at least 90 helpers. He has had at least one assist in 23 of the 24 games this year and averaged 6.3 just in the past three games.
• The Eagles have held four opponents – Murray State (23), UT Martin (22), Southeast Missouri (19) and Jacksonville State (26) – to their lowest point totals for a half in a game. And MSU has limited five foes – Eastern Kentucky (62), Tennessee Tech (54), SEMO (50), JSU (55) and UTM (44) – to their lowest overall point totals in a league game.
• Junior guard Skyelar Potter averaged 16.0 points in his last seven games, all in double figures. During that span, Potter has scored 20 twice, including at UT Martin Saturday, and has hit 17 three-pointers.
• Morehead State ranks first in the OVC (league games only) in: scoring defense (61.5), FG pct. defense (.399), 3-pt defense (.293), rebound margin (+7.8), rebound defense (30.1) and blocks (81, 4.8).
• Junior guard DeVon Cooper has only been held to single digit points in five of the 24 games. He is also the only Eagle to average more than 30 minutes of playing time per game.