Published: February 01, 2008 12:41 pm         

Home-court advantage

Eagles stay unbeaten at home with 80-68 win over TTU

Despite injuries to some of its key players and a distinct disadvantage in size, Morehead State took every punch Tennessee Tech could give in Tuesday’s home game and extended its unblemished record in Johnson Arena to eight games, the best mark since the 1972-73 team went 9-0 at home.

Morehead State hit 56.1 percent of its shots, including 43.8 percent from 3-point range as the Eagles captured an 80-68 victory.

“Tennessee Tech is the best rebounding team in our league,” said MSU head coach Donnie Tyndall. “They only out-rebounded us by two and we limited them to just six offensive rebounds and they average 14. So when you can get by with that, you’ve got a good shot at winning.”

Tyndall’s strategy was to force TTU to hit its shots from the perimeter.

“We thought playing a zone would keep (Anthony) Fisher, the point guard, out of the paint and make them take jump shots over us and then if we could go rebound the ball, we’d have a chance to get out and play in transition, where our team is pretty good,” he said.

The strategy worked. The Golden Eagles made just 2-of-17 shots from 3-point range (11.8 percent) and the hosts were able to score 19 points off Tennessee Tech’s 13 turnovers.

It took Tennessee Tech (9-14/6-7) little time to make an impact as Amadi McKenzie collected the opening tip and drove to the basket for a thundering dunk three seconds into the game to give the Golden Eagles a 2-0 advantage.

However, it was TTU’s only lead. Morehead State (10-10/8-5) scored the next five points and never looked back. The hosts’ lead grew to 11 points (20-9 with 13:33 left before halftime) after Jamyron Steward hit the team’s fourth straight 3-point attempt to open the game.

MSU twice led by as many as 13 in the first half (32-19 with 9:02 to play and 34-21 with 8:41 remaining), before Tennessee Tech made a run. The visitors kept the hosts scoreless for a stretch of nearly five minutes while they closed to within three points (34-31 with 4:42 left in the first half).

The Eagles withstood the visitors’ surge and gradually pushed the advantage up to seven points, where it stood at halftime (42-35).

Steward, who hit 5-of-6 from 3-point range in the first half, led all scorers with 17 points.

The Golden Eagles stayed within striking distance for much of the second half, but had trouble closing the gap. After Daniel Northern hit a layup to open the period and close the deficit to five points, the margin swung between six and 11 points over the next 12 minutes.

Morehead State ran into foul trouble late in the half, but instead of Tennessee Tech closing the gap, it widened. The Eagles held a double-digit advantage for the game’s final nine minutes, with the lead reaching as high as 15 points after a Leon Buchanan layup with 6:34 to play. Tech could only get within 10 points the rest of the way.

Injuries and foul trouble forced Tyndall to turn to his bench more than usual and the Eagle coach was pleased with the result.

“The first thing is that Maze Stallworth wasn’t even supposed to play tonight,” he said in reference to Stallworth’s thigh injury. “He played 25 (minutes). Kenneth (Faried) was in foul trouble all night and only got 15 minutes, so we had to play Les (Simons) and Andreas (Coleman). I have no problem with that. (Simons) only played four or five minutes, but he came in and did a nice job defensively. He fronted the post. I was very proud of both him and Andreas.”

Another player forced into increased action was freshman guard Demonte Harper, who finished with career highs of 12 points and eight rebounds, along with dishing out three assists in 25 minutes.

“Demonte Harper is just a freshman, but he has been very, very good about the last three weeks,” added Tyndall. “On the road against Tennessee-Martin, he was big in that game and he just continues to get better and better.”

“My whole focus was to come out and play hard on defense and play hard. If I get open looks to knock them down,” said Harper. “I think I contributed to the team real good tonight. I helped us out on the glass a lot. We had foul trouble with our big men, so I crashed the boards and helped us out on the boards.”

Buchanan led all scorers with 24 points, making 11-fo-16 shots, while grabbing seven rebounds. Steward finished with 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting; and Nikola Stojakovic added career highs of 13 points and 14 assists and collected three steals.

Tyndall was concerned that after having MSU’s five-game win streak snapped in a one-point overtime loss at Eastern Illinois on Saturday, that his team might have a letdown against Tech, which had won the season’s earlier meeting in Cookeville, Tenn., 73-55.

According to Harper, the Eagles came ready to play.

“We worked for two days practicing hard for the game,” he said. “We knew we needed to win. We came out and did what (the coaches) wanted us to do and we won.”

Four Golden Eagles scored in double figures, led by Anthony Fisher, who finished with 18 points. McKenzie and Northern each added double-doubles. McKenzie had 15 points and 10 rebounds and Northern recorded 11 points and 10 rebounds. Will Barnes chipped in 14 points and four assists off the bench.

Morehead State stays at home for a Saturday non-conference game against National Christian College Athletic Association foe Kentucky Christian at 7 p.m.