Published: February 19, 2008 04:23 pm         

Eagles rally for win at Samford

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Down by 13 points with less than 10 minutes left to play, the Morehead State Eagles rallied to defeat the Samford Bulldogs, 64-58, in a key Ohio Valley Conference game Thursday (Feb. 14) evening at the Pete Hanna Center in Birmingham.

MSU, a winner of nine of its last 11 games, is now 13-11 overall, 10-6 in the conference. The Eagles are in a third place tie with Eastern Kentucky in league standings. EKU lost at Jacksonville State, MSU's next opponent, on Thursday. MSU and EKU are just a half game behind second place Murray State (11-6) who lost at Tennessee State on Thursday.

Maze Stallworth and Jamyron Steward scored 15 points each for the Eagles. Leon Buchanan had 11 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.

Samford, now 11-14 overall and 8-9 in the league, got a game-high 16 points from Travis Peterson. Joe Ross Merritt had 12 points and a team-high eight rebounds. Bryan Friday added 12 points.

"I thought our guys showed real character tonight," said MSU Coach Donnie Tyndall. "We were down 13 points with 9:47 left to play, and we just kept battling and plugging away.

"I'm proud of my guys. Samford is a good team. They've beaten some quality opponents in this new arena."

MSU led by as many as 10 points in the first half, but Samford cut the Eagle lead to two points, 28-26, at halftime. The Bulldogs ended the first half on an eight-to-zero run. They continued the run in the second half, at one point scoring 12 straight points, and went on to build the 13-point lead before the Eagles started their rally.

MSU hit 48.4 percent (20-of-41) from the field, Samford hit 47.6 percent (20-of-42). The Eagles were nine-of-18 from behind the arc, the Bulldogs were 11-of-25. At the free throw line, MSU hit 15-of-18 while Samford managed only seven-of-12. 

The Eagles won the rebound battle, 30-to-19. In the turnover category, MSU had 11, Samford 10.



Eagle Men Lose at Jacksonville State

JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - Jonathon Toles and Nick Toles scored 16 points each to lead Jacksonville State to a 66-48 Ohio Valley Conference win over Morehead State Saturday (Feb. 16) afternoon at Pete Mathews Coliseum in Jacksonville.

JSU, now 6-20 overall and 4-14 in the OVC, also got 12 points from Jeremy Bynum and 10 points and a game-high eight assists from Will Ginn.

Morehead State, now 13-12 overall and 10-7 in the league, was led by Leon Buchanan who scored 16 points and had 10 rebounds. Kenneth Faried also had a double-double, scoring 10 points and pulling down a game-high 13 rebounds.

The Gamecocks led 34-26 at halftime, and the Eagles could get no closer than five points in the second half.

"I thought we played very poorly in this game," said MSU Coach Donnie Tyndall. "We played hard, but you've got to give Jacksonville State credit, they just played better than we did.

"Now, we've got to head back home and prepare for an extremely big conference match-up against Eastern Kentucky on Wednesday in Richmond."

Neither team shot well. JSU hit 18-of-47 from the field (38.3 percent), MSU only 19-of-59 (32.2 percent). The Gamecocks were seven-of-23 from three-point range, MSU only three-of-21. The Eagles won the rebound battle, 45-to-33, but committed 18 turnovers to only nine for Jacksonville State.