MOREHEAD STATE MEN’S HOOPS SET TO DEFEND HOME COURT AGAINST EASTERN ILLINOIS

MOREHEAD, Ky. — Morehead State’s men’s basketball team is set to face off against Eastern Illinois Saturday, looking to make it three consecutive victories in Johnson Arena. The Eagles and Panthers tip off at 3 p.m. ET following the women’s game.

Saturday marks the second Super Scholar Saturday promotion. Students from McBrayer Elementary received complimentary tickets for doing well in all endeavors of school this year.

The Eagles (8-8/2-1 OVC) are 7-2 at home in 2019-20 and have averaged more than 80 points per game during the current five-game homestand, which the Eagles are 3-1 in. EIU (7-8/0-3 OVC) started the year 7-3 overall but has dropped its first three league games.

The game will air live on ESPN+ and WIVY-96.3 FM.

GAME NOTES

• Morehead State trails 23-15 in the series with Eastern Illinois. The first meeting came in 1981-82, 15 years before the Panthers eventually became OVC members. EIU has won two of the previous three matchups played at Johnson Arena. This marks the first since 2011-12 the teams will play twice in the regular season.

• After hitting just better than 60 percent from the free throw line in the first 14 games, MSU has nailed 80 percent (45-of-56) at the stripe in the last two games.

• MSU won two consecutive games despite not hitting a field goal in the final five minutes of the contest.

• Senior guard Jordan Walker scored a season-high 28 points against SIUE and made his first 14 free throws. Walker managed to hit 23 straight free throws in the last three games before misfiring on his final toss. Walker also now has 182 career three-pointers and is ranked fifth in all-time three-point makes in program history.

• Freshman Tyzhaun Claude averaged 14.0 points and 11.0 rebounds versus Jacksonville State and Tennessee Tech to earn his first-ever OVC Freshman of the Week accolade this week. Claude made it back-to-back Freshman of the Week honors for the Eagles as newcomer Ta’lon Cooper was selected the previous week.

• Tyzhaun Claude’s 7.4 rebounds per game is the best rebounding average for a freshman in the OVC and ranks 10th among all freshmen in Division I currently.

• In the last four games, freshman guard Ta’lon Cooper averaged 13.5 points and hit an amazing 76 percent (16-of-21) from the floor. He also averaged 3.7 assists per game in that span.

• Senior guard JordanWalker is the second player in program history with at least 1,200 career points, 200 assists, 100 steals and 175 three-pointers made, with the only other player accomplishing that being Ricky Minard.

• Sophomore forward Jaden Stanley-Williams scored a career-best 13 points off the bench against SIUE. He has 23 points in the last three games after registering only 14 in the first 13 games.

• Morehead State has hit at least one three-pointer in 421 consecutive games. The last time the Eagles failed to drain one from distance was in 2007 against Jacksonville State.