EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Southern Indiana Men’s Basketball’s second-half rally fell short versus Morehead State University, 70-68, Tuesday evening at Liberty Arena. The Screaming Eagles, who went 2-2 in the four-game homestand, are 6-7 overall and 1-2 in OVC action, while the MSU Eagles are 8-6, 3-0 OVC.
After USI spotted MSU a 6-0 lead, junior guard Damoni Harrison single-handedly kept the Screaming Eagles in the game by scoring all 10 of the team’s points in the first eight minutes of the contest. Harrison was four-of-five from the field, while the rest of the team missed four attempts.
The Screaming Eagles would stay close until they unleashed a 12-2 run to erase a 10-point gap (27-17) to tie the contest at 29-29 on a Harrison layup with 1:21 left in the half. Junior guard Braxton Jones led the USI offensive surge with six of points.
MSU, however, would get the final two buckets of the half and led 33-29 at the break. Harrison finished the half with a team-best 14 points, while Jones and junior guard Jayland Randall followed with seven and six points, respectively.
In the second half, the MSU Eagles expanded their halftime margin to 11 points, 45-34, in the first six minutes. MSU would continue to nurse an advantage near double digits through much of the final 20 minutes until USI began to rally with 3:56 to play.
The Screaming Eagles closed the gap to two points, 66-64, on a jumper by junior guard Jack Campion with 21 seconds remaining, capping off a 12-3 run. The MSU Eagles took the lead back to four before Harrison got USI back to with two for a second time, 68-66, with 14 ticks left on the clock.
After MSU split a pair of free throw attempts with 13.7 seconds to lead 69-66, USI closed to one, 69-68, on two free throws by Harrison to keep the Screaming Eagles’ hopes alive with 8.4 left. MSU split a second trip to the stripe to push the lead to the eventual 70-68 final before USI was short on one last attempt.
For the game, Harrison led the USI scorers with a season-high 24 points. He was eight-of-13 from the field and eight-of-nine from the stripe, while tying for the team lead with six rebounds.
Jones rounded out the double-digit scorers with a season-high 20 points. He was eight-of-15 from the field, including a pair of three-pointers, and two-of-three from the line.
Campion finished the night with four assists and moved into the USI top 15 all-time with 231 career assists. The junior guard is 15th all-time, surpassing Bobo Drummond (228; 2014-17).
As a team, USI was outrebounded, 41-31, and finished the game 42.1 percent from the field (24-56).
