Junior guard RonnyeBeamon drained a right wing three with 12 seconds left in regulation to push Morehead State men's basketball past Tennessee State, 66-61, on Thursday night at Johnson Arena.
The Eagles improved their season record to 16-11 and 9-5 in the Ohio Valley Conference and have now tied a season-high with four straight wins. TSU falls to 18-8 and 9-4 in conference play.
"We just showed our resilience tonight. After allowing them to get back in the game, I thought we were solid as a rock down the stretch," said head coach Sean Woods. "We had some key turnovers tonight that we really need to clean up, but we got the win and now we can go back and figure out ways to get better."
At the half, Morehead State trailed 29-28, but an 11-3 run to start the second half put the home squad up, 39-32. TSU fought back to pull within three on a Tahjere McCall three-point basket with 10:11 left, but the Eagles answered again.
Morehead State then went on a 13-2 run over a three-minute stretch, capped off by a three-point bucket by senior forward Lyonell Gaines. The run gave the Eagles their largest lead of the game at 58-44.
But, the Tigers would not go away. TSU responded with a 17-1 run of their own and took the lead at 61-59 with just over a minute to go.
The lead did not last long for the Tigers as sophomore guard Miguel Dicent answered on the other end, knocking down a left corner jumper to tie the game. On the next possession, TSU's Keron DeShields turned the ball over, setting up Beamon's heroics.
With the shot clock and the game clock winding down, Beamon broke the tie with a three-point basket from the right corner. It was his lone shot attempt of the night. Following another late defensive stop, Dicent added two free throws to the lead after collecting a rebound off a potential game-tying three-point shot from McCall.
Dicent finished the night with a team-high 16 points, shooting 6-of-6 from the charity stripe.
Senior guard Brent Arrington collected 12 points and six rebounds, hitting 5-of-6 from the free throw line. He scored nine of his points in the second half and helped propel the run that gave the Eagles their 14-point lead. Gaines added 11 points in 25 minutes of action, marking his first double-digit scoring game since Jan. 30 against EKU.
The battle of the glass went decisively to Morehead State as they outrebounded the Tigers, 42-24. They pulled down 14 offensive rebounds resulting in 14 second chance points. The Eagles made the most of their free throw opportunities, hitting 20-of-24 from the line.
With the contributions of Dicent and Gaines, the Morehead State bench accumulated 35 points.
McCall had a game-high 17 points and was 5-of-14 from the field. Deshields contributed 13 points for the Tigers.
Morehead State finishes the remainder of its season away from Johnson Arena. They close the OVC regular season with road contests at Tennessee Tech on Thursday and Jacksonville State on Saturday.
