Sophomore guard Ta'Lon Cooper came within two rebounds of a triple-double and several other career-highs occurred Thursday night as the Morehead State men's basketball team raced past Transylvania (Ky.) 84-59 at Johnson Arena to even the Eagles' record at 2-2.
Cooper recorded a career-high 12 assists and also scored 12 points while grabbing a career-best eight rebounds. Morehead State also canned a season-best 16 three points on 35 attempts for a season-best 46 percent efficiency from beyond the arc, the most three-pointers sunk by an Eagle squad since hitting 18 versus Central Arkansas on Dec. 19, 2016.
Besides Cooper's heroics, the balanced offensive effort saw four other players in double figures, led by junior guard Skyelar Potter with 14. Freshman guard Drew Thelwell set career-highs in points (13), assists (4) and three-pointers made with a trio.
Other Eagle career-high efforts included grad transfer guard Tray Hollowell with 13 points (on a career-best five triples) and junior guard Jake Wolfe with 12 points. Junior guard Tucson Redding came off the bench for a career-best eight points, and second-year freshman Johni Broome blocked a career-best six shots while also grabbing 10 rebounds.
The Eagles shot 53 percent for the night (30-of-57) and dished out 26 assists on their 30 made buckets. They also limited the Pioneers to just 33 percent from the floor (19-of-57). MSU also had a rebound advantage of 38-29, the 28th team the Eagles have grabbed more rebounds against in the previous two seasons.
MSU shot out to a 22-5 lead at the 10:11 mark of the first half, thanks to six three-balls in the first 10 minutes. The Eagles led 32-12 with 6:20 left in the first half but then saw Transy go on a 14-0 run to cut the deficit to just 32-26.
Leading 35-28 at the halftime break, the home team raced out to a 50-31 lead early in the second half via a 15-3 to open the final 20 minutes. MSU went on to push its margin to as much as 33.
Morehead State gets back to action on Sunday as they travel to Mississippi State for a 3 p.m. ET matinee at Humphrey Coliseum.
