Senior Lyonell Gaines had a career-high 20 points and 11 rebounds, while junior Xavier Moon chipped in 17 points, as Morehead State won at Siena, 84-80, in the opening round of the College Basketball Invitational.
With the win, the Eagles move to 20-12 on the season, marking their seventh 20-win season in program history. Five of those 20-win campaigns have come in the last eight years and head coach Sean Woods has led MSU to 20-plus wins twice in four years.
The win marks Morehead State's first postseason victory since 2011 when they beat Louisville in the NCAA Tournament.
Siena finishes the season at 21-13.
"That team (Siena) is a mirror image of us and whoever won the hustle stats like rebounding was going to win the game," said Woods. "We outrebounded them, we turned them over 19 times, and we took care of our business down the stretch. This was a total team effort, everyone that played came in and contributed.”
The Eagles went to the locker room at half with a 44-43 lead after jumping out to a 12-2 lead to start the game. Eleven different Eagles scored in the first stanza.
In the second half, MSU built a 65-57 lead with 11:23 to go, but Siena responded with six straight points to get it back to 65-63. Morehead State then built the lead right back to six, but the Saints immediately responded again with five straight points and the Eagles led 69-68 with 7:25 to go.
After a jumper by Siena's Ryan Oliver trimmed the Eagles lead to 73-70, Gaines delivered back-to-back buckets to give Morehead State a 77-70 lead they held until Nico Clareth hit his third three-pointer of the game with 1:11 to go.
In the closing minute, Morehead State hit 7-of-8 free throw attempts to seal the 84-80 victory.
The Eagles finished the game shooting 20-of-24 from the charity stripe.
"Everybody stepped up. We've been shooting a lot of free throws in practice so we've been paying a lot of attention to it and it's paying off," said Woods.
With 20 points and 11 rebounds, Gaines finished with his second career double-double, and his second in his last three games. He finished 10-of-16 from the floor and also had four steals.
The senior from Louisville, Ky. has now scored in double digits in six straight games.
"He's (Gaines) been unbelievable. I told him, every time you play well, we win," said Woods.
Moon added 17 points on 4-of-9 shooting, he was 8-of-8 from the free throw line, including 4-of-4 in the final minute. Senior Anthony Elechi was the third Eagle to finish in double figures as he had 10 points and six rebounds. Senior Corban Collins started for the first time since Feb. 13 versus Belmont and added nine points in 20 gutsy minutes.
Morehead State outrebounded Siena, 35-26, and pulled down 12 offensive rebounds, led by Gaines' four. They outscored the Saints 48-32 in the paint.
The Eagles also recorded a season-high 16 steals and forced 19 turnovers.
The loss is just Siena's fourth home loss of the season. Five players scored in double figures for the Saints, led by Oliver's 18, Marquis Wright's 15, and Clareth's 14.
The Eagles now advance to the quarterfinals of the College Basketball Invitational. They will host the winner of Omaha and Duquesne on Monday night.