Panthers look for ninth straight win
January 16, 2015
Eastern men’s basketball head coach Jay Spoonhour looks for his team to continue its strong conference start as they meet Morehead State University this weekend.
The Panthers (11-6) have not beat Morehead (6-12) since January 15, 2011. The two teams have met four times since then.
“You can’t really gauge the teams in our league off their non-conference record,” Spoonhour said. “So many of their games are on the road.”
Coming off a 72-65 win over Eastern Kentucky University, the Panthers look to stay undefeated in the Ohio Valley Conference. Eastern is also in the midst of an eight game win streak.
The Eagles have now won three of their last five games; four of which were conference games. Morehead is the seventh best scoring team in the OVC with 68.6 points per game.
“They’re an athletic team that can really score the ball,” Spoonhour said.
Senior guard Angelo Warner leads the Eagles with 13.3 points per game and an average of 3.8 rebounds.
Junior forward Chris Olivier continues to lead the streaking Panthers with 12.3 points and 5.3 rebounds per game.
Junior forward Trae Anderson scored a team-high 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds against Eastern Kentucky. It was just the second game back for Anderson after he sustained an injury earlier this season.
Eastern leads the OVC in multiple defensive categories. The Panthers are holding teams to 60.2 points per game while holding teams to an average of 39 percent shooting from the floor.
Morehead leads the conference in offensive rebounds while Eastern sits in second to last place. Red-shirt senior center Billy Reader sits at fifth place in the OVC with 2.6 offensive rebounds per game.
The Panthers average less than 10 offensive rebounds and the Eagles grab 14 per game.
Eastern has an average scoring margin of less than one point for every game. Morehead has a +2.8 scoring margin on the season while they are sitting well below .500 in the wins column.
The Panthers’ Junior guard LeTrell Viser is leading the team with 1.8 three-pointers made per game. Viser has the 11th most made shots in the OVC from beyond the arc with a total 29.
Eastern will be making its second stop in Kentucky this week in an attempt to remain unbeaten in early stages of OVC play this season.
The Panthers will tip-off with Morehead at 1 p.m. on Saturday inside Johnson Arena in Morehead, KY.
Jehad Abbed can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].
