Morehead, Ky. – The Transylvania men's basketball team's second consecutive attempt in as many days at a potential seismic upset was denied by the Morehead State University Eagles in an 81-55 loss on Wednesday night at Johnson Arena.
One night after its 2020-21 season opener, Transylvania ventured to Morehead for the second straight evening for an instant rematch against its Division I neighbor located roughly one hour from downtown Lexington.
The Pioneers began the night intent on staking their claim to a far different result from the night before, exploding for a 12-2 scoring run off the tip. But the Eagles shook off a slow start to finish the half on a 23-5 run and continued that momentum into the start of the second half to gradually pull away from Transy and improve to 3-4 on the year.
The Pioneers moved to 0-2 as they continued the beginnings of an unconventional season, one which was delayed by nearly a month because of variables levied by the pandemic. The fluid shifting of the schedule has given way to an intense opening slate for the Pioneers which includes three games this week against in-state Division I opponents.
Zach Larimore scored a team-high 11 points to pace the Pioneer offense and was matched by Lucas Gentry, who nailed 3 of 6 three-pointers for an 11-point showing. The senior also led the Pioneers on the boards with eight rebounds.
Thursday night began with an electric output from the visitors, who started the night shooting 5 for 8 from the floor and hit on 2 of their first 4 three-point salvos, courtesy of long distance connections by Gentry and Brandon Cromwell en route to a 12-2 lead, the Pioneers' first double-digit lead of the season.
Morehead State sliced away at the Transylvania advantage while Larimore nailed a fadeaway jumper at the 9:58 mark of the first half to maintain a 19-13 Transy lead. Gentry later hit his second bucket from downtown as the Pioneer lead expanded back to 22-15 with eight minutes left in the half.
The Eagles began to find their way inside with increasing success, using a 10-0 run to capture their first lead of the night. Morehead State converted on a sequence of tip-ins to grab at 38-27 lead at the halftime break.
Morehead State picked up from where it left off to end the half with an 11-1 run to kick off the second half action. Larimore and freshman Simon Smith canned jumpers to slice Morehead State's outlook to 56-39 with 12 and a half minutes to go; over the next seven minutes, the Eagles caught fire from outside to grow their lead up to 27 points to clinch the win.
After shooting 37 percent from the field in the first half, the Pioneers shot 44 percent in the second half to finish at a 40 percent clip from the field overall. The Pioneers shot 6 for 22 from three-point land on the night. Morehead State won the battle of the boards by 10 with a 39-29 rebounding advantage.
Michael Jefferson led the Pioneers with four assists, adding four points and two rebounds to go with one steal. Dominique Turner posted two blocks with six points.
Transylvania looks ahead to its third Division I opponent of the week on Saturday, December 12 when the Pioneers visit the Eastern Kentucky University Colonels at McBrayer Arena in Richmond, Kentucky at 4:00 p.m. Limited tickets for Saturday's game are available for purchase via the Eastern Kentucky ticketing website; additional guidelines for attending fans are specified at EKUSports.com.
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