Morehead, Ky. – The Transylvania men's basketball team tipped off its 2020-21 season on Wednesday night with a 77-55 defeat at Division I Morehead State University at Johnson Arena.
After a delay to the start of their season, the Pioneers commenced an unconventional year in college basketball with their first meeting since 1956 against their Division I neighbor one hour to the east, the Morehead State Eagles.
The Pioneers forged an early 8-7 lead behind an early five points from Zach Larimore, the team's leading scorer on the night, but the Eagles went on a 7-0 run to take the lead for good as they relied on a 10-point advantage in the paint and a three-point differential of plus-4 on the night.
Morehead State improved to 2-4 on the season while the Pioneers dropped to 0-1 as Transylvania's opener served as an official regular-season contest for both squads.
Larimore dropped in 18 points to lead the Pioneers and added five rebounds while knocking down 3 of 5 three-pointers on the night.
The first two buckets of the season came courtesy of long-distance treys by Larimore and Brandon Cromwell to forge a 6-6 ballgame three and a half minutes into the contest. Larimore cashed in on two free throws to give the Pioneers an 8-7 advantage before Morehead issued its first significant punch of the night.
Lucas Gentry and Larimore each found paydirt from outside to cut the Eagles' lead to 20-18 with seven minutes left in the first half before the Eagles hit on back-to-back threeballs to push their lead to 13 with 2:24 remaining.
Brice Scott made his collegiate debut late in the first period and converted on an and-one bucket courtesy of an inside find by Michael Jefferson to slice Morehead State's lead to 36-24 by halftime.
Morehead State heated up from outside in the second half, connecting on 7 of 14 three-point baskets to add to its lead as the Eagles outscored the Pioneers 41-31 over the final 20 minutes of play.
Larimore continued to put points on the board with an eight-point second half while Dominique Turner cleaned the glass, notching all seven of his team-leading rebounds in the second.
Cromwell was the other double-figure scorer on the night for the Pioneers with 12 points, adding five rebounds and two steals in a game-high 35 minutes. Jefferson had a team-high four assists to go with five points, four rebounds, and one steal.
Transylvania shot 8 for 24 from downtown on Wednesday evening and 33 percent from the floor as a whole.
After facing off on Wednesday for the first time in 64 years, the two teams will rematch 24 hours later for a 6 p.m. tip-off on Thursday from Johnson Arena.
Tickets for Thursday's game are available via the Morehead State ticketing website. (SPECTATOR INFORMATION)
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