Thursday evening the Tennessee State men’s basketball team hosts Morehead State, who currently sits atop the Ohio Valley Conference in a game that will garner national spotlight as the OVC’s ESPNU Game of the Week.
Tennessee State enters this matchup winners of five straight, which has propelled the Tigers into a 5-way logjam for second place in the Ohio Valley Conference at 8-6. The Tigers last game, against Tennessee Tech, was ended with 3:04 left in the second half due to the unfortunate injury to TTU player Diante Wood; Tennessee State was up 67-53 when the game was suspended and ultimately called. Graduate transfer and reigning Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Week Jr. Clay leads Tennessee State , averaging 18.7 points per contest and has not reached double figures just twice on the season. In the previous contest against Morehead, a 83-75 loss to the Eagles, Clay led the Tigers in scoring with 18 points but shot just 6-16 from the floor.
Morehead State has been the class of the OVC with an 11-4 conference record. The Eagles defeated the Tigers 83-75 in the last meeting, on December 29. Morehead State has won the last 5 matchups between the two school and looks to sweep the Tigers for the third consecutive season. OVC fourth-ranked scorer, (15.4 ppg), Mark Freeman will look to once again light up TSU; the former Tiger torched his previous school for a career-30 high points in the last meeting. The game will take place at Johnson Arena, where Morehead State holds an all-time 28-11 record against Tennessee State; Morehead holds a 45-38 series record against TSU. The Eagles magic number to clinch at least a share of the Ohio Valley Conference regular-season championship is 2 with four conference games left to play.
The game will air Thursday night at 9:00 PM EST.
