Smoking first half propels Colonels past Golden Eagles in Monday tilt
February 15, 2021

Smoking first half propels Colonels past Golden Eagles in Monday tilt

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – In the Hooper Eblen Center Monday evening, there were two power surges. One, caused by the inclement weather outside, including a build-up of rain and ice, saw the building lose power briefly at the eight-minute media timeout. The other came from the smoking-hot hands of Eastern Kentucky.

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By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – In the Hooper Eblen Center Monday evening, there were two power surges. One, caused by the inclement weather outside, including a build-up of rain and ice, saw the building lose power briefly at the eight-minute media timeout. The other came from the smoking-hot hands of Eastern Kentucky.

The visiting Colonels defeated the Tennessee Tech men's basketball team, 83-72, using an unheard-of opening 20 minutes to build an almost insurmountable lead. Over the first 20 minutes of the ball game, EKU shot an eye-popping 69 percent from the floor and 69.2 percent from 3-point range to take a commanding, 56-36 lead into the locker rooms.

"We had our hands full with one of the better teams in our league in Eastern Kentucky," Tech head coach John Pelphrey said. "They have a super talented roster. They're good. They're playing very well right now and they always seem to shoot the lights out from the 3-point line, especially from the power forward spot. Those two guys [Michael Moreno and Cheikh Faye] can really, really shoot the basketball and they got them off to a great start. I think combined, those two young men were 6-for-6 from the 3-point line [in the first half] and were just able to kind of keep us at bay most of the night."

Eastern Kentucky hit each of its first six shots to open the contest, taking a 16-5 advantage into the first media break without a miss. The Colonels' full-court, pressure defense also forced the Golden Eagles into 10 turnovers in the opening stanza, providing more opportunities for its offense to attack.

"In the first half, we got some really good looks and opportunities," Pelphrey explained. "We did turn it over a little bit against their pressure. We didn't convert at the level that maybe we had in our previous game, and you have to give them credit for that. Certainly, pressing us with [when we only have] seven scholarship players [available] is probably a good tactic. For us to go at it and try to score off their pressure when we had good looks was our decision. It's kind of how we are and how we operate and we weren't going to change that either."

The Golden Eagles saw less success from deep, hitting just 5-of-17 tries in the opening half and 6-of-27 attempts for the game. Despite the shooting disparity in the opening half, however, Tech's energy level was spectacular throughout the night. The team worked its way back into the contest slowly, eventually cutting the deficit to the 11-point final margin.

"I thought our team really competed for 40 minutes," Pelphrey expressed. "We played extremely hard. I thought we played a little bit better in the second half, we just didn't always play well in the first half. Again, you have to give Eastern Kentucky all the credit."

Junior guard Jr. Clay turned in another great night offensively, posting a game-high 23 points for his second-straight 20-plus point performance. The Chattanooga native finished 10-for-16 from the field and passed Cameron Crisp for the second-longest streak in program history with a made 3-pointer, hitting at least one triple for the 33rd consecutive game.

On the night, Clay passed both Frank Davis and Greg Bibb on the program's all-time scoring list, moving into 24th place. He also passed Anthony Fisher on Tech's career assists list, ranking 10th all-time. He is now one of only two players in program history to rank in the top-25 in scoring and the top-10 in both assists and steals.

Damaria Franklin chipped in 16 points and six rebounds with a pair of dimes and two steals while rookie Austin Harvell accounted for 11 points and five boards. Keishawn Davidson led the team with seven assists, becoming just the third Golden Eagle to account for 100-plus assists in each of his freshman and sophomore seasons.

"This had a totally different feeling tonight," Pelphrey said. "I thought we were actually able to make strides as a program. Our leadership was fantastic. I thought our fighting for each other as a family was fantastic. I thought there was cultural growth in this, because when you get down big like that, especially early in the game, it can go one of two ways. I'm really proud of our guys for continuing to fight, to scratch and claw and to try and get back in the game. But tonight, Eastern Kentucky was just better than us."

Tech will hit the road for a pair of contests in Nashville later in the week, beginning with an 8:00 p.m. CT match-up with in-state foe Tennessee State Thursday. The Golden Eagles will then meet Belmont on Saturday at 4:00 p.m.

Photo by Jordan Ratti, TTU Athletics