Morehead State Can't Close Out Belmont, Drops Heartbreaker

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Morehead State Can't Close Out Belmont, Drops Heartbreaker

Belmont 64
Morehead State 63

Final from Morehead, Kentucky

Game recap by MSU:

MOREHEAD, Ky. -- The Morehead State men’s basketball team led for more than 36 minutes on Thursday night at Johnson Arena, but Belmont used an 11-2 game-ending run to escape with a 64-63 Ohio Valley Conference victory.

The Bruins improve to 16-4 overall, 7-0 in the conference and 6-3 on the road with their seventh straight win, while the Eagles slip to 10-11 on the season, 4-3 in league play and 7-3 at home. It was the first meeting between the two schools in men’s hoops.

Belmont’s only lead was at 2-0 until the 1:13 mark of the second half. That’s when junior J.J. Mann drilled a three from the right wing to give the Bruins a one-point advantage. MSU missed its final two shots of the evening and the visitors hung on for the victory.

Senior Ian Clark tallied a game-high 20 points for Belmont, while Mann added 11 points and five assists. Clark and senior Kerron Johnson handed out four assists apiece, while senior Trevor Noack collected a game-best three steals for the Bruins.

Junior Bakari Turner led four Morehead State players in double figures with 16 points for his fifth consecutive performance of 10+. Senior Milton Chavis contributed 12, while junior Chad Posthumus and sophomore Angelo Warner added 11 each.

Posthumus also pulled down a game-best 10 rebounds for his second Division I double-double. Senior Devon Atkinson and junior Drew Kelly shared team-high honors with three assists apiece, while junior Taariq Muhammad recorded two steals.

Complete Recap

6 comments:

Anonymous said...: A Sean Woods team cant close out a big victory yet again, shocking.; January 25, 2013 at 10:37 AM
Anonymous said...: ....and your team is.....???; January 25, 2013 at 10:41 AM
Anonymous said...: Not any team he coaches. His teams couldnt close out Belmont or UK at Morehead. Who could forget the choke job Mississippi Valley State had against Western Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament. Not to mention he played on the "Unforgettables" who couldnt close out Duke in 92.; January 25, 2013 at 6:30 PM
Anonymous said...: Several comments:
1. Look at Coach Woods' body language during the interview; head downcast, almost never makes eye contact with Chuck, nearly every comment or answer is negative, and most of his answers are mumbled and hard to understand.
2. He "throws his players under the bus" more than any coach I've ever seen. In other words, he blames them for not following his plan and/or plays as the reason for their losses. He even names the players! For example, "Even though I drew the play up and went over it twice, Devon Atkinson didn't run the play correctly." He also berates upperclassmen for setting examples for younger players, again naming names.
3. He has a very negative attitude in these public interviews, the one thing that really seems to upset him if the players do it. It's almost as if he already given up on the season.
4. His substitution patterns border on the bizarre. One day he's saying that Milton Chavis is "one of the most athletic players in the country", yet the very next game Milton only plays 10-11 minutes and doesn't even get off the bench the game after that.
5. Too much yelling and screaming. The only coach (besides Frank Martin of South Carolina maybe) who gets right up in players faces (I mean within an inch or two) and screams and yells at them for not doing something correctly or making a bad play. Unfortunately, the whole world got to see this, up close and personal, during the UK game on TV. If players or anyone else associated with MSU acted like this, they would be long gone.
I could gone on, but you see the pattern. We have a very talented team at MSU, with a nice mix of younger players, upperclassmen, and very good transfers. Winning starts with coaching (as does closing teams out late in the game) and something isn't quite right in Eagle country. We most definitely should have beaten Belmont last night, Marshall in Huntington (lost by 3), probably EKU (lost by 7, but blew big leads), and honestly had a realistic chance to beat UK at Rupp. Not saying we should have won that game, but the opportunities were there.
I know some of you will say "Give the guy a break, it's his first year and it's gonna take a while." To some extent that's true. They are definitely fun to watch and play with a ferocious mentality, Yet something is still not quite right (like leading the nation in fouls committed) and I really hope that everything will be OK by season's end. Guess we'll have to wait and see.; January 25, 2013 at 10:21 PM
Anonymous said...: Meant to say "for setting poor examples" in #2.; January 25, 2013 at 10:24 PM
Anonymous said...: People say how Morehead State is a difficult job, which sure they've not had much of a past. However, they can now say they have an NBA alum in Faried as well as a couple of NCAA Tournament wins in the last few years. If Belmont and Murray State are able to keep their momentum up, the OVC could become much like the West Coast conference when Gonzaga and then Saint Mary's came on to the scene, so its not like its an outpost. If Woods keeps it up and he winds up losing this job, I think you'd see many young up and coming coaches want this job. If Woods keeps this up, I dont see him lasting 2 or 3 years.; January 25, 2013 at 10:43 PM

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Thursday, January 24, 2013