Photo: @TMNJTSports
Morehead State lost the rebound battle for the first time this season as Tennessee pounded the Eagles 82-67 in front of a light 15,207 in Thompson-Boling Arena last night.
The Volunteers grabbed 49 rebounds to MSU’s 29, while scoring 20 second chance points off their hustle.
Josh Richardson scored a season high 19 points to pace the Vols, who improved their record to 7-4.
MSU’s Angelo Warner and Brent Arrington both had 16 points to pace the Eagles. Drew Kelly, who had 40 points in his previous outing, was in foul trouble for most of the game and finished with 13 points before fouling out late in the 2nd half.
Eagles head coach Sean Woods knew it would be a tough outing with Tennessee being very tough down low.
“They just out-toughed us. You know, Maymon and Stokes are very good, that’s what they do. Our guys didn’t, for whatever reason, didn’t maintain.” Woods said. “Billy (Reader) injured his shoulder and can’t raise up his right arm. They wanted to concentrate on making sure Chad (Pasthumus) didn’t have a great rebounding night and they did a couple of things to keep him away from the basket, I thought that was key. Our guards didn’t rebound like I wanted them to. In order for us to have success, we have to win the rebounding deal and we didn’t and that’s the reason why we lost.”
Tennessee head coach Cuonzo Martin was pleased with his team’s performance.
“Great team win tonight after coming off of two tough losses mentally and physically. I thought our guys did a good job of carrying out our defensive assignments tonight except for maybe three possessions late in the first half. Probably the last two minutes we allowed outside lane drives, but we did a good job of accepting the challenge. They are one of the better offensive rebounding teams in the country. I thought Jeronne (Maymon) and Jarnell (Stokes) did a good job of keeping their place off the glass.”
Morehead State will be off for Christmas and will take back to the hardwood on Monday vs. Asbury.
Here is video of Coach Woods postgame presser:
Final boxscore:
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