SE Missouri St beats top-seed Morehead St 65-58 in OVC semis

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Southeast Missouri State hits clutch 3 in upset of No. 1 Morehead State

Phillip Russell drains a big 3-pointer down the stretch as No. 5 Southeast Missouri State knocks off No. 1 Morehead State in the OVC semifinals.

Mar 4, 2023, 05:12 am

EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- — Chris Harris scored 15 points to spark Southeast Missouri State's 65-58 upset win over top-seeded Morehead State in the semifinals of the Ohio Valley Conference tournament on Friday night.

Morehead State had a double bye in the tournament and were seeded directly into the semifinals. Southeast Missouri State was the No. 5 seed and has won three straight games in the tournament, beating Lindenwood and Tennessee State and now faces either Tennessee Tech or UT Martin in Saturday's championship game, with the winner earning an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.

Harris had seven rebounds for the Redhawks (15-16). Phillip Russell scored 14 points while shooting 4 for 14 (3 for 6 from 3-point range) and 3 of 4 from the free throw line, and added five rebounds. Josh Earley recorded 11 points and shot 5 of 6 from the field.

The Eagles (21-10) were led by Mark Freeman, who recorded 21 points. Drew Thelwell added 13 points and two steals for Morehead State. LJ Bryan also had eight points.

Russell scored eight points in the first half and Southeast Missouri State went into the break trailing 34-29. Southeast Missouri State used a 12-0 second-half run to erase a six-point deficit and take the lead at 57-51 with 2:44 remaining in the half before finishing off the victory. Harris scored nine second-half points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.