Photo: Chris Radcliffe
RICHMOND, Ky. – The 2014 Ohio Valley Conference Tournament championship banner will be unveiled on Friday before the Eastern Kentucky University men’s basketball team opens its season against Savannah State University at McBrayer Arena.
The first 1,000 fans in attendance will receive a free commemorative t-shirt. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. The banner ceremony will be held before the game begins. Friday’s game will also give fans their first look at the 2014-15 men’s basketball intro video.
The live radio broadcast is available in the Richmond area on WCYO 100.7 FM, and can be heard worldwide on EKUSports.com. A live video broadcast is available on OVCDigitalNetwork.com.
The Colonels steamrolled through the 2014 OVC Tournament, beating three teams in three days and trailing for only 41 seconds during the entire tournament. Eastern went on to nearly upset No. 2 seed Kansas in the second round of the 2014 NCAA Tournament, leading the Jayhawks with 8:55 left in the game and trailing by only three with 3:39 to go.
EKU finished the season with a 24-10 record last year and the team’s 49 wins over the previous two seasons mark the winningest two-year period in program history.
Eastern Kentucky has the 15th longest home court non-conference winning streak in the nation at 22 straight games. EKU has won its season-opener each of the last two years. The Colonels have won 16 straight home-openers dating back to the 1998-99 season.
Eastern had an exhibition tune-up last Friday. Five players scored in double figures and nine of the 11 that saw action scored at least two points in a 96-81 victory over visiting Urbana.
Senior Corey Walden led the way for the Colonels with 20 points, eight rebounds, six assists and three steals. Newcomer Denzel Richardson added 16 points and five rebounds. Eric Stutz and Jaylen Babb-Harrison each scored 15 points and newcomer Jonathan Hood added 11 off the bench.
As a team, EKU made 53 percent of its shots from the field, 43 percent from behind the arc and 21-of-23 (91 percent) at the free throw line. Eight of the 11 players that got in the game contributed to a total of 19 assists.
Savannah State returns just two starters from a team that went 13-19 in 2013-14. The Tigers posted a 10-6 record in the MEAC and finished fifth. SSU has played two exhibition games, beating Armstrong Atlantic by 15 and losing to West Georgia by six.
Sophomore Saadiq Muhammad, a 6-foot-7 210-pound forward, seems to have made a big improvement. He averaged 3.0 points and 2.9 rebounds while starting 14 games as a freshman. In two exhibition games, Muhammad has averaged 14 points and 11 rebounds. He finished with 16 points and 13 boards in a six-point exhibition loss to West Georgia. Freshman guard Khalen Pinkett scored 12 and 14 points in SSU’s two exhibition games.
Last season, Savannah State averaged just 61.5 points per game, but the Tigers held opponents to 64.3 points per contest, the 43rd best scoring defense in the country. SSU held opponents to 30.9 percent shooting from three-point range, which ranked 31st in the nation.
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