MOREHEAD, Ky. -- Led by a tenacious, swarming man-to-man and zone defense, coach Travis Ford's Eastern Kentucky University Colonels defeated arch-rival Morehead State University, 69-61, Tuesday night at MSU's Johnson Arena.

EKU held Morehead State to only 38.5 percent from the field after the Eagles had upended Southeast Missouri by 22 points Saturday night, hitting 62 percent from the field against the Redhawks.

"Defense won this game. No question," said Ford. "This is the best defensive effort from a team I've coached in the eight years I've been coaching.

"Everybody took it up a notch on the defensive end of the floor, especially in the first half. Our guys took it upon themselves to play 'kamikaze' defense.

"That kind of effort by our defense fatigued Morehead State on their defensive end. We didn't get much done offensively, but we took care of business and got out of here with a win in a very tough place to play.

"We knew it was going to be tough because, not only were we playing for a top four spot, but Morehead State had something on the line. They were playing to get into the tournament, so we knew it was going to be very intense and it was."

MSU was held to only 34.6 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes, and the Colonels had a 40-31 advantage at the break.

Eastern upped that lead to 44-33 at the 18:32 mark and then held another double-digit lead at 56-46 at 7:34 left in the game. But, Morehead State would not go away.

MSU chipped away at the lead and finally trimmed it to 63-61 with 26 seconds left. But EKU iced it with six straight free throws down the stretch and held the Eagles scoreless the rest of the way to up its overall record to 18-8 and its OVC mark to 10-5.

Senior forward Michael Haney had his eighth double-double of the season and 19th of his career to lead Eastern's attack as he scored 21 points and pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds.

Senior guard Ben Rushing, who was a big part of EKU's first half offense with four three-pointers at the break, added 14 points, while junior guard Matt Witt had 13 points and eight assists.

Eastern hit 44.6 percent from the field and had eight team blocks, four by junior center Alonzo Hird. EKU outrebounded MSU, 41-28, as Hird added 11 boards.

Senior center Chad McKnight led Morehead State, now 11-15 overall and 5-10 in the conference with 16 points, while Ramon Kelly and Quinton Smith each scored 10 points.

EKU moved into a second-place tie in the OVC standings with Samford, who both stand 10-5. Tennessee Tech, who defeated Austin Peay 74-59 Tuesday night, leads the conference with its 11-4 OVC mark.

EKU closes the regular season with a 7:30 p.m. EST Senior Night contest with Austin Peay Saturday night (Feb. 26) in McBrayer Arena.