RICHMOND, Ky. -- Paced by a tenacious defense in the second half, coach Travis Ford's Eastern Kentucky University Colonels rallied from a seven-point halftime deficit to post a 74-68 win over Tennessee State University Tuesday night in the opening round of the 2005 O'Reilly OVC Men's Basketball Tournament.
Eastern trailed 39-32 as the TSU Tigers hit 64.0 percent in the first half, including six straight shots midway through the first stanza.
The second half was a different story as TSU fell to a 34.5 percent mark from the field, while EKU shot a sizzling 66.7 field goal percentage in posting its first 20-win season in the past 26 seasons (the Colonels were 21-8 in 1978-79). Eastern has now won five straight and stands 20-8 on the year.
"We made some adjustments at halftime, both offensively and defensively, and everybody stepped it up on the defensive end," said Ford. "We told our guys that a lot of times determination will overcome athleticism. We wanted to crowd them a little bit more and I think it worked.
"There's not a team in America that works harder than our guys. Old-fashioned hard work paid off tonight. Our guys just refused to lose."
Ford credited a very loud crowd of 2,400 with giving his team a boost when it needed it.
"That was a terrific crowd tonight, the loudest I've ever heard in here. They were awesome," said a thankful Ford.
EKU came out strong in the second stanza with five straight points to cut the margin to two. With the Tigers ahead 49-44, the Colonels reeled off seven straight points to take their first lead, 51-49, since the 12:32 mark of the initial half.
EKU looked like it had two comfortable leads in the waning minutes, one at 65-57 with 5:10 to go and one at 68-61 with 3:22 left to play after junior guard Zach Ingles hit an off-balance three-pointer just before the shot clock expired.
"The big shot of the night was that one by Zach. That made it a three-possession game," noted Ford.
TSU still had one more rally of its own as, with EKU leading the Tigers, 69-64, freshman guard Reiley Ervin made a four-point play, sinking a three-pointer from the right corner and getting fouled and hitting the ensuing free throw to trim the margin to one at 69-68 with 1:35 left.
Matt Witt then found Alonzo Hird open for a dunk shot to move the margin back out to 71-68 at the 1:11 mark. TSU misfired on two trips down the floor before having to foul EKU substitute guard Bubba Long with 28 seconds to go.
Long nailed both free throws to take the EKU lead to 73-68. Key defensive efforts by Long and Jason McLeish over the next 22 seconds spoiled another TSU attempt to score. McLeish finished the scoring for the night with a free throw with six seconds left, running Eastern's home record for the year to 12-1.
For the game, Eastern hit 60.5 percent from the field, 53.3 percent from three-point land and 63.6 percent from the charity line, compared to TSU's percentages of 48.1 (field), 43.8 (three-point) and 75.0 (free throw line).
Alonzo Hird picked up his fourth double-double of the season, scoring a game-high 15 points and pulling down 14 rebounds as EKU won the rebounding battle, 28-22.
"You can't believe how much emphasis we put on rebounding the basketball for the last two days. That was one of the reasons we got beat down there earlier this year," said Ford.
Haney added 14 points, while McLeish scored 12 and Ingles and Rushing had 10 each. Witt was held to three points by the sticky man-to-man defense of the Tigers, but still handed out nine huge assists leading to several key second half Colonel baskets.
Center Rod Flowers and guard Wayne Arnold each had 14 points for TSU, while Ervin netted 10 points. Guard Bruce Price, who had eight first half points, was held scoreless in the second frame.
EKU, 20-8 overall, will play No. 6 seed Southeast Missouri, a 61-58 victor over Murray State Tuesday night, at 9:00 p.m. Friday night in the semifinal round of the 2005 O'Reilly OVC Tournament.
The opening semifinal round game will pit No. 1 seed Tennessee Tech, a 72-68 winner over Eastern Illinois Tuesday night, versus Austin Peay, who downed Samford, 71-60, last night. Tipoff for this game is 6:30 p.m. Friday.
Saturday's championship game is slated for 4:00 p.m. EST and will be shown live on ESPN2.
