MOREHEAD, KY. - The Lindenwood Men's Basketball team (14-9, 8-4 OVC) picked up their second straight road win with a 79-78 victory over Morehead State on Saturday afternoon inside Johnson Arena. Four players scored in double figures with Anias Futrell leading the way scoring a game-high 26 points and grabbing a team-high nine rebounds in the win over the Eagles. Milos Nenadic also finished with 20 or more points as the Graduate Student scored 21 points on 7-10 shooting and pulled down seven rebounds. 

The first half was close almost the entire way as the biggest lead during the opening half was 11 points in favor of Morehead State. With the Eagles up 36-25 with just under four minutes to go in the half, the Lions went on an 11-3 run to close out the half and trailed by three at the break by a score of 39-36. During the late run, Anias Futrell took over offensively as he scored nine of the 11 points including two three pointers with one being right before the buzzer went off to keep the Lions within striking distance. Lindenwood shot 46.7% from beyond the arc in the first half with Futrell and Mekhi Cooper combining for all seven made three pointers as Futrell had 14 points at the break to lead all scorers and Cooper had nine points going 3-5 from three point range in the first 20 minutes of play. 

In the second half, Dontrez Williams scored five points early on to cut the Eagle lead down to 46-44 with 16:55 to go in the second half. Milos Nenadic would score the next three points for the Lions to give them the lead at 47-46 right before the media timeout. Coming out of the timeout, both teams had scoring droughts as Morehead State eventually grabbed the lead at 49-47 with 13:15 to go. Mekhi Cooper ended the drought for the Lions by connecting on his fourth three pointer of the game to put Lindenwood back in front, but the Eagles went on a 7-1 run over the next three minutes to retake the lead at 56-51 with 9:02 left in the contest. The rest of the game would stay close as the largest lead for either side over the final nine minutes was five.

Milos Nenadic scored 12 of his 15 second half points over the final nine minutes and connected from three point range with 2:15 to go to give the Lions the 71-70 advantage. Morehead State scored on their next trip down the floor and Nenadic would get fouled and converted on both of his free throw attempts to give Lindenwood a one-point lead again at 73-72 with 1:39 to go. The Eagles responded with a 4-0 run over the next minute to take a three point lead at 76-73 with 22 seconds to go, but Nenadic scored six seconds later out of a timeout to trim the Eagle lead down to one. The Lions fouled on the ensuing possession and Morehead State knocked down both free throw attempts to push their lead back out to three at 78-75 with 12 seconds to go. The Eagles fouled Mekhi Cooper with nine seconds to go and Cooper made both of his free throw attempts to once again cut the lead down to one. On the inbound play following the made free throws, Anias Futrell forced a jump ball situation that gave Lindenwood the ball back with six seconds to go on a great defensive play. Futrell got fouled underneath the basket with three seconds remaining and headed to the line for a chance to give the Lions the lead and ice the game. Futrell delivered and knocked down both of his attempts giving the Lions the lead for the final time by a score of 79-78. The Eagles had a look at a three pointer at the buzzer, but the shot was off to the right and the Lions hung on for their fourth OVC road victory of the season. 

With the win, the Lions improve to 8-4 in the Ohio Valley Conference and sit in third place in the standings. The Lions will return to Hyland Arena on Tuesday night as they will host SIUE at 7:30 p.m. CT.