Morehead State’s magical basketball season ends with an NCAA Tournament first-round loss

A magical season for the Morehead State men’s basketball team came to an end Thursday afternoon.

The 14 seed Eagles lost to 3 seed Illinois, the Big Ten Tournament champions, 85-69 in an NCAA Tournament first round game in the East Region at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska.

Illinois will face 11 seed Duquesne in the round of 32 on Saturday in Omaha. The Dukes upset 6 seed BYU in an earlier game Thursday.

Morehead State jumped out to a 9-0 lead in Thursday’s game, connecting on a trio of 3-pointers to begin the game. Illinois led by just one point, 39-38, at halftime, after Morehead State led for more than 13 minutes in the first half.

From there, the Fighting Illini used a 16-3 run near the midway point of the second half to grab control of the game for good.

“If you’re going to have your season end, we want to check three boxes,” Morehead State head coach Preston Spradlin said postgame. “Number one, we want to play well. We did that. Number two, you want to stay together. I felt like our team really, truly did that despite the score or anything. Then you want to lose to a worthy opponent. Illinois is a very worthy opponent, so hats off to them.”

Morehead State standout fifth-year guard Riley Minix — the 2023-24 Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year and a former NAIA All-American — finished his college career with 27 points of 9-for-21 shooting from the field.

“I wanted to challenge myself to play at the Division I level and make it to this point. I just credit my teammates for allowing me to come in every day and pushing me and just competing at the highest level,” Minix said. “We got to where I wanted to be, and they allowed my dream to come true. “

The Eagles also got 23 points from senior guard Jordan Lathon, but no other Eagles scored in double figures.

“We only had six turnovers in this game, 14 assists on 26 made field goals. We hit 11 3s,” Spradlin said. “Those are numbers you can win with. In the second half, it kind of got away from us just a little bit.”

Illinois fifth-year guard Terrence Shannon Jr. scored 26 points, with 19 of those coming in the first half. Shannon was arrested and charged with rape in Kansas in December. The school suspended Shannon, but a judge reinstated him after his attorneys filed a lawsuit that sought a temporary restraining order against the university in an effort to be reinstated to the team.

Fifth-year forward Marcus Domask, who previously played four seasons at Southern Illinois, had a triple-double with 12 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Domask is the first Illinois player to record a triple-double in the NCAA Tournament.

Illinois junior forward Dain Dainja had 21 points on a perfect 9-for-9 shooting from the field. The Fighting Illini had a substantial 37-3 advantage over the Eagles in bench scoring.

Morehead State, which led with less than 16 minutes to go in Thursday’s game against the Fighting Illini, finishes the season with a 26-9 overall record. This marks the most wins in one season in program history. The Eagles, having made their ninth-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament, now hold a record of 6-10 in NCAA Tournament games.

Spradlin, 37, has coached Morehead State to two NCAA Tournaments in the last four seasons via winning the OVC Tournament.

Morehead State won the outright OVC regular season championship in the 2022-23 season and shared the OVC regular season title with Little Rock and Tennessee-Martin this season.

The Eagles also had two players set program records this season: Senior guard Drew Thelwell (211 assists) and fifth-year guard Kalil Thomas (105 made 3-pointers) both set single-season Morehead State records.

“It’s been a dream, really,” Thomas said. “It’s just been so fun like coming to practice every day, being around these guys every day, the bus trips, meals, just everything. It was fun.”

Over the last four seasons (since the 2020-21 campaign), no NCAA Division I men’s college basketball program in Kentucky has won more games than Morehead State: The Eagles have gone 94-40 (70.2%) over the last four seasons.

Thelwell became Morehead State’s all-time wins leader this season: He’s been an Eagle for all 94 wins since the 2020-21 season began.

“I would say four years ago I just wanted to play like two minutes. Just to be able to do this is special,” Thelwell said. “I have special guys around me. It wasn’t just me. I have special coaches. I’ve stuck with them for four years, they stuck with me for four years, and I really have to give all the credit to God because he made me stick through it. He made me have patience, and it just paid off.”

This is also the first time in school history that Morehead State has won at least 20 games in four consecutive seasons.

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