For their first appearance at Hill Field House this season, Morgan State struggled with their shooting on the night. The Loyola Greyhounds were all too happy to take advantage of that in their 73-67 victory over the Bears tonight.
Morgan State started well scoring six of the first eight points of the game. Kevin Thompson got it going with a layup, which was part of yet another double-double effort recording 13 points and 11 assists on the night. Unfortunately for Thompson and company, signs of trouble were ahead as they began to struggle from the free throw line first, then the three-point stripe followed as they only converted 1 of 12 from that range.
Also, the Bears had problems from inside the paint as well. The many chances MSU had from about 10 feet or shorter couldn't find the bottom of the net on a consistent basis. Thompson addressed the issue saying, "I just need to go more harder in the paint and score more baskets. I don't blame it on me. But it was terrible, all the shots I missed."
It was another one of those learning experiences according to Morgan State head coach Todd Bozeman. Bozeman stated, "I said in the beginning that we have to establish our identity and right now, we haven't done that. So, we have to do that. But right now, we have to do the little things, keep going back to the drawing board, keep working at it and get some more discipline. I thought mentally that we had too many mental breakdowns. We just got to grow and it's all a part of it."
Among the bright parts of the game for Morgan State was their ability to rally from behind. With 14:10 left, Morgan State (2-4) trailed 50-39 and started to respond. The Bears went on a 14-2 run led by Justin Black who cntributed a dunk and a three from the right corner to give MSU a 53-52 advantage with 9:48 left in the game.
Loyola (3-2) eventually went back ahead on a free throw from Dylan Cormier and two from Shane Walker to give Greyhounds a 55-53 lead with 9:01 left.
Morgan went back ahead 64-63 on an exciting three point play from DeWayne Jackson in which he got a nice feed from Ameer Ali that Jackson later slammed the ball and was was fouled by Cormier in the process. Jackson led all scorers with 19 points on the night. The free throw from Jackson gave the Bears a 64-63 lead with 4:16 left.
Not much later, the shot clock was winding down when Brian Rudolph fed Robert Olson, who somehow made a fall away three-pointer while he was fouled by Ali. Olson converted the free throw to give the Greyhounds the lead for good at 67-64 with 3:41 left.
"Yeah. Thank God I drew it up," Loyola head coach Jimmy Patsos said playfully. "I thought we made the extra pass and that Morgan State team flying at the shooter. they just nicked (Olson) and it happened to (have) went in. The miracle was that it went in because a lot of times, they foul and you have to make three free throws. Olson has been good, He's coming off a hurt ankle."
What finished off the Bears was after Olson missed a shot from inside the three-point line, with the Greyhounds up 69-67, Loyola forward Erik Etherly, who led the Greyhounds with 14 points, flew in from nowhere to slam home the follow-up with 12.7 seconds left to go up 71-67. That locked up the game for the Greyhounds.
Morgan comes back to Hill Field House on Saturday evening to take on crosstown rival Coppin State in the MEAC opener for both teams on Saturday evening at 4 pm. Loyola opens MAAC play by hosting St. Peter's on Thursday night @ 7 pm.
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