Morgan State staves off UMBC

by Keith Henry

Two weeks off seemed to do the Morgan State Bears some good. The Bears hot shooting led to a 75-62 victory over the UMBC Retrievers this evening at Hill Field House.

Morgan State (4-4) shot 60.5% from the field for the game. Forward DeWayne Jackson led five Bears who scored in double figures on the evening with 15 points.

The Bears got hot offensively from the start feeding their big man in Kevin Thompson early for a lay-up and a short jumper. Defensively, MSU limited UMBC (0-11) to one field goal in the first six minutes of the game. With everything in sync, the Bears jumped out to a 22-8 lead with 9:41 remaining in the first half.

UMBC head coach Randy Monroe stressed to his team early in the game that they have to fight for what you want. It wasn't much of a fight from the Retrievers' side early. Monroe said his team learned that, "You can't wait 'til the other team punch you in the mouth a couple times before you start to play. That's something we can take from this game definitely."

Thompson said about the early start, "(UMBC) really weren't doubling me like I thought. In the second half, they started with the double team. So I had to really pass the ball. That's what I did."

The Bears extended their advantage to 34-12 on another short jumper from Thompson with 4:15 left. But UMBC responded defensively by limiting the Bears to two field goals while cutting the deficit to 40-27 at the half.

UMBC point guard Chris De La Rosa, who led everyone with 20 points, helped get things going for the Retrievers in particular due to his constant drives into the paint leading to some baskets for his teammates and himself. De La Rosa's free throw helped draw UMBC within 46-38 with 11:35 remaining.

However, the Bears answered with their knockout punch. Tola Lawal led a 18-6 Morgan run while their defense limited UMBC to two field goals in a more than seven minute stretch. A three from Justin Black extended the Bears' advantage to 64-44 with 4:19 left.

Morgan State head coach Todd Bozeman said about this game, "It's all part of the process. But am I encouraged? Yes I am. But then there's some concern just because we didn't sustain it. It is a good thing that we started it. Now we got to keep it going and build on that."

The Bears have a perfect opportunity to build on their sucess with a two-game road trip which starts on Sunday when they travel to the Carrier Dome to take on #5 Syracuse.