Senior Reggie Holmes paced the Bears with 23 points and seven rebounds against UMBC on Sunday afternoon.
Boxscore
Bear Shots
Bear Shots II
BALTIMORE, Md. -- What Morgan State head coach Todd Bozeman said to his Bears at the half must've done the trick. Because down 42-24, the Bears scored 19 consecutive points in the second half to help turn the game around in a 72-57 victory over the UMBC Retrievers at the RAC this afternoon.
MSU (2-0) was not shooting very well at some moments. In fact, it took just under five minutes for the Bears to score its first points. They managed to score just one field goal in the first eight minutes of the game. Bozeman ended up yanking the starting five off the floor and replaced them with a fresh five.
The Bears shot 22 percent (6-27 FG) for the first half. They missed all six shots from three-point range as well.
“I was really disappointed with the team at halftime," said Bozeman. "We just kind of lost our way. We didn't have the focus. Sometimes that happens when you're growing as a team. This team is not last year's team. They have to find their own way.”
UMBC (0-1) was getting into their offense without much of a problem. They shot 41 percent from the field in the first half, held a 25-18 advantage on the boards and led 34-22 at the half.
The Retrievers outscored MSU 8-2 in the opening moments of the second half and looked like they would put the game away early. Chauncey Gilliam's steal and lay-up helped give UMBC a commanding 42-24 with 17:15 left.
However, UMBC got into foul trouble early and put the Bears were in the bonus just five minutes into the half. Morgan switched to a zone defense that helped ignite a 19-0 run over a five minute span.
Sophomore forward Kevin Thompson got the big run started with a three-point play. Then Reggie Holmes, who scored 23 points on the night, took over by scoring 13 points during the run. A driving lay-up by Holmes put the Bears on top for the first time at 43-42 with 12:13 remaining.
“We have a lot of depth,” said Bozeman. “This afternoon, it played to our advantage in terms of fighting to come back.”
“I said to my team at halftime that we weren't losing this game," explained senior Reggie Holmes. "I hate losing. I just want to win.”
Thompson recorded a double-double for MSU this afternoon with 10 points and 10 rebounds, while junior center Rodney Stokes added 6 points, 6 boards and a career-high 7 seven blocked shots.
“It was a tale of two halves," stated UMBC head coach Randy Monroe. "I was telling my team that you have to sustain a level of intensity. College basketball consists of 40 minutes of intensity. I'm trying to get my new guys to understand that. I think they got a lesson in that tonight."
