Senior guard Jermaine "Itchy" Bolden
Boxscore
Bear Shots
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Reggie Holmes scored 18 points and Jermaine Bolden chipped in 12 points and six assists as Morgan State dropped Florida A&M 71-41 in the quarterfinal round of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament Wednesday night at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
The win marked the largest margin of victory in the MEAC Tournament since Morgan State defeated Bethune-Cookman 80-56 in 1989.
Morgan State (21-11), who entered the contest as the No. 1 seed for the second consecutive time in school history, used a 12-5 run in the first seven minutes of the second half and Holmes nailed a floater in the lane to give the Bears a 46-25 lead with 16:46 remaining.
The No. 8 seeded Rattlers (10-21) ended up cutting the lead to 46-31 when David Buchanon connected on a three-pointer with 12:30 remaining, but it was as close as FAMU would get as the Bears answered with an 17-2 run to open up a 63-33 cushion.
Marquise Kately scored 8 of his 10 points in the second half and Reggie Holmes hit 7-of-17 from the field to help the Bears advance to the Semi-finals to face the winner of Friday night's #4 North Carolina A&T/#5 Coppin State quarterfinal match-up.
Holmes, a first team All-MEAC selection, helped Morgan State pull away early. The sharpshooter scored on his first three shots, including a three-pointer to give the Bears a 20-5 lead with 9:13 remaining in the first half. Bolden nailed a three-point dagger as the horn sounded to give the Bears a 34-20 advantage at the break.
Holmes finished with 10 points and 6 boards in the first half.
The Bears played stifling man-to-man defense and held FAMU to 24 percent (6-25) shooting from the field while absolutely dominating the Rattlers on the glass by a 52-32 margin. Morgan State scored 19 points off of second chance opportunities.
Starting center Rodney Stokes had a solid effort in the paint tonight as he collected eight rebounds, six points and three blocks. Kevin Thompson, a member of the 2009 All-Rookie Team, finished the game with eight points and eight boards.
FAMU's Brandon Bryant scored 9 points, while Joe Ballard and Lamar Twitty finished with eight points each.
Morgan State shot 38.8 percent from the field (26-67) and went 3-of-12 three-pointers (25%), while the Rattlers were 12-of-49 (24.5%) from the floor and shot 22.2 percent (4-8) from beyond the arc.
“We were good today,” said 2009 MEAC Coach of the Year Todd Bozeman. “We're still not where we could be, I don't think, but I am proud of them because that was a good effort and the guys played great team defense. We had a great effort by a lot of people. Often times this season we've had one or two guys that were stepping up, but tonight it was a team effort.”
Added FAMU head coach Eugene Harris, “We got beat by a very good team tonight. They were well prepared and they took us out of our game plan in the first five minutes and we were never able to recover. They were more physical than we were.”
