Brittany Dodson scored a team-high 11 points against UC Riverside on Friday evening.
Morgan State 44, UC Riverside 60
CHICAGO, Ill. (Nov. 26, 2010)-Brittany Waddell came off the bench to score a game-high 17 points, while Alyssa Morris and Rheya Neabors added 11 and 10 points, respectively, to lead UC Riverside to a 60-44 non-conference victory over Morgan State in the opener of the DePaul Maggie Dixon Classic Friday evening at McGrath Arena.
For Morgan State, the loss ended its two-game winning streak and dropped the Lady Bears to 3-2 on the season.
Morgan State, which scored just nine points in the first half and faced a deficit of as much as 18 points in the second half, twice pulled within eight points but was unable to overcome its slow first half start.
Brittany Dodson and Moneshia Davis each scored a team-high 11 points to lead the Lady Bears. Davis also finished with a game-high four steals and a team-high six rebounds on the evening.
UC Riverside (3-1) took its largest lead of the game (18 points), following a three-pointer by Alyssa Morris, which put the Highlanders up 35-17 with 15:20 left to play.
Morgan State used a 13-7 run, capped off by a steal and layup by Davis to bring the Lady Bears within 42-32. Dodson later completed a three-point play to make it a 44-36 game with 6:40 to play and the Lady Bears would trail 46-38, but would get no closer than eight points, as the Highlanders used a 14-6 spurt to close out the game.
The Lady Bears shot 32 percent (16-of-50) from the field, including 1-of-14 (7.1 percent) from three-point range.
UC Riverside converted 22-of-61 (36 percent) from the field and hit 9-of-24 (37 percent) from three-point range. Rheya Neabors pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds to record a double-double and help the Highlanders to a 42-33 rebounding advantage over Morgan State.
Through the first six minutes of the game, Morgan State looked good for the most part, as they were able to drive and get some baskets in the paint early. After giving up the game's first basket to the Highlanders, the Lady Bears countered with the next eight points to take an 8-2 lead, following a layup by Dodson with 14:23 left in the half. Unfortunately for Morgan State, that would be the Lady Bears last basket of the half.
UC Riverside would score the next 17 consecutive points, capped off by a put back by Leah Washington, giving the Highlanders a 19-8 lead with 4:24 to play in the opening half.
Morgan State, which went nearly 12 minutes without a point, finally got back on the board when MyQueisha Bratton hit the second of two free throws with 2:43 left, to cut the deficit to 19-9.
The Highlanders would knock down back-to-back three-pointers by Brittany Waddell and Alyssa Morris in part of a 7-0 run to close out the half and take a 26-9 lead at the intermission.
The Lady Bears return to action on Saturday, Nov. 27 against the loser of the DePaul-Northwestern State contest. Tip-off will be at 5 p.m. at McGrath Arena.
