Morgan State 63, Florida A&M 54
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Feb. 5, 2011)-Moneshia Davis came off the bench and scored a game-high tying 15 points and Brittany Dodson added 13 points to lead Morgan State to a 63-54 overtime victory over host Florida A&M in a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) game on Saturday evening at the Al Lawson Center. The win was the Lady Bears' sixth straight over the Lady Rattlers and just the ninth win in the series' 40 meetings.
Morgan State's Theresa Davis also came off the bench and fell shy of a double-double with a team-high nine rebounds and 10 points to help Morgan State to a 40-10 advantage over FAMU in bench scoring.
Moneshia Davis, who in her last trip to Tallahassee torched the Lady Rattlers for a career-high 18 points as a freshman during the 2008-09 season, scored eight of her points in the overtime session on Saturday and had a crucial block on a three-point attempt by Qiana Donald with 24 seconds left in the game to lead Morgan State to its third consecutive win.
FAMU (10-11, 5-4 MEAC) was led by Donald, who scored a game-tying 15 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Antonia Bennett added a double-double with 10 points and a game-high 17 rebounds and Tameka McKelton totaled 10 points.
The Lady Bears (13-8, 7-2 MEAC) held a one point lead and had the ball with 31 seconds left in the game, but turned the ball over giving it back to FAMU with eight seconds to play. Bennett, who would get fouled on a missed jumper by Jasmine Grice, hit just the second of two free throw attempts to tie the score at 51 all and send it into overtime.
Moneshia Davis scored the first five points of the overtime period, before Bennett connected on a free throw to complete a three-point play and bring the Lady Rattlers within, 56-54. That would be the final points of the game for FAMU, as Morgan State would hold the Lady Rattlers scoreless for the remaining three minutes, while outscoring the hosts 7-0 during that stretch.
Florida A&M shot just 1-of-10 in overtime, including 0-for-5 from three-point range, while Morgan State went 2-for-5 from the field, including 1-for-2 from beyond the arc and shot 7-of-9 from the charity stripe.
Morgan State finished the game shooting 34 percent (21-of-61) from the floor and 8-of-28 (28 percent) from three-point range. The Lady Bears also shot 13-of-17 (76 percent) from the free throw line. FAMU was 20-of-66 (30 percent) for the game and shot just 1-of-14 (7 percent) from beyond the arc. The Lady Rattlers also connected on 13 free throws out on 23 attempts (56 percent).
Trailing 25-18 at the intermission, the Lady Rattlers came out in the second half and scored the first seven points to pull within three and later got a three-point play by Donald to even the score at 28 all with 15:50 to play in the game.
The Lady Rattlers used a 10-3 run to reclaim the lead, 40-38, before Morgan State's MyQueisha Bratton finished a three-point play which triggered a 9-0 run by the Lady Bears, extending their lead to 47-40. But Morgan State would watch the host Lady Rattlers respond with a 10-0 run to take a 50-47 lead with 1:50 to play.
Kyla Rollins scored her only basket of the game on a layup to cut the deficit to 50-49 with 1:29 to go and Theresa Davis followed with two free throws to put Morgan State up 51-50.
The Lady Bears conclude their road swing through the State of Florida, as they visit Bethune-Cookman in a MEAC contest on Monday, Feb. 7 at 5:30 p.m. at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach. The Lady Wildcats
