Amarah Williams talled 10 points, six rebounds and had a career-high four blocked shots.
SAVANNAH, Ga. (Jan. 9, 2012)-Savannah State, the newest member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) was not about to let Morgan State end its losing ways against them. Ezinne Kalu scored a game-high 27 points and Zadous Pollard added 24 points to lead the host Tigers to their first MEAC win in school history, following a 69-60 victory on Monday evening at Tiger Arena.
Savannah State (6-9, 1-3 MEAC) also received a game-high 14-rebound performance from Jasmine Kirkland, as the Tiger's extended Morgan State's losing skid to a season-long 10 games. The 10 consecutive losses are the most in head coach Donald Beasley's career at Morgan State, surpassing the nine straight losses to begin the 2005-06 season, his first year at Morgan. The victory also helped the Tigers even the all-time series against Morgan State at 2-2. The two teams last met during the 2005 season.
The Lady Bears (2-12, 0-2 MEAC) were led by DeKeisha Mathis (13 points), while Whitney Southerland came off the bench and scored 11 on 3-of-4 shooting from three-point range. Amaraha Williams, who earlier in the day was named MEAC Rookie of the Week, finished with 10 points, six rebounds and a career-high four blocked shots.
Pollard scored the Tigers' first 10 points of the game and behind a 13-4 run host Savannah State held a 23-9 lead with 12:41 remaining in the opening half.
The Lady Bears then regrouped with a 10-0 run of their own to pull within 23-19 and used another run of 8-2 to get within 31-29. But the host Tigers would carry a 36-29 advantage to the locker room.
The Lady Bears would not go away as behind a 15-8 spurt to start the second half, Morgan State evened the score on a layup by Kelsey Jones with 13:28 to play.
Savannah State responded with a 12-0 run to take a 56-44 lead and held its largest lead of the game at (16 points) at 65-49, after Kalu went on her own 9-0 run to extend the Tigers' lead to 65-49 with 6:24 left in the game.
Both teams committed 21 turnovers. Savannah State recorded 12 steals, while Morgan State had eight. The Lady Bears kept up with their trend of outscoring their opponents in bench points (19-9) and for a change out rebounded an opponent, this time holding a slim 38-37 advantage over the Tigers in rebounds.
Morgan State will conclude its six-day road trip on Wednesday, Jan. 11 when they take on the Lions of Columbia University in the final non-conference game of the season. Tip-off is scheduled for noon at Levien Gymnasium in New York, N.Y. The Lions (2-11) lead the all-time series 1-0, following an 85-78 double-overtime victory over the Lady Bears in the consolation game of the UMBC Tournament (11/18/05).
