BALTIMORE, Md. -- The Morgan State Bears came into their 2014 home debut at Hill Field House looking for their first win before embarking on their first long road trip of the season. But Morgan's struggles continued on the offensive end as they were held to three field goals in the final 11 minutes in a 51-46 loss to Towson University.
 
Both teams struggled offensively for the most part in the first half. But Towson took the lead early and kept it throughout the first half by driving to the basket early and often.  Morgan State (0-2) did not attack the basket as often. The Bears struggled from three-point range, only hitting two of 19 attempts in the game.
 
Kyle Thomas' three-pointer drew the Bears within 11-10 with 13:27 left. But Towson (1-1) responded by scoring the next eight points on a three-point play from Timajh Parker-Rivera, a lay-up from Byron Hawkins off a steal by Walter Foster. That was followed by a Mike Morsell lay-up off of an offensive rebound and one of two free throws by Josh Ivory which extended the Tiger advantage to 19-10 with 9:02 left.
 
During that Towson stretch, the Bears went scoreless for more than five minutes until Cedric Blossom nailed a mid-range jumper with 8:08 left.
 
After John Davis' lay-up with six minutes left put Towson up 23-14, Morgan fought back. A lay-up from Jamar Redmond, four straight foul shots from leading scorer Donte Pretlow, who scored 13 points on the night and a Blake Bozeman jump shot drew the Bears within 23-22 with 2:09 left. Morgan State's defense didn't allow a basket until Morsell hit a jumper with two seconds left to put the Tigers up 25-22 at halftime.
 
The Bears came out of the locker room with a purpose in the first three and a half minutes of the second half. They scored nine of the first 10 points of that stanza and didn't allow a Towson field goal for nearly the first five minutes.
 
After Parker-Rivera made one of two Tiger foul shots, Bozeman charged back and converted a three-point play to give MSU their first lead of the game, 27-26 with 17:47 left. Then Blossom converted a jump shot and Rasean Simpson stole the ball from Parker-Rivera and went coast-to-coast for the two-handed jam to extend the Morgan State lead to 31-26 with 16:28 left.
 
MSU head coach Todd Bozeman talked about the second half start.

"The first part of the second half is always important," said Bozeman. "We wanted to come out in the first five minutes and duplicate the effort that we made in the last 10 minutes of the first half. I thought the guys did a good job of responding. We weren't able to sustain it, but we'll keep grinding."
 
"We talked about it," Zech Smith added. "We wanted to come out in the first five minutes and hit them in the mouth, beat them on the boards and in every situation. But we obviously didn't do that like we hoped we would in the beginning of the game. So it was really our goal in the second half to really come out and bring the fight to them."
 
Morgan held a 39-35 lead following a pair of free throws by Blossom with 10:17 remaining. Towson's defense stepped up and the offense scored seven unanswered, led by Four McGlynn. Morgan's defense shut out McGlynn in the first half, but he came alive in the second half.
 
It started with a couple of free throws and then off a Parker-Rivera steal from Pretlow, McGlynn missed a three-pointer, but collected the offensive rebound and drove in for a lay-up to tie the game at 39 with 9:13 left. The Tigers scored two possessions later on an A.J. Astroth three-pointer with 7:43 remaining, putting them up 42-39.
 
Towson never gave up the advantage, but the Bears gave them a fight down the stretch. Towson led by as much as four at 46-42 on two McGlynn free throws with 3:48 left.
 
Morgan drew within 47-46 on Pretlow's driving lay-up with 21 seconds remaining. Then Pretlow fouled McGlynn with 20.2 seconds left, sending him to the line for two. McGlynn nailed both free throws to extend the advantage to 49-46.
 
Morgan had one good chance to at least send the game into overtime. However, a three-point attempt from Clive Vaughan Jr. clanked off the rim and then McGlynn wiped out the Bears' hope by sinking two free throws to provide the final margin with seven seconds left.
 
Morgan heads back on the road for five games to take part in the Cancun Challenge. The Bears head to Cedar Falls, Iowa to take on the Northern Iowa Panthers on Thursday night. Tip-off is at 7 pm (CT).