Box Score
The Gamewinner
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Morgan State Bears needed some positive momentum and a little help to earn the #3 seed and the bye for the 2014 MEAC Basketball Tournament. The help came in the form of
Justin Black and the momentum comes in the form of a 68-66 overtime win against the Howard Bison at the Burr Gymnasium on Thursday night.
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The last minute of the game was tournament worthy alone.
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Morgan State (13-15, 11-5 MEAC) was up 65-64 when
Anthony Hubbard had his pass was stolen. Howard's Prince Okoroh scored on a putback to give the Bison a 66-65 lead with 27 seconds left. Then a couple of timeouts later, the ball was inbounded to
Justin Black, who took a couple of bounces along the three-point line. Then, as the clock was winding down, took to the air while fading back and shot the ball. With .8 seconds left, the ball swished into the basket, igniting a celebration on the Morgan bench.
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 "It was a rhythm shot," Black said about the game-winner. "I was having a good year, so I was glad it went in. It was one of those things where it was an icing on the cake type of thing."
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Black, who entered the night as the MEAC's No. 3 ranked scorer (18.5 ppg), finished with 20 points and shot 7 of 14 from the field. Hubbard added 13 points and seven boards, and
Blake Bozeman chipped in 10.
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 "(Justin) hit a big shot, " said MSU head coach
Todd Bozeman. "I was glad we won the game. With the Norfolk State loss, that moved us to third place and clinched the bye. It was a big shot in a lot of ways." Â
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Solomon Mangham led the Howard (7-24, 5-11 MEAC) with a game-high 22 points, while James Daniels was held to 13 points (4-16 FG).
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What a difference a shot makes. The win coupled with Norfolk State's 76-70 loss at North Carolina Central earned third place for the Bears, who instead of looking at playing the first round on Monday, will get the coveted bye and play on Thursday night in the MEAC Tournament quarterfinals.Â
Bear Notes
+ The game was tied 13 times and there were three lead changes
+ Morgan State scored 17 points off of 16 Bison turnovers
+ The Bears had one of their best shooting nights from the free throw line (21-28 FT)
+
Justin Black moved in front of Jermaine "Itchy" Bolden to become the MSU's No. 5 all-time leader in assists (253); he also became the No. 5 all-time steals leader with 135 theftsÂ
+ Morgan State improved to 3-1 in overtime games this season
