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Morgan State Notes | Stony Brook Notes
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STONY BROOK, N.Y. (Dec. 14, 2015)-The Morgan State Lady Bears, who will conclude their mini two-game slate against America East opponents, will look to end a three-game losing skid tonight when they visit the Stony Brook for a non-conference game at 6 p.m. at the Island Federal Credit Union Arena. It will be the last non-conference road contest for the Lady Bears in 2015. 
 
BEAR CLAWS: The Lady Bears (2-9) are coming off a 65-46 home loss to UMBC on Saturday. Braennan Farrar came off the bench to lead Morgan State with a team-high 15 points. Chelsea Mitchell came off the bench to add seven points and eight rebounds, while Jayde Duncan also came off the bench to pull down a game-high 11 rebounds. Farrar has paced the Lady Bears with 13.4 points per game and Lexus Spears is adding 7.8 points and 6.1 rebounds. Tykyrah Williams is scoring 7.6 points and leads the team in steals with 14, while Zuri White is averaging a team-high 6.3 rebounds per game.
 
A LOOK AT THE SEAWOLVES: Stony Brook (4-5), losers of two straight and four of its last five games, is coming off a 62-57 loss at Yale on Saturday. Brittany Snow recorded her second double-double of the season, scoring a game-high 27 points on 12-of-23 shooting and pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds. Ogechi Anyagaligbo totaled 14 points and eight rebounds and Davion Wingate came off the bench to add 11 points. The Seawolves have outrebounded their last five opponents and seven of their nine this season. Snow leads Stony Brook 16.2 points per outing and is pulling down 7.2 rebounds. Kori Bayne-Walker has a team-high 43 assists to go with her 10.9 points per game, while Anyagaligbo leads the squad in rebounding with 9.1 per game. Anyagaligbo is also scoring 10.8 points per game and has a team-leading eight blocked shots. 
 
MSU VS. STONY BROOK SERIES NOTES: Stony Brook leads the all-time series, 5-1. Last season the Seawolves escaped with a 50-48 victory at Hill Field House (12/13/14) on a layup by Kori Bayne-Walker as time expired. Morgan State's lone win against Stony Brook was a 66-63 overtime victory in Baltimore (11/18/12).
 
LADY BEARS VS. THE AMERICA EAST: Morgan State is 12-23 all-time against members of the America East Conference. Here's how the Lady Bears have done against the America East: Albany (0-2), Binghamton (0-1), Hartford (0-1), New Hampshire (0-1), Stony Brook (1-5), UMBC (11-13)  Morgan State has not faced Maine, Massachusetts-Lowell or Vermont.
 
NEXT UP: The Lady Bears will return home for their final game of the 2015 season when they play host to Bucknell in a non-conference game on Tuesday, Dec. 22 at Hill Field House. The game will have a rare noon time start.
 
THE PURGE: Whether it's a big scoring run, or huge scoring outputs in a quarter, Morgan State opponents have been having their way with the Lady Bears so far this season. While predicting which quarter it will be is unknown, knowing its going to happen, thus far this season is a given. In Saturday's loss to UMBC (12/12), it would be the third quarter, which the Lady Bears saw a 30-26 lead turn into a 52-30 deficit, as the Retrievers scored 26 straight points and held Morgan State scoreless during a seven minute span. UMBC would score 32 points in the third quarter, to surpass the previous opponent high for points in a quarter of 31 points the Lady Bears gave up to then No. 23 Syracuse in the fourth quarter on Nov. 23.
 
FARRAR NAMED MEAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Braennan Farrar was named MEAC Player of the Week as announced by the league office on Dec. 7. Farrar scored 20 of her career-high 33 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Lady Bears to a win over Norfolk State (12/5). She finished the game shooting 12-of-23 from the floor, connecting on 8-of-11 free throws to go with five rebounds, a game-high five assists and a game-high three steals.
 
STARTED AT THE BOTTOM: Last season Morgan State finished the 2014-15 campaign also in last place (443rd) in field goal percentage. This season the Lady Bears currently rank last (344th) in the nation in field goal percentage through 11 games at 28.5 percent (188-of-659). In the loss at James Madison (11/17), Morgan State shot a season-low 18.3 percent (11-of-60).
 
FARRAR SETS CAREER-HIGH: Braennan Farrar scored a career-high 33 points on 12-of-23 shooting and connected on 8-of-11 from the free throw line in the win over Norfolk State. Farrar also added five rebounds, a game-high five assists and a game-high three steals. Her 33 points surpassed her previous career-high of 30 points she scored last season in the regular season finale at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (3/5/15).
  
MORGAN PICKED NINTH IN MEAC: Morgan State was picked to finish ninth in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) preseason poll, as voted by the league's head coaches and sports information directors. Last year, the Lady Bears were picked to finish last (13th), but put together an 11-19 overall mark and finished 8-8 in the MEAC to finish seventh.
  
FARRAR NAMED TO PRESEASON MEAC SECOND TEAM: Sophomore guard Braennan Farrar was named to the Preseason All-MEAC second team. A native of St. Louis, Mo., Farrar was second on the team in scoring (13.9), while leading the Lady Bears in assists with 2.6 per game. She also led the team in steals (67) and three-pointers made (45).
 
BEASLEY ALL-TIME COACHIING LEADER: Morgan State head coach Donald Beasley, who is in his 11th year at the helm of the Lady Bears, became the program's all-time coaching leader last season. Beasley, who surpassed LaRue Fields (122-60 from 1979-85), as the winningest coach (123-166), following a 57-50 win over Florida A&M (1/17/15), currently holds a 130-183 all-time record at Morgan State.
 
DOUBLE DUTY: Senior forward Dinah Jones has been going nonstop since stepping foot on the Morgan State campus in early August of 2012 for her freshman season. The 6-foot-1 native of Annapolis, Md. is also a three-year letterwinner on the Morgan State volleyball team. Jones averaged 5.2 points and was second on the team in rebounding (5.2) and third in steals (33) last season. She also added 20 assists and five blocks. This season on the volleyball court, she helped the Lady Bears to a 13-15 mark, 9-3 in the MEAC Northern Division, which was good for second-place. The Lady Bears would reach the semifinals of the conference tournament for the first time since the 2007 season, before falling to Bethune-Cookman in three sets on Saturday, Nov. 21.
 
SOMEONE NEW: Morgan State has six opponents (Syracuse, Colorado State, Siena, Robert Morris, Virginia Tech, Missouri-Kansas City) on this year's schedule which it has never faced before in the program's history.
 
REMATCH: The Lady Bears will have three rematch games this season against non-conference opponents from the 2014-15 schedule. Those opponents are Washington Adventist, Stony Brook, Brown and Bucknell. Last season Morgan State went 1-3 against those opponents with its lone win coming over Washington Adventist.
 
TOURNAMENT EXPOSURE: Seven of Morgan's 2015-16 opponents reached postseason play last season. Three opponents reached the 2015 Women's NCAA Tournament (James Madison, Syracuse and defending MEAC Tournament champion, Savannah State). Two competed in the 2015 Women's National Invitational Tournament (Colorado State and MEAC foe Hampton), while two (Siena and Stony Brook) took part in the Women's Basketball Invitational. Siena would reach the title games of the WBI, eventually falling to Louisiana Lafayette by two points.
 
YOUTHFUL LADY BEARS: Morgan State will welcome the addition of three newcomers to the 2015-16 squad with junior transfer, Benedicta Makakala (Tallahassee CC) and freshmen and Maryland natives, Chelsea Mitchell (Atholton HS) and Passion Scott (Riverdale Baptist HS).
 
2016 MEAC TOURNAMENT: The 2015 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) men's and women's basketball tournament is scheduled for March 7-12 at the Norfolk Scope Arena in Norfolk, Va. Ticket books can be purchased at all 13 MEAC university ticket offices, the Norfolk Scope Arena, Ticketmaster outlets, the MEAC Administrative Office and online at Ticketmaster.com. Tickets are also available by calling the MEAC at 757-951-2055 or Ticketmaster at (800)-745-3000. The annual MEAC Basketball Tournament moved to Norfolk after spending the previous four years in Winston-Salem, N.C. from 2009 through 2012.