BALTIMORE, Md. -- Cedric Blossom scored 17 points and had six rebounds to lead Morgan State past South Carolina State 55-43 on Monday.

The Bears captured its eighth straight victory against the Bulldogs, and it also marked the team's first back-to-back wins since February 2014.

Head coach Todd Bozeman spoke about the win.

"They've [wins] been tough to get," said Bozeman. "I'm just glad we were able to put together back to back efforts to get the victory."

"I'm obviously proud of the guys, we just need to come back to work and do the same thing for our next game."

Blossom, coming of a career-high tying 26-point performance, was 8 of 18 from the field.

Rasean Simpson, a junior, had his first-career double-double, scoring 10 points and grabbing 10 rebounds for Morgan State (6-18, 4-6 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference). Zech Smith also had 10 boards as the Bears outrebounded SC State 52-34 -- including 21-8 on the offensive glass.

"The guys did a good," said Bozeman. "Cedric and Rasean Simpson did a great job on the boards and defensively on some of the tougher matchups."
 
South Carolina State (9-17, 6-5) was led by Jalen White with 12 points. Tashombe Riley added 11 as the Bulldogs were held to 13-of-45 shooting (28.9 percent), including 2 of 14 from 3-point range.

SC State got within 26-22 with 1:58 but was outscored 7-0 to close the first half -- the final five from Blossom.

One statistical category that coach Bozeman's team struggled in tonight was at the line where they converted just 9 of 24 (37.5 percent) free throws.

"You can't shoot that kind of number from the free throw line," Bozeman said. "We have to get better at it."

"Last game [vs. Savannah State], it was clearly a difference in the game where we were 20 for 24 [FTs] in the second half, so we just got to keep working at."
 
Bear Note
SCSU's Edward Stephens left the game in the first half with a leg injury.

MSU outscored the Bulldogs by a 26-10 margin in the paint.