Game 29 (MEAC Contest)
Morgan State "Lady Bears" (10-18, 7-8 MEAC)
Maryland Eastern Shore "Lady Hawks" (11-15, 8-7 MEAC)
Date: March 5, 2015 / 2 p.m.
Place: Princess Anne, Md. (Hytche Athletic Center)
Series: UMES leads, 40-33
Live Video: umeshawks.com
Live Stats: umeshawks.com
Audio: HSRN.com
 
Morgan State Notes | UMES Notes
 
PRINCESS ANNE, Md. (March 4, 2015)-Morgan State will close out the 2014-15 MEAC regular season on Thursday, March 5, when it travels to Princess Anne, Md. to take on the Lady Hawks of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Tip-off for the regular season finale at Hytche Athletic Center is now slated for 2 p.m. due to the inclement weather that is headed toward the Eastern Shore area. The Lady Bears are looking for their first season series sweep over UMES since the 2007.  
 
BEAR CLAWS: Morgan State (10-18, 7-8 MEAC) suffered ended its five-game losing skid with a 73-55 victory over crosstown rival Coppin State (2/28). Senior guard Tracey Carrington scored 19 points in her final home game as a Lady Bear. Freshman Braennan Farrar finished with a career– and game-high 25 points in the win. The Lady Bears have been led by Carrington (18.0 points, 4.7 rebounds) and Braennan Farrar (13.6 points). Farrar leads the team in assists (72) and steals (61). Dinah Jones leads Morgan State with 5.5 rebounds. Morgan State is averaging 56.9 points per game, while surrendering 61.5 points per game to its opponents.
 
TALON GRIPS: Maryland Eastern Shore (11-15, 8-7 MEAC) ended a two-game losing skid with a 68-61 road victory over Delaware State (2/28). Jessica Long scored a team-high 18 points, while Mariah McCoy came off the bench to knock down 4-of-6 from three-point range and score 16 points. Alexis Udoji finished with 10 points and seven rebounds. The Lady Hawks have been led by Long, who is averaging 13.5 points and leads the team in assists (86) and steals (55). Udoji is contributing 10.5 points, a team-high 8.3 rebounds and a team-leading 47 blocked shots.
 
MSU VS. UMES SERIES NOTES: The Lady Hawks lead the all-time series, 40-33. The Lady Bears, who have won three of the last four meetings, defeated UMES earlier this season, 72-62 in Baltimore (1/12).
 
NEXT UP: The Lady Bears will tend their focus to the upcoming MEAC Tournament (March 9-14) at the Norfolk Scope Arena in Norfolk, Va. Morgan State, which enters Thursday's finale against UMES, in eighth-place in the MEAC standings, could finish as low as eighth and as high as sixth.
 
SAYING GOODBYE: Morgan State honored its senior guard Tracey Carrington last Saturday prior to the win over Coppin State (2/28). The Baltimore native was playing in her final home contest at Hill Field House. She finished with 19 points, grabbed four rebounds, had two assists and two steals to help the Lady Bears end a five-game losing streak. The win also helped Morgan State sweep the season series against Coppin State for the first time since the 2012-13 season. Unless the two teams meet during the MEAC Tournament, Carrington will end her career going 5-3 all-time against Coppin State.
 
FARRAR SETS NEW SEASON-HIGH IN SCORING: Freshman Braennan Farrar scored a career-high 25 points in the win over Coppin State (2/28). Farrar's  performance surpassed her previous high of 23 points she scored in the loss at North Carolina A&T (2/23).
 
DOUBLING UP: Morgan State's win over Coppin State (2/28) gave the Lady Bears their 10th overall win, as well as their seventh MEAC victory of the season. Last season Morgan State finished with just five wins and had only three MEAC victories.
 
SEPARATE BUT EQUAL: The Morgan State Lady Bears and the Bears have both struggled this season making shots, as both programs rank last in field goal percentage among all Division I women's and men's programs, respectively. The Lady Bears currently rank 343rd in field goal percentage (32.0), while the men's team ranks 345th at 35.4 percent. The Lady Bears shot a season-low 20.8 percent (11-of-53) against Hampton (2/16).
 
TRACKING CARRINGTON: Tracey Carrington entered the season with 1,137 career points, which ranked ninth all-time at Morgan State. Carrington, who now ranks third all-time in scoring at Morgan State, scored 19 points against Coppin State (2/28) to give her 1,514 points for her career. The Baltimore native needs 61 points to move into second all-time in scoring. Carrington, who also ranks 12th all-time in steals (122) and 11th in rebounding (563), needs two more rebounds to move past Corin 'Tiny' Adams (564 from for 2007-10) for 10th-place.
 
FREE FALLING: Four weeks ago the Lady Bears were sitting in a two-way tie for third-place in the MEAC with Savannah State with identical 5-3 records heading into the two team's match-up (2/7). Morgan State had since dropped five straight and six of its last eight games, including the Savannah State game, while going just 2-5 in MEAC competition during that stretch to drop to eighth-place in the league standings with a 7-8 mark.
 
LOW POINT: Tracey Carrington was held to a season-low six points in the loss to Hampton (2/16). It ended a string of 58 consecutive games of scoring in double figures and was her lowest scoring total since being held to four points against the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (3/2/13). Carrington, who is averaging a team-best 17.9 points, shot 2-for-11 and was 0-for-3 from beyond the three-point arc against Hampton.
 
A ROUGH GO: Morgan State concluded its 2014-15 non-conference slate with a 52-49 loss at NJIT (2/11). The loss dropped the Lady Bears to 3-10 in non-conference action. The loss was the second straight non-conference defeat for Morgan State, which dropped eight of their last nine non-conference games.
 
BEASLEY BECOMES PROGRAM'S WINNINGEST COACH: Morgan State head coach Donald Beasley, who is in his 10th year at the helm of the Lady Bears, became the program's all-time coaching leader, following the win over Florida A&M (1/17). Beasley (127-170), who earned his sixth win of the season against FAMU, passed LaRue Fields (122-60 from 1979-85) as the school's all-time coaching leader for victories. Beasley recorded his first career victory in the 10th game of the 2005-06 season, following a 66-54 road win at Bethune-Cookman (1/9/06).
 
PROVIDING ASSISTANCE: Braennan Farrar had a team-high three assists against Coppin State (2/28), giving her a team-leading 72 assists in 28 games. Farrar recorded a season-high nine assists in the win over Wesley (11/18). As a team the Lady Bears recorded 19 assists in that game.
 
THE FRESHMEN WILL LEAD THEM: During the absence of leading scorer and senior captain Tracey Carrington (18.0 ppg, 4.7 rpg) for seven-and-a-half games, freshmen Braennan Farrar, Tykyrah Williams, Lexus Spears and Zuri White all filled the void. Farrar currently ranks second on the team in scoring at 13.6 points and leads the team in steals (61) and assists (72). Spears (5.0 ppg) ranks third in scoring and is second in rebounding at 5.1 per game. Williams is averaging 4.0 points, while White had led the Lady Bears with 7.1 rebounds per contest, before sitting out the last 10 games.
 
LADY BEARS TAKE IN NBA GAME: Before heading over to Athens, Ga., for its season-opener against the University of Georgia, the Morgan State women's basketball team spent the first night of their five-day road trip in Atlanta and attended the Atlanta Hawks-Utah Jazz game on Wednesday, Nov. 12 at Phillips Arena. The home team Hawks would hold on for a 100-97 victory.
 
MORGAN IN SEASON OPENERS: The Lady Bears, who opened up the 2014-15 campaign on the road for the first time in three years, fell to 10-28 all-time in season openers dating back to 1977, following its 68-32 setback at Georgia (11/14). Morgan State at one point had lost 23 straight season openers, prior to winning three straight from 2006-08. Last season the Lady Bears opened up at home and suffered a 94-86 overtime loss to Division II Lincoln-Pa.
 
MORGAN PICKED LAST IN MEAC: Morgan State was picked to finish 13th 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 sixth, but finished the season at 5-25 overall, 3-13 in the MEAC and finished 12th.
 
CARRINGTON NAMED TO PRESEASON MEAC FIRST TEAM: Senior guard Tracey Carrington was named to the Preseason All-MEAC first team. A native of Baltimore, Md., Carrington averaged 20.9 points and 5.7 rebounds per game to lead the Lady Bears in both categories. She also led the team in assists (53) and ranked second on the team in steals with 40.
 
CARRINGTON RECEIVES MADNESS PRESEASON HONORS: Tracey Carrington was named College Sports Madness 2014-15 Preseason MEAC Player of the Year, as announced by the staff of College Sports Madness. Carrington was an All-MEAC first team selection by Madness College Sports at the conclusion of last season.
 
IT'S HAPPENED BEFORE: Last season's five wins marked the second time in Donald Beasley's tenure at Morgan State that the squad won just five games. The last time that happened was in Beasley's his first season at the helm during the 2005-06 campaign, when the Lady Bears went 5-24. The very next season the team recorded 18 wins, which at the time set the school mark for wins on the Division I level and also reached the MEAC Championship game, just the third appearance in the title game in school history.