Game #1
Morgan State "Lady Bears" (0-0, 0-0 MEAC) at Mount St. Mary's "Mountaineers" (0-1, 0-0 NEC)
Date: Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2016 / 7 p.m.
Place: Emmitsburg, Md. (Knott Arena)
Series: Morgan State leads, 7-6
Notes: Morgan State | Mount St. Mary's
Websites: morganstatebears.com | mountathletics.com
Live Stats | Live Video
 
BALTIMORE, Md. (Nov. 14, 2016)-The Morgan State Lady Bears will open up the 2016-17 season on Tuesday, Nov. 15, when they travel to Emmitsburg, Md. to take on the Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Knott Arena. This will be the first meeting between the two teams since the 2006-07 season, a 58-53 road win by the Lady Bears on Nov. 28, 2007.
 
BEAR CLAWS: For the first time in 12 seasons, the Lady Bears (0-0) will open up the season with a new head, as Ed Davis takes over the leadership of the Morgan State women's program. Last season the Lady Bears finished 13-17, 10-6 in the MEAC, while finishing in fifth-place. The Lady Bears were led by 2016-17 Preseason All-MEAC second team selection, Braennan Farrar, who averaged a team-leading 13.7 points per game last season. Fellow juniors Tykyrah Williams contributed 10.1 points, while Lexus Spears added 8.2 points, 6.4 rebounds and finished second on the team in blocked shots. Zuri White led the Lady Bears with 7.5 rebounds per outing. 
 
THE MOUNT: Mount St. Mary's (0-1) enters Tuesday's contest coming off an 89-54 season opening loss on Saturday at Pittsburgh. Junior Caroline Hummell tallied her first career double-double with a career-high 11 points and 10 rebounds. Grad transfer Mikal Johnson added a team-high 14 points. Last season The Mount finished with a 9-21 record, including a 7-11 mark in the Northeast Conference. Their 2015-16 season ended with a quarterfinals loss to Sacred Heart. 
 
MSU VS. MOUNT ST. MARY'S SERIES NOTES: Morgan State leads the all-time series over Mount St. Mary's, 7-6. The Lady Bears have won the last two meetings, after at one point dropping five straight to The Mount. The two teams have not met since Nov. 28, 2007, a 58-53 win by Morgan State in Emmitsburg, Md.  
 
NEXT UP: The Lady Bears will have their home opener on Thursday, Nov. 17, when they host the Shock of Washington Adventist in a non-conference game at Hill Field House. Tip-off is slated for 5:30 p.m. Morgan State holds a 2-0 lead against the Shock.
  
BACK ON THE SIDELINE: Morgan State interim head coach Edward Davis, returns to the sideline for the 2016-17 campaign as the head man, after spending the last four seasons as an assistant coach with the Lady Bears. Davis, who last served as a head coach in 2012 to conclude 12 season's at the helm of Delaware State, enters this season with a career record of 349-236 in 20 seasons.
 
MORGAN PICKED FIFTH IN MEAC: Morgan State was picked to finish fifth 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 ninth, but put together an 13-17 overall mark and finished 10-6 in the MEAC to finish fifth.
 
FARRAR NAMED TO PRESEASON MEAC SECOND TEAM: MSU junior 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 (13.7), while leading the Lady Bears in assists (98), steals (63), three-pointers made (46), while shooting a team-best .794 (104-131) from the free throw line. This is the second consecutive preseason second-team All-MEAC honor for Farrar, who last season was named to the 2015-16 All-MEAC second team at the conclusion of the season.
 
OWSLEY NAMED ASSOCIATE HEAD COACH: Wanika Owsley was promoted to associate head coach this October by interim head coach Ed Davis. Owsley, who is in her second stint at Morgan State, enters her sixth season overall with the Lady Bears' program. Owsley had previously spent the 2009-10 season at Morgan State, where she helped the Lady Bears to a 17-13 and then school-best third-place regular season finish in the MEAC. She returned to Morgan State. during the 2012-13 campaign after spending two seasons as an assistant coach on the Mississippi State women's staff. A native of Indianapolis, Ind., Owsley earned a degree in computer science from Southeast Missouri State, where she helped the Redhawks to a 46-16 overall record and their first ever NCAA Tournament appearance during her senior season.
 
MORGAN IN SEASON OPENERS: The Lady Bears improved are 11-28 all-time in season openers dating back to 1977, following its 74-36 home victory last season over Washington Adventist (11/15/15). It was the first season opening win for the Lady Bears in three years, since a 72-61 home victory over the University of Maryland Baltimore County (11/9/12). 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 on the road and suffered a 68-32 loss to Georgia (11/14/14).
 
GRAHAM RETURNS AS ASSISTANT COACH: Morgan State interim head coach Ed Davis completed his coaching staff with the hiring of Donchez Graham as an assistant coach. Graham is no stranger to Morgan State, as this will be his second stint with the Lady Bears and fifth season overall. Graham returns to Morgan after spending the past two year (2014-16) as the head basketball trainer at Project Rising and the head coach of Team Adidas Shooting Stars. He also had stints as assistant coach at both West Virginia University and the University of Charleston. During his first stint at Morgan State (2005-09), Graham helped the Lady Bears to 53 victories in four seasons, while reaching the 2007 MEAC title game in his second season and the 2008 WNIT, the program's first postseason invitation on the Division I level, in his third season.  
 
REMATCH: The Lady Bears have four rematch games this season against non-conference opponents from the 2015-16 schedule. Those opponents are Washington Adventist, Missouri-Kansas City, University of Maryland Baltimore County and Brown. Last season Morgan State went 1-3 against those opponents with its lone win coming over Washington Adventist.
 
STILL UNBEATEN: The Lady Bears enter the season with a perfect record against just one of this season's opponents in Washington Adventist (2-0). Last season Morgan State faced the Shock in the home and season opener on Nov. 15, 2015 and defeated WAU, 74-36.
 
TOURNAMENT EXPOSURE: Six of Morgan's 2016-17 opponents reached postseason play last season. Two opponents reached the 2016 Women's NCAA Tournament (Robert Morris and defending MEAC Tournament champion, North Carolina A&T). Three competed in the 2016 Women's National Invitational Tournament (Saint Louis, Marshall and MEAC foe Bethune-Cookman), while one (UMBC) took part in the Women's Basketball Invitational.
 
ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF: Morgan State will face two first-time opponents this season in Eastern Kentucky and the University of Dayton. The Lady Bears will first square off against Eastern Kentucky on Nov. 25 in Kansas City, Mo., in the opener of the Plaza Lights Classic, hosted by the University of Missouri-Kansas City. A week later Morgan State will travel to Ohio to face Dayton in a first-ever meeting against the Flyers (Dec. 2).
 
WELCOME TO THE DEN: Morgan State will welcome the addition of five newcomers to the 2016-17 squad with junior transfers, Tayler Williams (College of Central Florida) and Janessa Fauntroy (Harford CC) and three freshmen, Jihayah Chavis (Newark, N.J.), D'Jhai Patterson-Ricks (Fayetteville, N.Y.) and Kaylin Ellis (Long Beach, Calif.).
 
SAYING GOODBYE: Morgan State will say goodbye to its two four-year seniors in Britashia Burns and Ivy Harrington when the Lady Bears host Coppin State on Feb. 27, 2017 for Senior Night. The Lady Bears will also say goodbye to grad student Jayde Duncan, who will also be playing in her final season as a Lady Bear. Duncan, who was honored last season, transferred into Morgan State as a sophomore during the 2013-14 season.
 
THE PURGE: Whether it's was a big scoring run, or huge scoring outputs in a quarter, Morgan State opponents had their way with the Lady Bears last season under the new quarter system. While predicting which quarter it would be was unknown, knowing it was going to happen, was a given. In 30 games last season, the first, second and third quarters have been big for MSU opponents. Morgan State was outscored a combined 61 points (407-346) in the first, by 58 points (466-408) in the second quarter, by 76 points (491-415) in the third quarter. The Lady Bears were also outscored by 45 points (468-423) in the fourth quarter. In the loss to UMBC (12/12/15), 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 23rd-ranked Syracuse in the fourth quarter on Nov. 23, 2015.