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Game #2
Morgan State "Lady Bears" (0-1) vs. Washington Adventist "Shock" (0-6)
Date: Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016 / 5:30 p.m.
Place: Baltimore, Md. (Hill Field House)
Series: Morgan State leads, 2-0
Notes: Morgan State | Washington Adventist
Live Video Stream: Live Video Stream on www.MorganStateBears.com - click here
 
BALTIMORE, Md. (Nov. 16, 2016)-The Morgan State women's basketball team opens up its 2016-17 home slate on Thursday, Nov. 17 when the Lady Bears welcome the Shock of Washington Adventist for a non-conference game at Hill Field House. This will be the third straight meeting between the two programs. Morgan State has won the first two meetings, including a 74-36 victory last season in Baltimore (11/15/15).
 
BEAR CLAWS: The Lady Bears will look to pick up their first win of the season, when they take on Washington Adventist in a non-conference game at Hill Field House. Morgan State enters the game coming off a 65-50 road loss on Tuesday at Mount St. Mary's. Braennan Farrar led the Lady Bears with 14 points, while Tykyrah Williams pulled down a team-high 11 rebounds and led the team with a game-high four steals. As a team, the Lady Bears forced 23 Mount St. Mary's turnovers with 13 coming by way of steals.
 
SHOCK TRAMA: Washington Adventist (0-6), a member of the Association of Independent Institutions, last season finished with a 12-14 mark, which was the best in school history. The Shock also recorded the best home record (6-3) and the highest winning percentage (.462) in program history. WAU enters tonight's game coming off a 101-56 loss at Davis & Elkins on Monday night. The Shock, who committed 23 turnovers, fell behind 16-0 to start the game and never recovered. WAU was led by Candice Berner, who finished with 14 points and five rebounds. Celia Gallego-Barea added 13 points and seven rebounds. 
 
MSU VS. WASHINGTON ADVENTIST SERIES NOTES: This will be the third consecutive meeting between the two teams. Morgan State leads the series 2-0, following last year's 74-36 victory in Baltimore. All of the contests have been played at Hill Field House.
 
NEXT UP: Morgan State will head to the 'Show Me' State of Missouri next week to first take on Saint Louis on Nov. 23 at 2 p.m., before heading over to Kansas City, Mo., to take part in the Plaza Lights Classic on the campus of the University of Missouri-Kansas City (Nov. 25-26). The Lady Bears will first take on Eastern Kentucky, before closing out the tournament against host UMKC. Both matches will be played at 3:30 p.m.
 
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 a 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 fell to 11-29 all-time in season openers dating back to 1977, following its 65-50 road loss to Mount St. Mary's (11/15/16). 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 the season at home and defeated Washington Adventist by a score of 74-36 (11/15/15).
 
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.
 
2017 MEAC TOURNAMENT: The 2017 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) men's and women's basketball tournament is scheduled for March 6-11 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 in 2013 after spending the previous four years in Winston-Salem, N.C. from 2009 through 2012.