Game 13 (Non-Conference)
Morgan State "Lady Bears" (2-10) vs. Brown "Bears" (7-4)
Date: December 31, 2016 | Noon
Place: Baltimore, Md. | Hill Field House
Series: Brown leads, 4-0
 
BALTIMORE, Md. (Dec. 30, 2016)-The Morgan State women's basketball team will close out the 2016, as well as its non-conference schedule this Saturday, when the Lady Bears host Brown. Tip-off is at noon at Hill Field House. 
 
BEAR CLAWS: Morgan State (2-10) enters the contest coming off a 37-54 loss at Richmond on Wednesday. Chelsea Mitchell led Morgan State with nine points and a team-high eight rebounds. Braennan Farrar added nine points and as scored her 1,000th point of her career. Morgan State has been paced by Farrar, who is averaging 14.3 points and Williams, who is adding 10.3 points and leads the team in rebounding at 5.3 per game. 
 
A LOOK AT BROWN: The Brown Bears (7-4) are coming off an 85-72 loss at Virginia Commonwealth on Thursday. The loss ended a five-game winning streak. Taylor Will led Brown with 18 points to lead four players in double figures scoring. Will leads Brown with 16.9 points per game, while Shayna Mehta is averaging 15.5 points. Justine Gaziano is contributing 13.8 points and Erika Stevens is adding 12.6 points and leads the team with 9.9 rebounds per outing.
 
MSU VS. BROWN SERIES NOTES: Brown leads the series 4-0. The Brown Bears defeated Morgan State last season, 72-45 in Providence, R.I. (11/21).
 
LADY BEARS VS. THE IVY LEAGUE: The Lady Bears are 3-16 all-time against members of the Ivy League Conference. Here's how Morgan State has done against the Ivy: Brown (0-4), Columbia (2-1), Cornell (1-2), Dartmouth (0-1), Penn (0-2), Princeton (0-4) and Yale (0-2). MSU has never faced Harvard.
 
NEXT UP: The Lady Bears will return to action in 2017, when they host the Norfolk State Spartans in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) opener on Wednesday, Jan. 4. Tip-off is at 5 p.m. at Hill Field House.
 
FARRAR JOINS THE 1,000-POINT CLUB: Braennan Farrar became the 14th member in program history to join the 1,000-point club at Morgan State. Farrar, who entered the Richmond game needing nine points to reach the plateau, scored her ninth and final point of the game on a layup at the 7:27 mark in the third quarter.
 
SCHEDULE CHANGE: Morgan State's MEAC opener against Norfolk State has now been changed to Wednesday, Jan. 4 at 5 p.m. as part of a doubleheader at Hill Field House. The game was originally scheduled for Monday, Jan. 2 at 5:30 p.m.
 
WILLIAMS COMES UP BIG: Tykyrah Williams was perhaps the only bright spot in Sunday's loss to Robert Morris. The junior forward scored a game-high 19 points, grabbed eight rebounds, had four assists, three steals and added two blocks, all of which were game highs.
 
THAT'S A FIRST: Foul trouble plagued Breannan Farrar against Robert Morris (12/18) and she would eventually foul out for just the first time in her career. A native of St. Louis, Mo., Farrar, who is averaging 33 minutes per game, would finish with just six points on 2-of-5 shooting from three-point range in 19 minutes of action.
 
PROTECTING HOME: Morgan State suffered its first home loss of the 2016-17 season on Sunday to Robert Morris. The loss dropped the Lady Bears to 1-1 at Hill Field House. Morgan State will have another chance for a home win before the year is out when it entertains Brown in a New Year's Eve match-up at noon on Dec. 31.
NATIONAL RANKINGS: Morgan State is currently tied with Southern Mississippi at 23rd in the nation in turnover margin at 6.17. Long Beach State sits ahead of the Lady Bears at 22nd at 6.29 and Maryland ranks 24th at 5.92. Lamar leads the nation at 10.10.
 
IT TAKES A THEIF: The Lady Bears have recoded 136 steals as a team in 12 games played thus far. Last season Morgan State recorded 249 steals in 30 games. Breannan Farrar leads the way with a team-best 33, while Tykyrah Williams has 23 steals. Chelsea Mitchell and Jihayah Chavis are adding 17 and 13 steals, respectively.
 
MORGAN ENDS LOSING SKID: The Lady Bears put an end to their season-long five-game losing skid with a 69-61 victory over UMBC (12/7). The defeat of the Retrievers also ended a two-game losing streak to UMBC and improved Morgan State's all-time record to 12-13 against UMBC.
 
FARRAR NAMED TO PLAZA LIGHTS ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM: Braennan Farrar was named to the Plaza Lights All-Tournament team (Nov. 25-26). Farrar scored a combined 41 points, had five rebounds, six steals and four assists in two games. She finished with a game-high 26 points on 10-of-20 shooting and added three steals and an assist against host University of Missouri-Kansas City (11/26).
 
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.