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Game 9
Opponent: Manhattan (2-6, 0-2 MAAC)
Date: Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2016
Site: Hill FIeld House
Game Time: 7 p.m.
Series Record: Manhattan leads the series 3-1
Live Video Stream: MorganStateBears.com
Radio Stream: WEAA, 88.9FM (weaa.org); Heritage Sports Radio Network (hsrn.org); Sirius 157, XM 205
Talent: Lamont Germany (Play by Play) | Austin Ward (Color Analyst)
MSU Coaches: MSU - Todd Bozeman (161-168, 11th yr) • RU Steve Masiello (94-77 6th Season) 
Websites: www.MorganStateBears.com | www.GoJaspers.com

SETTING THE STAGE
The Morgan State Bears return home to face the Manhattan Jaspers on Tuesday, December 6.  The Bears fell 72-58 at Rutgers on Saturday, while Manhattan enters the contest fresh off an 84-70 loss at St. Peter's on Dec. 4. Tip-off at Hill Field House is scheduled for 7 p.m. The contest will be streamed live on the web via morganstatebears.com. There will be live updates throughout the game available on Twitter @MorganStBears and LIVE stats on morganstatebears.com.

SCOUTING THE JASPERS
• Manhattan finished the 2015-16 season with a 13-18 overall record, going 9-11 in MAAC play and lost to Sienna (L, 89-76) in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament. The Jaspers return eight letterwinners and three starters from last year's team.

• Manhattan is off to a 2-6 start and are averaging 72.9 points per game and are shooting 41.6 percent from the field and 34.1 percent from 3-point territory.

• Steve Masiello  (Kentucky) enters his sixth season as the Jaspers' head men's basketball coach. He has experienced unprecedented success while leading the Jaspers to back-to-back MAAC Championships and subsequent trips to the NCAA Tournament

•  Junior guard Zavier Turner currently leads the team averaging 18.9 points per game (4th leading scorer in the MAAC) and is shooting 47.8 percent from the field and 47.5 percent from 3-point range (T-3rd). Junior forward Zane Waterman is averaging 9.5 points per game and also leads the Jaspers on the glass with 7.5 rpg.  Freshman guard Aaron Walker Jr. is  averaging 8.9 ppg with 3.4 rpg.

•  Saint Peter's defeated Manhattan 84-70 despite a game-high 30 points from Zavier Turner Sunday afternoon at the Yanitelli Center. Turner, who has now hit for at least 30 twice this year, also added five assists and two steals while going 9-for-15 from the floor, including 4-of-6 from long range, and a perfect 8-for-8 from the line.

THE SERIES
• Tuesday marks the fifth meeting in the series. The Jaspers hold a 3-1 record against Morgan State since 2008.

• Dec. 20, 2015 - Shane Richards made a career-high seven 3-pointers in matching his career-best of 28 points and Manhattan defeated Morgan State 78-66 on Sunday at Hill Field House. Rich Williams added 23 points and 10 rebounds off the bench for the junior's second career double-double. Cedric Blossom scored a season-high 25 points with seven rebounds, Antonio Gillespie added a season-high 17 and Rasean Simpson 13 for the Bears.. 

• Dec. 20, 2014 - Shane Richards scored 20 points and made four free throws on one trip to spark Manhattan's late run past Morgan State 73-69. MSU's Blake Bozeman was called for a personal foul and technical foul on the same play with 3:02 left, sending Richards to the foul line. Richards tied the game by making all four and sparked a 12-4 run to close out the game. Zech Smith led the Bears with a season-high 19 points (8-10 FG) and 15 rebounds. Cedric Blossom poured in 18 points.

• Dec. 12, 2009 - Reggie Holmes scored a game-high 31 points and helped Morgan State open a 10-point lead midway through the second half, and the Bears held off a late rally by Manhattan to win 83-74 at Hill Field House. Kevin Thompson collected his eighth double-double of the season by posting 13 points and a game-high 12 rebounds to go along with four blocked shots. Troy Smith had 12 points and added three steals and three assists off of the bench.
 

WELCOME TO THE BLOCK PARTY
As a team, the Bears are currently ranked second in the MEAC with 4.4 blocks per game. 

• Junior forward Phillip Carr has recorded 14 of the team's 35 rejections and ranks second in the conference by averaging 1.8 blocks per game. 

• Carr has blocked a shot in eight consecutive games...in fact, he's blocked a shot in his last 11 games dating back to March 3, 2016 vs. Maryland Eastern Shore.

• Carr has currently totaled 49 blocks with the Bears.

• Freshman forward David Syfax has added seven blocks and ranks 13th. 

AT THE HELM
Todd Bozeman enters his 11th year at the helm as Morgan State men's head coach. The Bears have participated in six of the last 10 MEAC Tournament championships, captured back-to-back-MEAC Titles, and made appearances in the NIT and two NCAA Tournaments.

BEWARE THE BEAR
Under the direction of Todd Bozeman, Morgan State has collected a couple of memorable wins against big-time opponents. The Bears have recorded historic wins against: Long Island (2009); Manhattan (2009); Arkansas (2009); DePaul (2008); and Maryland (2009).

HOME GROWN 
Morgan State has three players from the DMV (D.C., Maryland & Metropolitan-D.C.) area. Returning senior forward Kyle Thomas is from Owings Mills, Md. and graduated from Milford Mill Academy. Newcomer Tyjhai Byers is from Bethesda and was a prep standout at Bethesda-Chevy Chase HS, while Tiwian Kendley played at Eleanor Roosevelt HS and is a product of Greenbelt, Md.

COMFORTABLE AT HILL FIELD HOUSE 
Todd Bozeman has won at least 10 home games in three of his 10 seasons in Baltimore. The 2007-08 (12-1) and 2009-10 (11-1) squads finished with just a single loss, while the 2010-11 squad went 10-2. Bozeman has led the Bears to a 79-38 (.675) overall home record at Hill Field House. 

NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE TO TEST YOUNG BEARS
The year will open with a matchup at Houston Nov. 11, followed by three home contests against Towson Nov. 15, Wilmington Nov. 17 and Campbell Nov. 19. The Bears then hit the road for games at Brown Nov. 23 and Bowling Green Nov. 26, before returning to Hill Field House to host High Point Nov. 28. The Bears open the month of December with a date at Rutgers Dec. 3, before hosting a pair of contests against Manhattan Dec. 6 and Wagner Dec. 10.  The remaining three non-conference games on the schedule will take place at Penn State Nov. 21, at Loyola Marymount Dec. 27 and at California State, Northridge Dec. 29.

BEARS' SUMMER TOUR IN CANADA
The 2016-17 men's basketball season began a bit earlier than usual, as Morgan State planned a trip to Canada in August. The 7-day trip was scheduled from August 13 and ran through August 20. In that span, the Bears will played five games against outside competition. While in Canada, the Bears played games in Montreal and Ottawa. The trip marked Morgan State's sixth foreign tour since 1974. Previously, the Bears have traveled internationally to Brazil (1974), Colombia (1975), Canada, Cancun, Windsor, Canada (2010), Mexico (2011) and Nassau, Bahamas (2012).
"The tour provides returning players that might not have played a lot, to gain some valuable experience against international competition," said Todd Bozeman, who is entering his 11th season as Morgan State's head coach. "The tour allows you 10 days to practice, which is invaluable! It's a tremendous opportunity to get started early and exposes the young people to another country and culture."

BOZEMAN'S RETURNING STAFF
Morgan State head basketball coach Todd Bozeman coaching staff returns for their second season. The Bears coaching staff consists of assistant coaches Brian Ellerbe, Larry Stewart, and Hans Desir.

• Ellerbe spent four years at Virginia, starting in 1990. He worked under Jeff Jones, now coach at Old Dominion. He was also the rst African-American Head Coach at Loyola University, Maryland and The University of Michigan.

• Stewart was the Associate Head Coach for the Bowie State men's basketball team where he spent six seasons. He played with the NBA's Bullets, Vancouver Grizzlies and Seattle Super Sonics until 1997. His brother, Stephen, is an assistant coach at Coppin State.

• Desir, a Miami native, joins the Bears staff with over 10 years of coaching experience. he was previously lead assistant coach for J.T. Burton at Motlow College. 

WELCOME TO EAST COLD SPRING LANE
MSU's incoming class features four freshmen and three transfers. The incoming freshmen include 6-foot-4 guard Stanley Davis (Chester, Pa./STEM Academy), 6-foot-8 forward Azariah Sykes (Midlothian, Va./Millwood HS),  6-foot-7 David Syfax (Detroit, Mich./Pershing HS) and 6-foot-10 center Tyjahi Byers(Bethesda, Md./Bethesda-Chevy Chase HS). In addition, MSU welcomes 6-foot-2 guard Isiah Graves(Atlantic City, N.J./Atlantic City HS), who joins the Bears as a transfer from Southern C.C., Lamar C.C. transfer Tiwian Kendley (Harlem, N.Y./Roosevelt HS)  and Alex Ennis (Ocean, N.J.), a 6-foot-10 transfer from Independence C.C.

LARGEST MARGIN IN WIN
Morgan State posted an 83-43 victory over Coppin State (Feb. 1) for its largest margin of victory of the 2015-16 season, and its largest margin of victory against the Eagles. Prior to the win against Howard, the Bears' previous largest margin of victories had been by five (5) points. On Nov. 21, 2015 the Bears posted their first win of the season with a 59-54 win at Campbell University, and on Jan. 9, 2016 they recorded a 63-58 victory against Delaware State.

NOTABLE DEPARTURE
The Bears will look to replace standout forward Cedric Blossom who statistically ranked among the top players for Morgan State last season.
• He was selected All-MEAC Third Team and completed the 2015-16 regular season ranked No. 10 in the MEAC in scoring (14.9 ppg), ranked No. 7 in field goal shooting percentage (.497), and he also averaged 6.6 rebounds per game.
 
• Blossom's selection to the All-MEAC Third-Team marks the eighth time out of 10 seasons under head coach Todd Bozeman that a Morgan State player has been named to the All-MEAC first, second or third team.

• He is currently a member of the Petrolero Argentino basketball team in Argentina.

RETURNING POINTS, REBOUNDS, ASSISTS
• Morgan State returns 43.1 percent of its scoring from a year ago -- 29.0 ppg  out of an average during the 2015-16 season of 67.4 points ... MSU returns 14.4 boards a game from a year ago and that's about 41.0 percent of last year's team average of 35.1 a game.

• When it comes to assists, MSU returns just 144 assists from the total of 349 assists from last season or 41.2 percent returning.

NEXT UP 
The Bears return to Hill Field House when they host  Wagner on Saturday, Dec. 10 in the final home contest before the New Year.