BALTIMORE, Md. – Senior forward Cedric Blossom scored 20 points, eclipsing the 1,000-point mark in his career, and Morgan State beat N.C. A&T 72-51 on Monday night.
 
Blossom opened the second half with a jump hook to achieve the milestone. He was 7 of 11 from the field and grabbed five rebounds for the Bears (6-20, 4-9 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference).
 
"The team responded and played well today," said MSU head coach Todd Bozeman. "When we play with that kind of energy and that kind of a focus…We're just trying to get better and prepare for the [MEAC] Tournament."
 
"Everything that has happened to this point is behind us. It is what it is with the past games. We've been doing some good things. We've been in a majority of our games and it's just a matter of it clicking -- and it did today. Our guys played with a lot of energy, they just have to have that same kind of energy every night."
 
"I thought Sean and Ced did a great job of setting the tone early. The fact that they were talking on defense. Rasean had a double-double and "Tay" [Pretlow] had a great floor game."
 
Senior forward Rasean Simpson scored 17 points with 10 rebounds and junior Andre Horne added 12 points. Senior guard Donte Pretlow had a career-high nine assists to go along with eight points, four steals and zero turnovers.
 
N.C. A&T (8-20, 5-8) was led by Sam Hunt with 12 points. The Aggies made just 4 of 18 from beyond the arc. N.C. A&T had 11 turnovers, compared to six for Morgan State.
 
The Bears used an 18-4 run midway through the first half to take control.  An alley-oop pass from freshman guard Martez Cameron to Blossom pushed the lead to 60-40 with 12:03 to go, and a pair of free throws by Simpson gave Morgan State its biggest lead of 27 points with 6:20 to go.
 
Morgan State led 43-31 at the intermission.
 
Blossom is the 24^th player to score 1,000 points and the sixth coached by Todd Bozeman.
 
"I'm happy for Ced," said Bozeman. "He's always been a hardworker and a diligent student-athlete, and you just like to see guys reach that kind of success in their career. It's a significant night for him and I'm proud of him and looking for more things from him for the rest of the season."
 
Blossom wasted little time chasing down the milestone, but seemed much more relieved that the Bears were able to secure the win.
 
"It feels like I've gotten a burden off of my chest," said Blossom. "I was in between letting it be a distraction and wanting to get a win with the rest of the team. I'm glad I was able to reach the mark and focus on closing the game out. I don't have to worry about that for the rest of the year, and now we can try and make a run in the MEAC Tournament."

The Bears will wrap its 3-game homestand Wednesday, Feb 24 when they play host to the Norfolk State Spartans. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Hill Field House.
 
Bear Bits
Cedric Blossom has moved in front of Aaron Andrews (984) as the school's No. 24 all-time leading scorer with 1,008 career points.
 
The Bears outscored the Aggies by an 18-4 margin in points off turnovers
 
Blossom was high school teammates with N.C. A&T's Bruce Beckford at Montrose Christian