BALTIMORE, Md. -- -- It wasn't the way these four seniors wanted to end the regular season. However, both of these teams will square off against each other in the MEAC Basketball Tournament's first round. Meanwhile, the Bears nearly came back from an 18-point deficit, but fell to the Hawks on Thursday night 80-71 at Hill Field House in the regular season finale for both teams.
 
"It was great to look up in the stands and see a pretty decent crowd," said Cedric Blossom. "I had a good amount of family there and friends. Towards the end, I started to think about being here since I was a freshman and I've learned a lot on and off the court. I'm just truly blessed to be in this position. So I'm grateful for it."
 
UMES (10-21, 7-9 MEAC) started off the gate well scoring seven of the first nine points of the game in the opening couple of minutes of the game. But MSU answered quickly scoring the next six points to take an 8-7 lead on a couple of baskets from Rasean Simpson. The last with 14:01 left.
 
The game went back and forth until the game was tied at 22 on a three-pointer from MSU's Clive Vaughn with 6:21 left. UMES then outscored the Bears 19-11 led by Ryan Andino who hit a three-pointer to start the run and ended it with a short jumper to end up giving the Hawks a 41-33 halftime advantage.
 
UMES jumped on the Bears early in the second half, increasing their lead to 53-35 on a lay-up from Dominique Elliott with 14:30 left in the game. But Morgan State (8-21, 6-10 MEAC) started to fight back. They cut the deficit to 70-67 on a Donte Pretlow three with 3:20 left in regulation.
 
However, UMES answered with a 7-0 run after that to cut off MSU's hopes. Ryan Andino hit a three from the corner and a steal from Simpson by Derrico Peck led to a dunk plus one as he was fouled by Pretlow. Peck hit the foul shot. One of two free throws by Thomas Rivera gave the Hawks a 77-67 lead with 2:27 left.  The Bears got no closer than eight points after that.
 
Bakari Copeland led everyone with 23 points for UMES. Philip Carr led the Bears with 17 points in the effort.
 
Blossom, who scored 15 points in the game spoke about the Bears' second half comeback attempt.

"In the huddle, we were thinking to make three stops in a row. That's a big thing that we work on in practice and in the games. Taking one stop at a time, but once we get three in a row, the offense is going to come along after the defense. When we cut it down to three, we have to come together... the senior leadership has to step up, starting with myself. We just have to step up and finish the game."   
 
These teams will meet again on Tuesday evening in the first round of the MEAC Tournament  as Morgan State clinched the No. 9 seed while UMES will be the No. 8 seed. The winner will face No. 1 seed Hampton on Wednesday evening.                                                         


Bear Bits
- The game marked "Senior Night" for a quartet of Bears: Cedric Blossom, Rasean Simpson, Donte Pretlow and Andrew Hampton