Game #29
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament (First Round)
No. 5 Morgan State "Lady Bears" (12-16, 10-6 MEAC) vs. No. 12 North Carolina Central "Lady Eagles" (5-22, 3-13 MEAC)
Date: Monday, March 7, 2016 / 1 p.m.
Place: Norfolk, Va. (Norfolk Scope Arena)
Series: Morgan State leads, 8-4
Live Stats: meachoops.com
Video: ESPN3
Audio: WEAA 88.9 FM

MSU Tournament Guide | MSU Player G-B-G Stats
Morgan State Notes | NCCU Notes | MEAC Notes
 
BALTIMORE, Md. (March 6, 2016)-The The Morgan State women's basketball team will take on the North Carolina Central Lady Eagles on Monday, March 7 in a first round game of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament at the Norfolk Scope Arena. The Lady Bears enter the contest at the No. 5-seed, while NCCU is the 13th-seed. This will be the first meeting between the two teams in MEAC Tournament play.
 
BEAR CLAWS: The Lady Bears (12-16, 10-6 MEAC), losers of three straight to close out the regular season, are coming off a 50-42 loss at home to the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (3/3). It was the first time this season that the Lady Bears lost three straight MEAC games. Tykyrah Williams came off the bench to score a team-high 11 points and grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds for Morgan State. Braennan Farrar finished with 10 points, while Chelsea Mitchell added eight points and tied Williams for team-high honors with 10 rebounds. The Lady Bears shot 18-of-69 (26.1 percent) from the floor, including 15 percent (3-for-20) from three-point range. Morgan State has been paced Farrar, who is averaging 14 points per game and has tallied 90 assists and 58 steals, both team highs. Williams is contributing 10.4 points and ranks second on the team in steals with 33. Zuri White is the team's leading rebounder with 7.3 boards per game to go with 5.1 points per game. Lexus Spears is contributing 8.3 points and 6.6 rebounds per outing.
 
EAGLE SCRATCHES: North Carolina Central (5-22, 3-13 MEAC) enters the contest having dropped six of its final seven games, including five straight. The Lady Eagles are coming off a 60-48 loss at rival North Carolina A&T in the season finale on March 3. Morgan Jones scored a game-high 20 points and Tisha Dixon pulled down a game-high nine rebounds to go with seven points. Chantal Thomas scored eight points, had six rebounds, and recorded two assists and two steals, both team highs. NCCU scored the game's first nine points and was tied with the Lady Aggies at 39 all going into the fourth quarter. N.C. A&T broke a 45-45 tie, by using a 15-3 run over the final 5:55 of the game for the win. NCCU has been paced by Dixon, who leads the team in scoring (10.6) and rebounding (7.9). Jones is contributing 10.5 points per outing, leads the team in three-pointers made (33), steals (41) and ranks second on the squad in assists with 47. Thomas has a team-best 57 assists on the season, while Kierona Morton and Tyshay Britten each have a team-leading 10 blocked shots on the season.
 
MSU VS. NCCU SERIES NOTES: Morgan State leads the series, 8-4. The Lady Bears ended a two-game losing skid to NCCU, after winning this season's lone meeting, 66-55 in Baltimore (2/20). It was the first time the two teams met in Baltimore, since a 64-59 victory by Morgan State on Jan. 23, 2012.
 
NEXT UP: If the Lady Bears defeat North Carolina Central, they will advance to Thursday's quarterfinal game on March 10 and take on the winner between No. 4 Coppin State and No. 13 Norfolk State. 
 
FARRAR NAMED TO ALL-MEAC SECOND TEAM: Sophomore guard Braennan Farrar was named to the All-MEAC second team, as announced by the league office (3/3). The all-conference honors were voted on the head coaches and sports information directors in the league. It was the second consecutive all-conference selection for Farrar, who last season was named to the all-rookie team. Farrar, started 25 of 28 games played and led the Lady Bears in scoring with an average of 14 points per game, assists (90) and steals (58). She shot a team-best 43 three-pointers and hauled in 3.6 rebounds, while averaging 32.5 minutes per contest. The St. Louis, Mo. native, reached double figures in scoring 21 times, including five 20-point games and a 30-point game. She finished with a career-high 33 points on 12-of-23 shooting against Norfolk State (12/5). Farrar also recorded two double-double games on the season. The first one came in the season opener against Washington Adventist (11/15) when she scored 22 points and set a career-high 12 assists. Farrar would later score 11 points and had 12 assists against Howard (1/30).
 
11 STRAIGHT: Farrar's All-MEAC selection marks the 11th straight season a Morgan State Lady Bear has earned all-conference honors under the direction of 11th-year head coach Donald Beasley. Along with 11 straight seasons with at least one all-conference selection since being at the helm, Coach Beasley has also produced five MEAC All-Tournament honorees, including two in the past three tournaments.
 
SAYING GOODBYE: Morgan State said goodbye to five seniors last week in its two four-year seniors, Dinah Jones and Simone Sampson, as well as juniors Danielle Robinson, Jayde Duncan and Janelle Silver prior to the regular season finale against the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (March 3) at Hill Field House. Robinson, sat out her freshman season in 2012-13, while Duncan, transferred into Morgan State as a sophomore during the 2013-14 season, but sat out.
 
WORST LOSS EVER: Morgan State's 82-38 loss at Coppin State (2/27) was its worst defeat ever to the Lady Eagles in the series' all-time history. The 44-point defeat ranks third all-time for largest margin of victory for either team. Morgan State holds the top two largest margins of victory with a 46-point (76-30) win on Feb. 15, 1986 and an 82-point (102-20) victory over Coppin State on Feb. 13, 1977.
 
FREE FALLING: In a matter of three games, the Lady Bears dropped from being in sole possession of first-place in the MEAC standings, to being in second, to entering the season finale in fourth-place, to heading into the MEAC Tournament as the No. 5-seed. The Lady Bears concluded the regular season with back-to-back-back losses to North Carolina A&T, Coppin State and Maryland Eastern Shore.
 
ROAD STRUGGLES: The Lady Bears, who at the start of the season struggled on the road, closed out the regular season winning three of its last five road games to go 5-11 on the road. However, the Lady Bears dropped their last two road contests, including an 82-38 thumping on Saturday, Feb. 27 at rival Coppin State. Morgan State, which began the season 0-8 away from home, including two neutral court losses during the Navy Classic (11/27-28) in Annapolis, Md., at one point had won three straight road games. The Lady Bears earned their first win away from Hill Field House, following a 77-69 overtime victory over UMES on Monday, Jan. 11. Prior to that win, the Lady Bears had not won a road contest since last year's regular season finale against Maryland Eastern Shore (3/5/15), a 65-50 victory.
 
PERFECTION: Possibly the only thing that went right for the Lady Bears against Coppin State (2/27) was the fact that they shot 12-for-12 (100 percent) from the free throw line. It marked the second time this season they were perfect from the free throw line. The Lady Bears were also perfect from the free throw line when they went 18-of-18 (100 percent) from the charity line in their win over Howard (1/30).
 
PARTY CRASHERS: Morgan State served as Homecoming and 'Senior Day' guests of Coppin State (2/27) and was dealt an 82-38 loss. It marked the first time this season in three tries that the Lady Bears didn't spoil the festivities. Morgan State was also invited guests at both Norfolk State's Alumni Day (Feb. 13) and Savannah State's homecoming basketball game on Feb. 6 and spoiled both festivities. The Lady Bears defeated Norfolk State, 59-56 and earned a 66-60 triple overtime win over the Lady Tigers.
 
THE PURGE: Whether it's a big scoring run, or huge scoring outputs in a quarter, Morgan State opponents have been having their way with the Lady Bears this season under the new quarter system. While predicting which quarter it will be is unknown, knowing its going to happen, thus far this season is a given. Through 28 games, the first, second and third quarters have been big for MSU opponents. The Lady Bears have been outscored a combined 65 points (380-315) in the first, by 57 points (438-381) in the second quarter and by 83 points (467-384) in the third quarter. In the loss to UMBC (12/12), 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 No. 23 Syracuse in the fourth quarter on Nov. 23.
 
BACK IN THE SADDLE: Morgan State sophomore Braennan Farrar returned to the starting line up on Saturday, Feb. 27 when the Lady Bears took on rival Coppin State. Farrar would score Morgan State's first 11 points in the game and finished with a team-high 15 points against the Lady Eagles. Farrar was making her return to the starting lineup because roughly a little over an hour before tip-off of Morgan State's game against N.C. A&T (2/22), Farrar was ruled out of the game due to an insurance billing situation, which was not properly resolved. The incident would eventually get rectified with no wrong doing on Farrar's part and she was cleared to play. After missing the first nine minutes and 12.5 seconds of the game, Farrar would finally enter the contest. Unfortunately, she never got to warm up prior the game. As a result, she didn't get into the flow of the game and had her worst outing as a Lady Bear, going scoreless for the night on 0-for-11 shooting, including 0-for-5 from three-point range. 
 
BEASLEY ALL-TIME COACHIING LEADER: Morgan State head coach Donald Beasley, who is in his 11th year at the helm of the Lady Bears, became the program's all-time coaching leader last season. Beasley, who surpassed LaRue Fields (122-60 from 1979-85), as the winningest coach (123-166), following a 57-50 win over Florida A&M (1/17/15), currently holds a 140-194 all-time record at Morgan State.
 
STARTED AT THE BOTTOM: The Lady Bears finished the regular season ranked last (344th) in the nation in field goal percentage at 30.7 percent (536-of-1747). Morgan State, which went the entire season ranked last, shot a season-low 18.3 percent (11-of-60) in the loss at James Madison (11/17). Last season Morgan State finished the 2014-15 campaign also in last place (343rd) in field goal percentage.
 
GIVE ME FIVE: Morgan State had its season-long five-game winning streak come to an end, following the loss at Hampton (2/15). The season-long five game streak was the Lady Bears' longest winning streak since the  2012-13 season, when that team won five straight.
 
MORE TIME PLEASE: The Morgan State Lady Bears needed three overtime periods to defeat the defending MEAC Tournament champion Savannah State Lady Tigers, 66-60 on Feb. 6 in Savannah, Ga. It was the second overtime game this season for the Lady Bears, who also needed overtime to defeat Maryland Eastern Shore on the road in Princess Anne, Md. (Jan. 11).