BALTIMORE, Md. (Feb. 27, 2021)-When the Morgan State women's basketball team took the floor on Saturday afternoon against crosstown rival Coppin State, it had been exactly 20 days since they last played a game. The Lady Bears needed 35 minutes to shake off the rust and return to the championship form that they've played all season.
 
Ashia McCalla scored a team-high 16 points and Dahnye Redd finished with 12, as the host Lady Bears overcame a late seven-point deficit to defeat Coppin, 66-59 in a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Northern Division contest at Hill Field House.
 
Adia Brisker came off the bench to score 12 points and Jayla Atmore also came off the bench to score 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting, as Morgan State improved to 5-1 at home and has now won 16 of its last 18 home games dating back to the 2018-19 season.
 
Morgan State (10-3, 7-2 MEAC), winners of two straight and seven of its last eight games, faced its largest deficit of the afternoon, when Coppin State's Aliyah Lawson scored on a layup and added a free throw to complete a three-point play and give the guests a 56-49 lead with 5:13 remaining in the game.
 
Trailing by seven with a little over five minutes left in the game, seemed to wake Morgan State up. The Lady Bears would hold Coppin State to just three points (all free throws) for the remainder of the game, while outscoring the guests 17-3 down the stretch.
 
Atmore hit a jumper and Ja'Niah Henson followed with a three-pointer, as the Lady Bears went on an 11-0 run to take a 60-56 lead with 1:57 left in the game. Coppin State's Jalynda Salley hit a free throw at the 1:31 mark to end Morgan's run and cut the deficit to three points.
 
Brisker connected on two free throws and Lawson hit two for Coppin to make it a 62-59 game with 58 seconds remaining. McCalla, who went 10-for-10 from the charity stripe, then hit four straight free throws, as Morgan State closed the door on the Eagles.
 
Morgan State shot 85.7 percent (18-for-21) for the game from the free throw line, including 91.6 percent (11-for-12) in the fourth quarter. Coppin State went 15-of-23 (65.2 percent) from the line.
 
The Lady Bears recorded 12 steals with Atmore leading the way with a game-high three thefts. Morgan State forced the Eagles into 19 turnovers and turned them into 17 points. Morgan State held a 39-30 rebounding advantage over the guests, as Redd and Brisker led the team with a game-high seven rebounds apiece.
 
The Eagles (2-11, 2-9 MEAC) were led by Lawson's game-high 24 points. Salley added 12 points and had a team-leading six rebounds.
 
Coppin State led 27-25 at the intermission.
 
The win was Morgan State's eighth straight regular season victory and ninth out of the last 10 games over the rival Eagles. The Lady Bears, who have now won this season's first three meetings against Coppin State, leads the all-time series, 43-42. The two Baltimore rivals will wrap up their weekend series on Sunday, Feb. 28 at 2 p.m. at Hill Field House.
 

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ABOUT MORGAN
Morgan State University, founded in 1867, is a Carnegie-classified doctoral research institution offering more than 126 academic programs leading to degrees from the baccalaureate to the doctorate. As Maryland's Preeminent Public Urban Research University, Morgan serves a multiethnic and multiracial student body and seeks to ensure that the doors of higher education are opened as wide as possible to as many as possible. For more information about Morgan State University, visit www.morgan.edu.