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Game 3
Opponent: UMBC Retreivers (1-1)
Date: Tuesday 11, 2025
Site: Hill Field House, Baltimore, Md.
Game Time: 6 p.m. EST
Live Stats: here
MSU Coaches: MSU -
Kevin Broadus (83-94, 7th yr) • UMBC - Jim Ferry (61-69, 5th yr)
Websites: www.MorganStateBears.com | www.UMBCRetreivers.com
SETTING THE STAGE
• The Morgan State Bears (1–1) are set for a local matchup against the UMBC Retrievers (1–1) on Tuesday, Nov. 11. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. (EST) inside Hill Field House.
• Morgan State lost the last meeting between the teams by a score of 92-69 on Nov. 27, 2024. Marcus Banks Jr. had a team-high 14 points to help the Retrievers to a win at The Peake. Senior guard Ahmarie Simpkins scored 14 points of his 16 points in the first half, while adding a game-high 11 rebounds. Wynston Tabbs finished the game with 16 points on 6-for-14 shooting.
• Senior guard Alfred Worrell Jr. played in 32 games and averaged 6.5 points and 1.6 rebounds as a junior at Southern Mississippi last season. He shot 38 percent from the floor, 33 percent from distance, and 87 percent from the free throw line. He enters Tuesday's matchup averaging 16 points on 36 percent shooting from the field.
• Rob Lawson has emerged as a major spark off the bench to open the 2025–26 season. The senior guard led the Bears with a game-high 20 points, adding five rebounds and four assists in 29 minutes at Georgetown on Nov. 11. He followed that effort with another 20-point outing last Thursday night against Central Penn at Hill Field House.
• Graduate guard Walter Peggs Jr. was a BOXTOROW DII HBCU All-America First Team selection as a standout at Spring Hill College. He became the program's leading scorer in the Division-II era, with 1,137 career points. He also broke the team's two-year career points per game record, averaging 21.3 points per game over two seasons.
• Graduate center Dallas James spent four seasons at South Carolina State before joining the Indiana Hoosiers in 2024-25.
• Graduate guard Elijah Davis transferred from Bowie State, where he started in every game (30) and averaged 10 points, 3.3 rebounds, 5 assists, 1.9 steals, and 31.8 minutes. He also played for Mississippi Valley State (2021-22), Walter State C.C. (2022-23), and Incarnate Word (2023-24).
SCOUTING UMBC
• Head coach Jim Ferry became the tenth UMBC head men's basketball coach in school history in April of 2021. Over the past two seasons, Ferry guided the black and gold to America East Tournament appearances in 2023-24 and 2024-25. Ferry came to Baltimore after serving in 2020-21 as the interim head coach at Penn State University. That season, Ferry led the Nittany Lions to an 11-14 overall mark that included wins over NCAA Tournament teams No. 14 Wisconsin, No. 15 Virginia Tech, Rutgers, and Maryland (twice).
• UMBC graduate student forward Josh Odunowo was named to the America East Preseason All-Conference Team. In his first season as a Retriever, Odunowo appeared in 30 games, averaging 11.1 points and 5.2 rebounds per game while shooting 56.5 percent from the floor. He scored double figures in 19 games while also averaging 2.1 assists and 1.1 steals per game.
• The Retrievers are led by junior guard Jah'Likai King, who is averaging 18.5 points and 6.5 rebounds through two games. Graduate student guard/forward DJ Armstrong is contributing 13.5 points per game, while junior guard Ace Valentine adds 11.5 points and 4.0 rebounds.
• Caden Diggs leads UMBC on the glass by averaging 7.0 rebounds per game.
THE SERIES
• The series between the two schools is tied 15-15.
• UMBC won the last meeting between the teams by a score of 92-69 on Nov. 27, 2024. Marcus Banks Jr. had a team-high 14 points to help the Retrievers to a win at The Peake. Senior guard Ahmarie Simpkins scored 14 points of his 16 points in the first half, while adding a game-high 11 rebounds. Wynston Tabbs finished the game with 16 points on 6-for-14 shooting. UMBC connected on 48 percent of their shots from the field and shot just 54 percent (14-26) from behind the arc while the Bears shot 42 percent from the field and connected on 1-of-9 (.111) 3-pointers, including zero three-pointers in the first half. UMBC's largest lead of the game was 32 points (85-53) with 4:35 remaining.
• Before last year's win by UMBC, the Retrievers had lost five of their previous six meetings against the Bears.
• Morgan's last win against the Retrievers was Dec. 6, 2023, at Hill Field House. Redshirt senior guard Wynston Tabbs scored 22 of his game and career-high 38 points in the first half, while Will Thomas added 23 points off the bench, as Morgan State defeated UMBC. Tabbs connected on 13-of-21 from the floor, 6-of-10 from three, and was perfect from the free throw line (6-6) for the Bears. Redshirt junior Will Thomas scored a season-high 23 points while going 8-of-14 from the field, and added four rebounds, four assists, two steals, and two blocks in 27 minutes off the bench. Morgan shot .846 (22-26) from the free throw line, while the Retrievers finished 15-for-22 (.682) from the stripe.
LAST TIME OUT FOR THE RETIEVERS
• UMBC held a second-half lead against the Dayton Flyers late in the game but ultimately lost by a score of 77-71 in front of a sellout crowd of 13,407 fans at UD Arena on Saturday afternoon. Junior center Jose Roberto Tanchyn led five Retrievers in double figures with 16 points and also contributed a team-high six rebounds in 23 minutes off the bench. DJ Armstrong Jr. added 15 points, while Jah'Likai King scored 14, Ace Valentine contributed 12 points, and Daylon Dickerson rounded out the scoring.
NEXT UP
The Bears will face Mercyhurst on Saturday, November 15, at Owen McCormick Court. Tip-off is set for 4 p.m. EST.
AT THE HELM
• Kevin Broadus is entering his seventh season at the helm of the program, having been named the men's head basketball coach in 2019.
• The Broadus-led Bears team has compiled several significant victories over non-conference competition, elevating the caliber of wins for a program that aims to compete at a championship level within the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC). Broadus demonstrated exemplary leadership while successfully overcoming numerous challenges at the onset of his tenure at Morgan, including navigating the rebuilding of a program under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• During the 2024–25 season, the Bears finished with an overall record of 14–18, highlighted by a balanced 7–7 mark in MEAC play. The performance mirrored that of the previous season, when Morgan State went 11–20 overall, while also posting a .500 record in conference competition. In 2022–23, the Bears finished 15–15 overall and 7–7 in the MEAC, following a 13–15 campaign in 2021–22 that saw them place fourth in the league standings and reach the MEAC Tournament semifinals. The year prior, in 2021, Morgan advanced all the way to the MEAC Tournament championship game.
• Before Morgan, Broadus worked at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he was one of the nation's best recruiters as the top assistant on Mark Turgeon's coaching staff. Broadus was influential in the successful NCAA tournament run for the Terps.
• Consistently ranked in the top 20 nationally for recruiting, Broadus was instrumental in signing several local Baltimore talents such as DeJuan Summers, Brandon Herbert, LaFonta Johnson, and Henry Sims.
WHO'S OUT
Kameron Hobbs (Stockbridge, Ga./Dutchtown HS), Wynston Tabbs (Suitland, Md./St. Mary's Ryken School HS), Amahrie Simpkins (Brooklyn, N.Y.), and Will Thomas (Baltimore, Md./Mervo HS) wrapped up their collegiate careers and graduated last spring.
• Hobbs, a BOXTOROW HBCU First Team All-American, passed Jimmy Fields (139) to become No. 6 on Morgan State's all-time 3-point field goals leaderboard. He completed his career with 150 3-pointers.
WHO'S BACK
The Bears return three starters from last year's team, bringing back guard Rob Lawson and forward Trent Edwards. MSU also returns Christian Oliver, who was on the squad during the 2023-24 season.
WHO'S IN
The Bears have added several newcomers to the 2025-26 roster: G Elijah Davis (Bowie State), G Alfred Worrell Jr. (Southern Mississippi), and G Christian Meeks (Waubonsee C.C.). Newcomers also include F Eugene Alvin (Florida Southwestern) and F Manok Lual (Frostburg State), along with C Dallas James, a transfer from Indiana.
RETURNING PRODUCTION NUMBERS
Morgan State returns 16.6 percent of its scoring, 18.7 percent of its rebounding, and 23.8 percent of its minutes played totals from last year's team. The team leaders in field goal percentage (Rob Lawson - .350), three-point percentage (Rob Lawson, .379), free throw percentage (Rob Lawson., .747), rebounding (Rob Lawson - 2.6 rpg), assists (Rob Lawson, 2.4), steals (Rob Lawson, 0.9), blocked shots (Trent Edwards, 1.0), and minutes played (Rob Lawson, 26.7). Rob Lawson (23) is the only returner who has started in at least five (5) games a year ago.
HOME GROWN
Morgan State has five (5) players from the DMV (D.C., Maryland & Metropolitan-D.C.) area. Senior guard Rob Lawson is from Capitol Heights and played at National Christian Academy. Veteran guard Elijah Davis hails from Severn, Md., and played at Incarnate Word. Redshirt senior forward Jayden Socka is from Silver Spring, Md., and attended Springbrook HS. Graduate student guard Alfred Worrell Jr. and freshman David Bumpass are from Washington, D.C. Worrell went to Montgomery Blair HS, and Bumpass attended Friendship Tech Prep Academy.
ALL-CONFERENCE SELECTION
Graduate student Walter Peggs Jr., a transfer from Spring Hill College, was named to the preseason All-MEAC Third Team.
• Peggs was a BOXTOROW Division II HBCU All-America First Team selection and became the first player in program history to earn two BOXTOROW HBCU All-America honors. He was also a SIAC First Team All-Conference pick and was named to the NABC Honors Court.
• At Spring Hill, Peggs became the program's Division II era career scoring leader with 1,137 points and set the two-year career scoring average record at 21.3 points per game. He started all 26 games last season, averaging a career-best 26.0 points and 35.6 minutes per game. Peggs totaled 676 points to set the program's Division II single-season scoring record, while adding 92 rebounds. He also set Division II era records with 99 made three-pointers and 151 made free throws. Peggs shot career highs of 48.2% (213-442) from the field, 42.1% (99-235) from three-point range, and 87.8% (151-172) from the free-throw line.
TABBED TO FINISH FOURTH
The Morgan State men's basketball team has been picked to finish fourth in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference's preseason poll, announced by the conference today.
• The 2025-26 Bears earned 73 total points in the voting. Norfolk State claimed 12 first-place votes and 118 points total as the defending MEAC champions. Howard (97 pts) was selected second, followed by South Carolina State in third place (90 pts). Delaware State (70 pts), North Carolina Central (70 pts), Maryland Eastern Shore (31 pts), and Coppin State (27 pts) rounded out the league's predicted order of finish.
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ABOUT MORGAN
Morgan State University, founded in 1867, is a Carnegie-classified high research (R2) institution offering nearly 140 academic programs leading to degrees from the baccalaureate to the doctorate. As Maryland's Preeminent Public Urban Research University, and the only university to have its entire campus designated as a National Treasure by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, 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.
