The Morgan State Lady Bears basketball team saw their five-game winning streak come to an end Saturday, as they lost 71-58 to the Lady Pirates of Hampton University at Hill Field House.
Hampton’s Kaylah Lupoe came off the bench to score a team-high 17 points and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds to lead the visiting Lady Pirates past Morgan State in a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) game.
Hampton (15-12, 9-5 MEAC) improved to 31-11 all-time against Morgan State and has now won 13 straight against the Lady Bears. The win also ended a three-game losing skid for the Lady Pirates, while stopping both a five-game winning streak and a four-game home court winning streak by the Lady Bears.
Lupoe would finish the game shooting 8-of-11 from the floor for a Hampton team which shot 51.7 (31-of-60) for the game. Monnazjea Finney-Smith scored 14 points and has six rebounds, while K’lynn Willis added 12 points for the Lady Pirates.
Hampton would outscore Morgan State, 50-22 in the paint and held a 24-7 advantage in bench scoring.
The Lady Bears (7-20, 5-9 MEAC) were led by Braennan Farrar‘s game-high 19 points. Chelsea Mitchell fell shy of a double-double with 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting and pulled down a game-high nine rebounds. Tykyrah Williams finished with 10 points and had eight rebounds.
Morgan State held a 30-22 advantage at intermission, after holding the Lady Pirates to just seven points in the second quarter. However, Hampton would regroup during the break and turned up the defensive pressure and forced Morgan State play faster than it wanted to, especially in the fourth quarter. Hampton sped up the game and Morgan State’s decision making, which led to 14 Lady Bear turnovers in the second half, nine in the fourth quarter and 23 for the game.
“What happened was in the second half we forgot to do what we were doing in the first half,” said Morgan State interim head coach Ed Davis. “We got to the free throw line, but we didn’t finish quality plays because they rushed us up a little bit. We just didn’t get it done in terms of relieving the pressure off of BeBe (Farrar) It will be corrected.”
The Lady Pirates would record 12 steals and turned Morgan State’s 23 turnovers for the game into 32 points. Morgan State would total eight steals and forced 13 turnovers, turning them into 17 points.
The Lady Bears used a 5-0 run to break a 41-41 tie when Farrar knocked down a free throw to complete a three-point play with 1:06 remaining in the third quarter. Williams later scored on a layup with 15 seconds left to give Morgan State a 48-44 lead after three quarters of play.
Morgan State upped its lead to 50-44 in the fourth, before the visitors used a 10-0 run to take a 54-50 lead. The Lady Bears trailed 56-53, but would not get any closer than three points, as Hampton closed out the game on a 15-5 run for the victory.
“That was a crucial part of the game and with the time on the clock we were right there in striking distance,” said Davis. “But we came down and threw another errant pass and they went down and scored. I had to call a timeout to regroup, but at that time we just missed too many shots down here. Those are shots we have to finish and make under pressure situations.”
The Lady Bears shot 19-for-49 (38.8 percent) from the floor and connected on 18-of-28 (64 percent) from the free throw line. Hampton went to the free throw line 19 times and knocked down seven for 36.8 percent.
Morgan State will look to close out its regular season home finale on Monday, Feb. 27 against crosstown rival Coppin State. Tip-off is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. and will be ‘Senior Night’ for the Lady Bears. Coppin State, which has been idle since a 59-47 victory at Savannah State (2/20). The Eagles defeated Morgan State in the first meeting of the season, 61-45 at Coppin State.
