The Bears, the highest seed remaining in the tournament, connected on almost 57-percent of their field-goal attempts in earning the victory and a trip to Saturday's final against the winner of the other semifinal match between North Carolina A&T and Delaware State.
Shaquille Duncan led the way for Morgan State with 17 points, on a 7-of-8 effort from the field. Justin Black and Dwayne Jackson added 16 points each in the contest, the first meeting between the two teams in two years. Anthony Hubbard was also in double figures with 11 points for Coach Todd Bozeman's squad, which climbed to 17-14. Black added a team-high nine rebounds.
The Wildcats, who eliminated top-seeded Norfolk State 70-68 on Wednesday, were paced by Kevin Dukes with 20 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the field, including a 5-of-9 from beyond the arc.
Ricky Johnson tossed in 18 points that included a perfect 9-for-9 from the charity stripe. Bethune-Cookman's All-MEAC forward Adrien Coleman was limited to just eight points on 4-of-11 attempts by the Bear defense.
“It was a really interesting game for us,” said the Bears' Bozeman, “because we had not played them in two years. The main focus for us was to defend and rebound and get out on them early.”
“From a player standpoint,” he continued, “we wanted to contain Adrien Coleman, an excellent ballplayer and clearly one of the top players in this league. And, with Shaquille (Duncan) and Ian (Chiles) inside for us, we wanted to get the ball inside.”
And that the Bears did as 48 of their points came in the paint area.
Morgan State, which led from wire to wire, took a 39-31 cushion to the locker room. The Bears upped the margin to 51-37 when Duncan completed a three-point play with 14:11 remaining. The scrappy Wildcats rallied to close the gap to six, at 64-58, when Dukes connected on a 3-pointer with just over six minutes remaining.
Black answered, however, with a 3-pointer of his own on Morgan State's next possession to ignite a 9-4 run that put the Bears up 73-62 and in control of the game once more The Wildcats could come no closer than seven points the rest of the way.
Morgan State, which rallied behind the 3-point shooting of Black on Thursday to defeat Savannah State 64-61 in overtime to reach Friday's semifinals, took an 8-1 lead in the contest when Tauron Bailey made one of two from the line with 16:26 on the first-period clock.
A free-throw by Javoris Bryant, who finished with five points for Bethune-Cookman, and back-to-back buckets by Coleman pulled the Wildcats to within 8-5 with just 20 seconds elapsed. But the Bears took a 21-13 advantage with 11:53 left in the period.
The Wildcats, behind an 11-6 spree, closed the gap to 27-24 on consecutive 3-pointers by Dukes with 5:17 left in the opening period, however the Bears closed out the period with a 12-7 run to build a 39-31 cushion at the half.
In a tournament in which the top four seeds fell in the quarterfinals, the Bears will be making their first trip to the finals since the 2011 season when they lost to Hampton.
“We are just happy to be playing for the championship,” said Bozeman.
COURTESY MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION
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