Morgan State Lady Bears End 2015 With Win Over Bucknell

LEXUS SPEARS
COURTESY MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS

BALTIMORE, Maryland -- Lexus Spears recorded a double-double of 15 points and grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds and Braennan Farrar added a game-high 16 points, as the Lady Bears ended a four-game losing skid with a 64-50 victory over Bucknell on Tuesday afternoon at Hill Field House to close out 2015.

With the win, Morgan State (3-10) evened up the all-time series with Bucknell at 2-2, while improving to 3-2 at home.

Zuri White finished with 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting and added six rebounds, to help the Lady Bears to a 41-32 rebounding advantage over Bucknell.

Bucknell (6-5), which was coming off an 80-51 victory over Delaware on Sunday, was led by Jacqui Klotz, who finished with a team-high 15 points and pulled down 14 rebounds to earn a double-double. Claire DeBoer added 14 points on 4-of-7 shooting and knocked down all six of her free throw attempts. The Bison would shoot 91.7 percent (11-of-12) from the free throw line.

Morgan State, which led the entire game, scored the first five points and then used a 9-3 run to close out the first quarter and take a 16-8 lead. The lead would stay between seven and 11 points throughout the second period and Morgan State held a 34-23 lead at halftime.

The guests would pull to within six points several times with the last coming in the fourth quarter after a layup by Megan McGurk made it a 50-44 game with 8:28 remaining. But that would be as close as Bucknell would get. Morgan State would use a mini 6-0 run to push the lead back up to 12 points (56-44) and closed out the game connecting on 8-of-10 free throws for the win.

The Lady Bears, who entered the game ranked last in field goal percentage (28.7), shot 34.4 percent (21-of-61) against the Bison. Morgan State was just 2-of-17 (11.8 percent) from three-point range.

Bucknell finished the game shooting 38 percent (18-of-47) from the floor and was 3-of-16 from three-point range (18.8 percent).

Morgan State will take the next 10 days off to enjoy the Christmas and New Year holiday, before returning to action on Saturday, Jan. 2 to host the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Tip-off is slated for 2 p.m. at Hill Field House. It will be the final non-conference game of the season for the Lady Bears.

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