With a thunderous alley-oop dunk in the final minute of Monday night?s game against Howard, Morgan State senior guard Joseph McLean sent multiple messages at once.
The first was putting the finishing touches on an 85-62 win in Morgan?s home finale at Hill Field House. The second was McLean closing out his home career on a high note. The third, and probably most important to the rest of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, is that the Bears (12-15, 10-6 MEAC) are now a team that must be taken seriously under first-year coach Todd Bozeman.
Morgan is tied for second place with Florida A&M in the MEAC standings with two games remaining in the regular season, including tonight?s game at Bethune-Cookman (8-19, 5-11). The Bears play its regular season finale Saturday at cross-town and conference rival Coppin State (10-18, 8-8).
“Tonight, collectively, everybody wanted to go out the right way, not just for Coach Bozeman, but for the seniors as well,” McLean said. “We want to get better approaching the [MEAC] tournament.”
For McLean, Monday?s win was extremely special as Morgan – which was predicted to finish tenth out of 11 teams in the MEAC preseason poll – has already tripled its win-total from last season when the Bears went 4-26. McLean finished with 18 points and seven rebounds against Howard,
“To have 10 wins in the conference after winning just four games all of last year is incredible,” McLean said. “I forgot what it was like to have 10 wins. To get to this point means we?re doing something positive for the program and positive for the fans. Ten wins means we?re right there and in position to make some noise in the tournament.”
Bozeman said he was really pleased with how his team responded the last two games, especially in the second half against Howard when Morgan shot 72 percent from the field. Junior forward Jamar Smith led the Bears with 20 points,while freshman guard Reggie Holmes scored 16 and senior forward Ronald Timus had 14 against Howard.
MEAC NOTES
» Delaware State (18-11, 15-2) clinched its third straight MEAC regular season title with a 77-65 win Saturday over visiting Florida A&M (16-13, 10-6). Delaware State followed that up with a 47-40 win Monday over Bethune-Cookman.
» Morgan has now won two in a row as the Bears defeated host University of Maryland-Eastern Shore, 81-70 on Saturday.
