Reeling Morgan St Visits Saint Mary’s
By Josh Horton
With a matchup with West Coast Conference travel partner Pacific looming, the Gaels will play a tune up game against a struggling Morgan State squad.
Morgan State Bears (2-13, 0-2 MEAC) @ Saint Mary’s Gaels (11-3, 4-0 WCC)
Date: Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Location: McKeon Pavilion, Moraga, Califronia.
Time: 7:00 PM PT
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Meet Morgan State
The Bears of Morgan State have been reeling this season, even though they were picked to finish third in the MEAC this season. One of Morgan States biggest problems is its ability to pull through in close games, as the Bears are 2-6 in games decided by five points or less.
Morgan State boasts wins over UC Irvine and Liberty on their resume. The Bears have only played two games against teams ranked in the top 100 in KenPom (Marquette and Penn State), and lost both games by an average of 20.5 points. On top of that, the Bears are riding a five game losing streak into Moraga.
So year, things aren’t going well for Morgan State, a team that was predicted to be a contender in its conference this season.
Nonetheless, the Gaels must play well in order to avoid another embarrassing upset (like against Northern Arizona), one that would essentially drown their NCAA tournament hopes.
The Bears feature a nice player in Cedric Blossom, who is leading Morgan State in scoring with 13.7 points per game and is second on the team in rebounding with 6.3 rebounds per game. At 6-foot-6, the junior forward is undersized for the power forward position and it will be interesting to see how he matches up with the Saint Mary’s frontcourt, which possesses many long, lengthy and athletic defenders (particularly Garrett Jackson and Desmond Simmons).
In the backcourt, the Bears start Donte Pretlow, Blake Bozeman – the teams second leading scorer (12.6 PPG) and third-team All-MEAC selection – and Torin Childs-Harris. Freshman guard Jamar Redmon, Rasean Simpson, Clive Vaughan Jr. and Emmanual Matey will come off the bench to spell the three aforementioned starters.
Joining Blossom in the starting frontcourt is Zech Smith, a 6-foot-11 center that leads the team in rebounding (7.4 RPG) and blocked shots (1.6 BPG). Kyle Thomas and Cliff Cornish will come off the bench to relieve Smith and Blossom.
Prediction
Morgan State is having a tough season, and I while they do have some talent, I don’t think it is enough to knock off the Gaels given the present circumstances. Gaels win in a 77-51 rout.