Morgan State Defeats Binghamton University (74-68) in Thriller

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Will Robinson

Will Robinson

Rushaad Hayward, Contributing Writer

Morgan State (2-5) wins 74-68 against the Binghamton Bearcats (3-5) Wednesday night in the Hill Field House.

Coming into the game, Binghamton guard Sam Sessoms was named the rookie of the week for the second time this season. A win would give his team their first road win of the season.

In this non-conference matchup, Morgan drew first blood with a layup by Guard Sherwyn Devonish-Prince Jr. The game featured a lot of missed shots early on.

After getting sent to the free throw line, Sessoms yells to teammates “get ready to keep shooting, we’re getting a lot of open shots.”  This proved to be true when teammate J.C. Show began to heat up by making a three and a two on consecutive possessions.

Offensively, Morgan continued to find holes in the Bearcats zone defense. At this point in the game, the Bears held the lead by one.

Show and Sessoms were causing problems for the Bears defense the entire first half. Show leads the game with eight points after making a three from the corner. The Bearcats were hitting 60% from the field.

Morgan wasted their possessions with turnovers and missed shots. This enabled Binghamton to start pulling away.

Bearcats forward Caleb Stewart makes a three causing the lead to grow to 34-21.

The Bears tried to gain some momentum after forward Jordan Little made a two.

It quickly shifted when they sent Show to the free throw line who is already averaging 11 plus per game.

As time expired in the first half Binghamton guard Timmy Rose nailed a three-pointer making the lead 44-28 at halftime.

The Bears knew they had work to do in the second half, so they started fast with twos made by both Prince and Little. Morgan cut the lead down to 52-38 within minutes of starting this half.

Binghamton, who seemed to be complacent with their lead, continued to turn the ball over and foul. The Bearcats had a chance to run away with the game but allowed Morgan to stay alive.

Defensively, the Bears made a great halftime adjustment on Show and Sessoms. The two hadn’t made a single point in this second half.

With 7:55 left to go the lead was 56-54 as Morgan began to rally. The teams began to go back and forth. At this the point, the lead was never larger than 4.

Sessoms, who seemed to be non-existent this half, knocked down back to back three-pointers making the score 68-66 Morgan. On the ensuing Bears possession, forward Victory Curry got fouled on a two-point play and gets sent to the free throw line. Curry, making both of his free throws made it a two-possession game with under 40 seconds left.

Sessoms tried to create some late-game heroics but turned the ball over and this ultimately led to the win for Morgan State.

The leading scorers of the game from each side were Sam Sessoms with 22 points and Jordan Little with 14. This was a great bounce back victory for the Bears at home.