Women's Basketball

Benson Leads Howard To Win Over Morgan State

Boxscore

Baltimore, MD—January 30—Junior forward Melloni Benson scored 14 of her game-high 19 points in the second half to help Howard University pull away to an 87-76 win over Morgan State University in a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference women’s game at Hill Fieldhouse.  The win snapped a two-game losing streak for the Lady Bison (8-10 overall, 5-4 in the MEAC) while the Lady Bears (2-15 overall, 2-6 in the MEAC) had their losing streak extended to five.

            Howard led through most of the game and went to the locker room with a 37-29 advantage.  But the much improved Morgan State team failed to go away despite several runs by Howard in the second half.

            The Lady Bears cut double digit leads to five on three different occasions on the scoring of Whitney Johnson (16 points) and Sarissa Gaskins (16 points), who combined for 27 second half points.

            But each time Benson had an answer as she scored 7 of her team’s last 11 points down the stretch.  The Lady Bison were able to capitalize on the playmaking of senior guard Ebony Lacey, who contributed 12 points and a career-best 10 assists.

            Again, the Howard bench played a key role, outscoring its counterparts, 33-16 and forcing Morgan State into 29 turnovers.

GAME NOTES: Howard Coach Cathy Parson changed the starting line-up and it proved to be effective as Sequoya Moore (8 points, 4 rebounds), Lacey and Benson had their best games in recent outings…Christina Aden, normally a starter, came off the bench to score 9 points while sophomore guard Asha Santee added 7 points in 12 minutes…the Lady Bison had 17 steals and shot 50 percent (8 of 16) from beyond the stripe in the second half.

NEXT UP:  Howard will look to extend its streak when its hosts Norfolk State University on Saturday at 2 p.m. in Burr Gymnasium while Morgan State will entertain Florida A&M University on Saturday at 2 p.m.  

• Scoreboard
• Upcoming Games

Multimedia

Meet the Coach