RICHMOND, Va. -- Morgan State guard Jimmy Fields was upset, angrily snatching off his jersey at the end. His coach, Chris Fuller, was simply relieved, sighing deeply as he walked off the arena floor.
Morgan's Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference quarterfinal yesterday wasn't pretty. What counted was that the third-seeded Bears advanced to tonight's semifinals, escaping with a 67-66 win over sixth-seeded Hampton.
The Bears led by 14 points with just over five minutes left, but had to hold off a furious Hampton rally. Morgan (14-13) is in the semifinals for the second straight season, and will face ninth-seeded Florida A&M; tonight.
"I'm just glad it's over," Fuller said. "We were lucky to get away with that victory. We didn't take some things away from them at the end that we needed to."
Particularly the three-point shot, with Hampton hitting three of them in the final 38 seconds, which helped cut what had been an eight-point deficit with just over two minutes left to 67-66 after an off-balance three-pointer by Tajai Young with 2.9 seconds remaining.
Hampton coach Steve Merfeld argued that Young was fouled, which could have resulted in a tie game.
"I felt he got hit on the top of the head on the shot," Merfeld said. "It's a judgment call. They didn't make the call."
Morgan guard Jimmy Fields was fouled immediately, but, with a chance to increase the lead, he missed both free-throw attempts with 1.8 seconds left. Hampton tried a length-of-the-court pass but was unable to get off a shot.
Fields' anger at the end of the game was a result of missing those free throws (the second was missed intentionally). But that was the only thing he did wrong, as he scored a career-high 29 points and gave the team a tremendous lift in the first half (14 points), when Morgan did little right offensively.
"In the first half, we didn't have good execution offensively," Fields said. "I don't think it was frustrating. We had a week off. We just needed to warm up."
That was obvious as Morgan, with 4: 45 left in the first half, had just 13 points. As bad as the Bears were playing at the time, they still trailed by just three. Morgan ended the half with a 15-1 run over the final 2: 50 -- nine of those points coming from Fields -- to take a 28-22 halftime lead.
"That was the ballgame right there," Fuller said. "From that point, we never gave up the lead."
The key to that was Morgan's aggressive defense, particularly as applied to Hampton forward Tarvis Williams. A member of the all-MEAC first team this season, when he averaged 14.0 points, the 6-foot-8 Williams was held to a season-low six points.
"We tried to make him make some moves, make some decisions with the ball," said Curtis King, the main defender on Williams. "We tried to play off him, make him shoot jump shots. A couple of times he got the ball at the high post and we tried to make him shoot it from there."
Said Williams, who also committed seven turnovers: "I thought I was prepared to play. It was nothing different that they did defensively. I just let my team down."
And thus, Morgan gets to play another day. In two games against Florida A&M;, the Bears won, 106-82, at Morgan on Jan. 9, and lost, 91-67, in Tallahassee, Fla., on Feb. 13.
A win tonight would put Morgan in the championship game of the MEAC tournament for the first time since 1978.
"We have to get back to the drawing board and play a lot better, or else we're going to be going home," Fuller said.
HAMPTON -- Farringon 6-15 1-2 16, Adams 3-10 1-2 10, Young 4-7 4-7 13, Hunter 2-6 0-0 4, Williams 3-7 0-0 6, 1-1 0-0 2, Dunn 1-3 0-0 2, Smith 1-3 0-0 2, Belton 5-9 3-3 13. Totals 25-58 9-14 66.
MORGAN STATE -- Fields 8-15 9-11 29, Sparks 3-7 0-1 7, King 5-16 3-4 13, Herron 0-1 1-2 1, Lewis 0-0 0-0 0, Demory 0-1 0-0 0, Van Hook 3-7 0-0 6, Bullock 2-3 0-0 4, Canady 0-0 2-2 2, Qualls 1-2 3-3 5, Dorcinvil 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-54 18-23 67.
Halftime--Morgan State 28-22. 3-point goals--H 7-16 (Farrington 3-8, Adams 3-6, Young 1-2), MS 5-14 (Fields 4-6, Sparks 1-4, Herron 0-1, Demory 0-1, Van Hook 0-2). Fouled out--Hunter. Rebounds--H 39 (Hunter 12), MS 30 (Sparks 9). Assists--H 10 (Adams 3), MS 10 (Sparks 3). Total fouls--H 19, MS 18. Technicals--Hampton bench. A--N/A.
Pub Date: 3/05/99