Van Hook

RICHMOND, Va. -- Morgan State point guard Lorenzo Hutchinson injected some excitement yesterday into a routine Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament moments after the Bears had blitzed UMES, 72-51, in the quarterfinals."

LANDOVER -- Gilman and Park squared off in a non-league game yesterday at the Capital Centre but time ran out on the two teams before a winner could be determined.The game ended in a 64-64 tie after 32 minutes. Capital Centre officials would not allow an overtime period because of last night's National Basketball Association game between the Washington Bullets and the Miami Heat.Gilman coach Tim Holley said the game would not be resumed because it has no bearing on the league standings.Gilman (11-8-1)

This weekend finds several local soccer teams still alive in postseason play, led by the men's team at UMBC, which takes a 20-game unbeaten string into an NCAA play-in game against Patriot League champion Lafayette at 12: 30 p.m. Sunday at Easton, Pa.The Retrievers (19-0-1) reached this juncture by beating Mount St. Mary's, 2-1, in the final of the Northeast Conference tournament. Led by several hometown products, including national scoring leader Giuliano Celenza (Archbishop Curley), UMBC is ranked No. 17. A win would give the program its first NCAA appearance.

Sixty-five points by two players can lead to wrong impressions.Morgan State coach Chris Fuller, who had the pleasure of watching Rasheed Sparks and Jimmy Fields score 39 and 26 points, respectively, against Florida A&M on Saturday, feared the effect on his team and told them as much heading into last night's game against Bethune-Cookman."

With Morgan State leading by one with three minutes remaining, Bears coach Chris Fuller challenged Jimmy Fields during a timeout to take over the game yesterday. Fields obliged, throwing in his usual flair of showmanship.Having a hand in all but one basket during the final stretch, Fields scored half of the Bears' points in a game-ending 16-4 run, engraving his signature on an 81-68 victory over visiting Maryland Eastern Shore in Morgan's triumphant return to newly renovated Hill Field House.

Frustration from a second-half collapse led Morgan State forward Rasheed Sparks to his final act last night against Coppin State. The game just over, Sparks grabbed the basketball and heaved it about 10 rows into the crowd behind the east basket.An overflow crowd of 5,022 crammed Hill Field House to watch Morgan State make a statement. A win would have clinched the second seed in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament and given the Bears a regular-season sweep over their biggest rival for the first time in a decade.

RICHMOND, Va. -- When your team is 5-23 as the Morgan State men's basketball team was before last night's 60-58 loss to Maryland-Eastern Shore, things like this happen: The Bears were down 54-51 with a minute to go in the first round of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament game. Morgan's best deep threat, Reggie Winkfield, had an uncontested shot from three-point range after a deft kickout from Michael Canady. He had four three-pointers in the half. He missed. Then, "things seemed to be going our way for a moment," Winkfield said, referring to the last chance given the Bears when Eastern Shore's Kevin Wallace, who had 19 points, threw an inbound pass out of the other end of the court.

As the clock reached zero, the celebration was on. One by one the Morgan State starters went airborne, eventually winding up on the press table. On the other side of the court, Bears coach Chris Fuller walked off, openly weeping.In recent years Morgan has come close to beating Coppin, but the Bears had not recorded a win over the Eagles since the first round of the 1994 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament. Morgan's eight-game losing streak to Coppin came to an end last night in a 67-66 overtime thriller before an overflowing crowd of 3,211 at the Coppin Center.

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.

RICHMOND, Va. -- Morgan State guard James Demory sat alone on the bench, using a towel to wipe away his tears. His college basketball career had come to an end, in a game where the Bears appeared on the verge of playing for the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference title -- and the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.Morgan, the tournament's third seed, appeared to have a legitimate shot of reaching tonight's MEAC title game against top-seeded South Carolina State. But poor shots -- and rushed shots -- down the stretched doomed the Bears in last night's 62-56 loss to No. 9 seed Florida A&M.Morgan led by nine points with 7: 57 left.