Khalid Shabazz sparked a furious Maroon Tigers rally that nearly overcame a 23 point halftime deficit. But it was too little too late, as Morehouse loses to Paine 68-65.

Shabazz, a 6’6” forward from Atlanta, scored a career-high 14 points, all in the second half and almost single-handedly lifted the Maroon Tigers to victory with his inspired play. Still working his way back into shape after missing half the season with an injury, Shabazz came off the bench to rally the troops. He also grabbed seven rebounds in only 18 minutes of play.

The game was clearly a tale of two halves. Playing before their home crowd, the Dragons came out smoking in the first half and outscored the Maroon Tigers 53-30. But Morehouse turned the tables in the second period, with a 55-35 outburst.

In the final seven minutes, the Maroon Tigers out-scored the Dragons 17-3 and Brandon Childs came close to sending the game into overtime, but his desperation three-point heave from 20 feet clanked off the rim.

Once again free-throw shooting troubled the Tigers who hit only 25-of-42 from the charity stripe. Paine, on the other hand, hit 22-of-31 of their free throws. This was also the first time this season that the Maroon Tigers failed to hit a three-pointer, missing all 10 attempts. The much taller Dragons out-rebounded the Maroon Tigers 52-40.

Childs, the SIAC fourth-leading scorer, tied for game-high honors with 24 points. The senior co-captain recorded four rebounds and game-highs in assists and steals, with five each.

Returning to the Morehouse lineup after missing four games, seven-foot center James Beasley threw in 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 from the line.
Edward Pollard contributed eight points off the bench and Peter Price had a team-high eight rebounds.

Brian Harper, who torched the Tigers for 26 points in a Paine win at Forbes on January 9, turned in an encore performance, with 24 points and 16 rebounds. He led four Dragons in double figures and helped his team move to 10-4 (9-2 SIAC).

Morehouse dropped to 9-8 (6-6 SIAC) and will face the 0-14 Tuskegee Golden Tigers on the road on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

The next home game will pit Morehouse against Clark Atlanta to be televised on ESPNU at 7 p.m. This game time has been changed from 7:30 p.m.