Marquise Kately scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half and Reggie Holmes came off the bench to score 16 of his 19 as Morgan State pulled away to a 77-68 win over South Carolina State in the quarterfinals of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament at the RBC Center.

The Bears (21-9), the Number 1 seed, advance to Friday’s semifinal against the winner of the quarterfinal match between Delaware State and North Carolina A&T at 6 p.m. on Friday.

Morgan State got off to a fast start, bolting out to a 23-13 lead before the Bulldogs closed with a 13-4 run that narrowed the margin to 27-26 at the half. Boubacar Coly, the MEAC Defensive Player of the Year and Jamar Smith, the Player of the Year, combined for 17 of their team’s points while Jason Johnson led SC State with 12.

“In the first half, we did mostly what we hoped to do?stay close,” said SC State first year head coach Tim Carter. “We wanted to make sure their non shooters be the ones taking shots and we did a very good job in the last 10 minutes of the half. In the second half, things were very different. They made some adjustments, put another guard in the game and eventually took control.”

“We’ve been up before during the season and let teams back in it,” said Morgan State Coach Todd Bozeman, the MEAC Coach of the Year. “We were up in double digits in the first half and we had to respect the fact that they would make another run in the second half.”

Then Kately set the tone for the rest of the game, scoring six of the Bears’ first 10 points to give his team a 44-33 lead.

With Jessie Burton scoring 18 of his game-high 22 points after intermission, the Bulldogs (13-20) scrapped and fought their way back into the game, cutting the deficit to seven numerous times, but each time the Bears’ defense would make stops and Kately and Holmes would keep the pressure on with big shots or free throws. They combined from 19 of 25 from the free throw line.

“I’m proud of the way Marquise Kately and Reggie Holmes made free throws for us,” said Bozeman, in his second year as head coach at Morgan State. “That was a key for us in the second half when they were making a run at us.”

The game was very physical at times and featured 75 free throw attempts and neither team shooting over 40 percent. But the Bears had an important edge in second chance points (18) and a 31-13 advantage in bench points.

Smith finished with 15 and Coly just missed a double-double with 9 points and 9 rebounds. Morgan State also got some unexpected production from reserve point guard Jermaine Bolden, who had 9 points and 5 rebounds in 16 minutes of play.

”He’s (Bolden) a junior college transfer that we brought in to do just what he did,” said Bozeman. “He gives us another dimension as a scorer who can go to the basket.”

Johnson tallied 17 for SC State, 12 coming in the first half and Julius Carter contributed 10 points and 8 rebounds off the bench.