The climb back to .500 is near complete for the South Carolina State men’s basketball team is near complete.

Standing in the way of the Bulldogs’ fifth straight win and and moving within one game of first place in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference standings is the current ‘king of the mountain’ Morgan State. At 7:30 p.m. tonight, S.C. State (10-11, 5-4) gets its opportunity at the Bears when they pay a visit to the Smith-Hammond-Middleton Memorial Center.

“Unbelievable challenge,” said S.C. State men’s basketball coach Tim Carter following Saturday’s 69-61 win over Coppin State. “Big-time players. They’ve played on the big stage and beaten people. They’re very well coached. It’s going to be a very tough ballgame. I just hope we can come up with a ‘W’.”

S.C. State’s four-game winning streak, the longest in Carter’s two-year tenure, has been boosted by a combination of balanced scoring and stifling defense. Along with the usual production of the Jasons - All-MEAC center/forward Jason Johnson and Jason Flagler, the Bulldogs’

backcourt has stepped up offensively, specifically freshman guard Jimmy Williams.

Williams matched his career-high with 15 points against Coppin State and combined with point guard Jessie Burton for 10 assists.

“(Williams) is becoming more confident,” Carter said. “He knows what we want him to do and he’s probably our best big guard at penetrating.”

Coupled with the improved production off the bench from forward Josh Jackson, who’s averaged 13.5 points the last two games, and a defense which has allowed an average of 54 points during the winning streak and it adds up a much different S.C. State team than the one which was swept by Morgan State last season.

Last year’s regular-season champion, the Bears (13-10, 7-2) have picked up right where they left off.

Winners of three straight, all on the road, Morgan State owns the MEAC’s biggest non-conference win when it defeated Atlantic Coast Conference member and in-state rival Maryland 66-65 on Jan. 7.

Preseason All-MEAC second-team guard Reggie Holmes leads the offense for Morgan State, averaging 16.3 points and 5.3 rebounds a contest.

Also scoring in double figures is senior forward Marquise Kately at

10.4 points and 5.3 rebounds a game, while senior guard Rogers Barnes is coming off a career-high 17 points, including 4-4 from three-point range, in Saturday’s 73-64 win over Winston-Salem State.

Despite the win, head coach Todd Bozeman was quite candid about his team’s lack of accountability on his blog ‘Blogging with Boze’ (www.toddbozeman.blogspot).

“When we are playing well you can almost always bet the guys are accepting responsibility and moving on,” he wrote . “It’s something about success and young folks now. They forget quick, what got them to the point of growth.

“It reminded me of the movie the Bad News Bears when in the beginning of their quest they would make mistakes and argue with each other and blame. By the end of the movie they were working as a team...helping each other, accepting responsibility for their actions and winning not just ball games but winning in this game we call life.”

The men’s game will follow women’s action at 5:30 p.m. as the Lady Bulldogs (5-15, 2-7) look to snap a four-game losing streak against the Lady Bears (13-9, 5-4).

WSSB (90.3 FM) will carry both games.

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