Box Score DAYTONA BEACH, Fla—The South Carolina State Bulldogs closed out the regular season in a hard fought battle only to fall short, 72-62, to host Bethune-Cookman Thursday (March. 6) at Moore Gymnasium.

 South Carolina State  finish the regular season with a 10-21 overall, 7-9 MEAC record and will more than likely be the 7^th seed in this year's Mid-Eastern Athletic (MEAC) basketball tournament held March 9-14, in Norfolk, VA at the Scope Arena.

"It was tough loss for us tonight at Bethune, but In spite of the loss we did some positive  things throughout the game, " said SC State head coach Murray Garvin. "We were without our leading rebounder and shot blocker out (Daryl Palmer) and we out rebounded a much bigger team. "\

"We had some turnovers (16) here or there and we could have had a better outcome in our favor. Our game plan was solid but we just couldn't get the stops when we needed them on defense," said Garvin.

Sophomore guard Greg Mortimer led the Bulldogs with a team-high 18 points and three rebounds, while freshman guard Edward Stephens managed to finish with 16, despite being banged up in the early minutes of the game.

Junior guard/forward Gabe McCray had a solid performance filling in for the injured Palmer with eight points and four rebounds. Sophomore forward Patrick Kirksey chipped in seven points and four rebounds.

, giving up a costly 16 turnovers in the game the Bulldogs dominated in the paint outscoring the Wildcats 34-24, while shooting 51.1% (24-of-47) from the field. SC State won the battle of the boars outrebounding Bethune-Cookman 27-22 on the night.

BC-U was led by senior guard Ricky Johnson with a game-high 21 points, while teammate Mikel Trapp added 19 in the win.

Garvin also stated, "The regular season is behind us now and finishing 7^th in the league when they picked us to finish 12^th is a move in the right direction.  By no means are we ok with that but we won more conference games this year than in the past three years and now it's tournament time and we have a fresh start so who knows what can happen."

South Carolina State's next outing will be in the 2015 MEAC Tournament which starts on Monday at the Norfolk Scope in Norfolk, Va. The official tournament seedlings and bracket will be released by the MEAC on Friday.

 For more information on South Carolina State University basketball, please call the Office of Athletic Media Relations at (803) 536-7060, or visit the official Bulldogs website at www.scsuathletics.com.