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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Tournament Most Outstanding Performer Reggie Holmes scored 20 points and Jermaine Bolden added 18 as No. 1 seed Morgan State outlasted No. 3 Norfolk State 83-69 in the MEAC Tournament final on Saturday night at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Michael Deloach (Rocky Mount, N.C.) scored a game-high 30 for the Spartans (13-18), who were making their first MEAC finals appearance.

Marquise Kately added 16 points and Kevin Thompson had 15 and 11 rebounds off the bench for MSU (23-11), which earned the conference's automatic berth into next week's NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament.

NSU started the game strong, getting early 3-pointers by Deloach, Corey Lyons (Bronx, N.Y.) and Kyle O'Quinn (Jamaica, N.Y.) to take a 10-2 lead seven minutes in. But the Bears answered with an 18-0 run over the next four minutes to take the lead for good. Holmes and Bolden each hit two 3-pointers in the spurt, which put MSU ahead 20-10 with 8:58 left in the half.

The Spartans answered with the next five points on a trey from Lyons and a layup by Deloach to get within five, but MSU led 32-25 at the half.

Rogers Barnes hit a 3-pointer right out of the break to give the Bears a double-digit lead at 35-25, and NSU faced an uphill climb the rest of the way. Facing a strong Bears' team and foul trouble to several of its key players, NSU had to scrap and claw the whole second half. Deloach found his stride after halftime and brought the Spartans to within 44-37 on a layup with 14:34 remaining. But the Bears responded with the next six points, capped by a Kately layup to go back up by 13.

NSU's last surge began with about eight minutes left. Trailing 61-49, the Spartans went on a 9-3 run which was capped by a runner and a 3-pointer from Lyons. That cut the deficit to six, 64-58, with 5:30 left.

But the Bears were too strong, scoring the next 11 points to put it away. Kately scored four of those points.

The Bears shot 49 percent from the floor, including 64 percent (16-of-25) in the second half. NSU shot 45 percent from the floor and 86 percent from the free-throw line. But NSU committed 16 turnovers, 10 of them in the first half.

Kately contributed seven boards for the Bears, who outrebounded NSU 36-25. Fifteen of the Bears' rebounds came on the offensive end, six of them from Thompson.

Deloach was 8-of-20 from the floor and 12-of-13 from the foul line. Lyons scored 14 points before fouling out. He was one of three Spartans to be disqualified due to fouls. Kevin Worsley (Chesapeake, Va.) had eight points, four rebounds and two steals. Worsley, Lyons and Oludele Doherty (Richmond, Va.) played their final games as Spartans.

Deloach and Lyons were named to the all-tournament team along with Holmes, Coppin State's Tywain McKee and Bethune-Cookman's C.J. Reed.

“I'm extremely proud of this group of guys,” NSU head coach Anthony Evans said. “Not many people expected us to be here, and we've had a lot of adversity along the way. But they worked hard and never quit.”