Savannah State Claims MEAC Regular Season Title With Win Over UMES
PRINCESS ANNE, Md.- Deric Rudolph scored 21 points to lead Savannah State to a 73-54 win over Maryland-Eastern Shore in WP Hytche before a crowd of 1,323.
Rudolph, who made scored 15 of his points in the first half, also had three assists and two steals.
The win ends the Tigers (21-10, 14-2) regular season with a 13 game winning streak and gives them the top seed heading into the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament.
Rashad Hassan added 18 points, Arnold Louis came off the bench to score 16 and Jyles Smith grabbed 11 rebounds.
With the scored knotted at eight, Rudolph drilled a 3-pointer to start a 15-5 spurt to give SSU a 23-13 lead with 11:13 on the clock.
The Eagles pulled within 26-19 but 10 unanswered points by Savannah State put the visitors ahead 36-19 with 2:46 left in the opening period.
SSU led 40-22 at intermission.
The Tigers led by 23 early in the second half and a 3-pointer by Rudolph at the 15:16 mark gave the Tigers the largest lead of the evening at 54-30.
UMES would battle back and slice their deficit to 65-51 with 5:10 left but would get no closer as Savannah State would hold the Eagles to one field goal the rest of the way and win by 19 points.
SSU shot 50 percent from the floor in the second half and 47.3 percent from the floor for the game.
The Tigers out-rebounded UMES 39 to 29.
Hillary Hailey led UMES (7-22, 4-12) with a game-high 22 points.
The victory gave the Tigers their first regular season conference title since the 1980-81 squad won the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
To Read more, visit www.ssuathletics.com or www.umeshawks.com
NCCU Spoils Hampton's Senior Night
HAMPTON, VA.- In the final contest of the 2011-12 regular season, the North Carolina Central University defense held Hampton University to 27.1 percent shooting, slowed the MEAC's leading scorer, Darrion Pellum, to three second half points, and Dominique Sutton (Durham, N.C.) recorded his ninth double-double of the season as the Eagles finished off the Pirates 60-45 on Thursday night inside the HU Convocation Center in Hampton, Va.
Sutton ended the night with 17 points and 11 rebounds recording back-to-back double-doubles in the last two ballgames with his 23 points 11 rebounds in win over SC State on Monday, Feb. 27.
Willis finished the game with a game-high 18 points and nearly recorded his fifth double-double of the season with nine rebounds.
NCCU outscored HU 30-16 in the paint as the Pirates were led by Pellum's 12 points as the senior finished 2-for-11 from the field and went 0-for-7 from the outside in his final contest at home.
The 27.1 percent the Pirates shot (13-for-48) is the lowest percentage the Eagles held an opponent to this season, with previous low coming on Dec. 3, 2011 against arch-rival North Carolina A&T who shot 27.5 percent in the 65-46 NCCU victory.
The win clinches the first regular season with a winning record for NCCU (16-14 overall, 10-6 MEAC) since the 2004-05 campaign and more than likely earns the Eagles the fifth seed in the 2012 MEAC Basketball Tournament in Winston-Salem, N.C.
To Read more, visit www.NCCUEaglePride.com or www.hamptonpirates.com
MSU Drop Rattlers 74-68
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Morgan State had four players score in double-figures and hit free throws down the stretch to help beat Florida A&M 74-68 on Thursday night at the Al Lawson Center in Tallahassee (Fla.).
Aric Brooks led the Bears with 15 points, while Justin Black had 12, and DeWayne Jackson and Shaquille Duncan added 10 apiece.
Morgan State shot 68 percent (17-25) from the field and hit 3-of-3 3-pointers to help build a 48-35 halftime lead.
Stevens was the only player to score in double figures for the Rattlers, who connected on 23 of 61 shots (37 percent) and only had four assists for the night.
MSU responded by outscoring the Rattlers 9-2 margin and jumper by Brooks gave the Bears a 66-53 lead with 6:46 remaining. However the Rattlers stayed within striking distance and made it interesting in the final four minutes of the game.
To Read more, visit www.morganstatebears.com or www.famuathletics.com
Balanced Hornets Win Regular Season Finale
Dover, Del. (Mar. 1, 2012) --- Casey Walker led five players in double figures with 17 points in Delaware State's 82-71 win over South Carolina State in the Hornets' regular season finale in Memorial Hall this evening.
DSU won for the 11th time in the last 13 games to finish the regular season with a 15-13 overall record. The Hornets won 11 of their last 12 MEAC contests to post a 12-4 mark in league play.
Marques Oliver recorded his sixth double double of the season, collecting 16 points and 12 rebounds, while Amere May came off the bench to add 15 points for the Hornets.
Jay Threatt, playing in his final home game, tallied 12 points, nine assists and six steals for DSU.
South Carolina State's Brandon Riley and Omar Sanders scored 20 points each to lead all players.
Delaware State was 26-for-56 from the field (46.4%), including 7-of-21 from three point territory.
South Carolina State hit 28 of its 57 shots from the floor (49.1%), including 4-of-11 from beyond the arc.
The Hornets were 23 of 30 at the free throw line, while SC State was 11-for-17.
To Read more, visit www.dsuhornets.com or www.scsuathletics.com
Lights Out: Basketball's Blackout Game Is An 88-80 Win Over CSU
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Another blackout game at Bethune-Cookman? The Wildcat basketball team got its version of the football experience to deal with Monday and won an 88-80 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference victory over Coppin State.
Javoris Bryant had just given the Wildcats a 29-27 lead with 6:07 remaining in the first when historic Moore Gymnasium went dark due to an outage that left 2,000 Daytona Beach homes without power for 42 minutes. It was almost like the football's team 2010 game against North Carolina A&T when Municipal Stadium lights went off for nearly two hours during a nationally televised game.
Same result though. B-CU's management team handled the situation according to plan and the game resumed at 9:35 p.m. - one hour and one minute after play was halted - and more importantly, the Wildcats (15-16 overall, 11-5 conference) won a key game heading into next week's MEAC tournament.
B-CU clinched the fourth seed and will face 13th seed South Carolina State Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
During the delay, the B-CU band played. Coppin State went outside to its bus while most of the Wildcats stayed near their bench with staffers getting updates from the South Carolina State-Delaware State and North Carolina Central-Hampton games that had possible impact on B-CU's tournament seeding.
When the power came back on at 9:16 p.m., both coaches, officials and game administrators met to discuss how to proceed.
With his family here from Wichita, Kan., Garrius Holloman was 9-12 from the field en route to 22 points. Ricky Johnson came out of a slump to score 16 on 5-9 three-point shooting and Anthony Breeze controlled the inside to score 15 on 7-11 shooting from the field.
Johnson hadn't made a three-pointer in the last seven games and was 4-27 from the field since the last time he reached double-figures Jan. 16 against Savannah State. His five three-pointers matched a season-high.
With North Carolina Central beating Hampton, B-CU needed the win to stay in fourth place and pulled out a win they needed.
To Read more, visit www.b-cuathletics.com or www.coppinstatesports.com
Spartans Top A&T for 4th Straight Win, Clinch No. 2 Seed in MEAC Tourney
GREENSBORO, N.C. - Kyle O'Quinn notched his 19th double-double of the season with 14 points and 13 rebounds as Norfolk State capped the regular season with its fourth straight win, a 72-65 victory over North Carolina A&T on Thursday night at Corbett Sports Center.
NSU turned the tables on the perimeter-oriented Aggies, burying seven 3-pointers en route to a 36-29 halftime lead. The seven made treys are the most by the Spartans in any half this season, and they came from six different players. Chris McEachin, who scored eight of his 10 points in the first half, was the only Spartan to hit a pair of triples in the half. The NSU defense, meanwhile, held A&T to just 2-of-8 shooting from long range in the period.
O'Quinn then went to work inside in the second half, scoring 10 of his 14 points after the intermission. But he also got plenty of help, as three other Spartans scored in double figures on the evening and all five starters scored at least nine points. Marcos Tamares hit back-to-back jumpers to start the second half, and Rodney McCauley hit his second 3-pointer of the night as NSU doubled its halftime lead in the first two minutes of the half, taking a 43-29 lead.
Tamares finished with 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting and also grabbed five rebounds for NSU, which shot 51 percent from the floor and outrebounded the Aggies 42-33. McEachin and Pendarvis Williams added 10 points apiece and McCauley had nine, giving NSU's starting five a total of 55 points. Rob Johnson tallied seven points and five rebounds off the bench, and Fuentes notched a game-high six assists.
Powell and Austin Witter scored 11 points apiece for the A&T, which shot just 36 percent for the game.
To Read more, visit www.nsuspartans.com or www.ncataggies.com