North Carolina Central suffers 54-53 setback against Bluefield State
DURHAM, N.C. – After jumping out on a 10-0 run in the first two minutes of the contest, the North Carolina Central University women’s basketball team dropped a back-and-forth battle, 54-53, to the Bluefield State Lady Blues on Thursday, Jan. 2 inside McDougald-McLendon Gymnasium.
Junior Racquel Davis led the game with 17 points shooting 5-for-8 from the field and 7-for-11 from the charity stripe, while junior Khyra Conerly led the contest with eight boards.
As a team, the Lady Eagles shot 17-for-48 from the field (35.4%), 18-for-27 from the free throw line (66.7%) and 1-for-6 from behind the arc (16.7%) while collecting 33 rebounds, seven assists, nine steals and one block.
Next up, NCCU travels to Norfolk, Va., on Sunday, Jan. 5 where they take on Old Dominion in a 2 p.m. tipoff.
For complete story, visit www.nccueaglepride.com
Florida Atlantic Evades Hot-Shooting Bethune-Cookman with Big Second Half
BOCA RATON, Fla. - Despite leading at halftime, the Lady Wildcats fell to Florida Atlantic, 81-65, in the final non-conference tilt of the season, Thursday night at FAU Arena, on the heels of a significant FAU scoring surge in the second half.
Shakeyia Colyer showed great offensive balance across the two halves to lead the Lady Wildcats with a career-high and team season-best 26 points on 63.2 percent shooting. In addition, Colyer tallied five rebounds and a pair of assists. Chastity Rene Taylor wasn’t far behind, putting up 18 on 50 percent shooting in her 12th double-digit performance of the campaign.
A Miami native making a homecoming of sorts, redshirt junior forward Kayla Crawford topped the team with a career-high 12 rebounds; the second-best rebounding effort on the team this season.
Although B-CU shot a season-high 44.1 percent from the field against FAU, and pressured the Owls into the second-highest turnover count of the year (19), FAU shot 43.7 percent and outscored B-CU 47-29 in the second half.
The Lady Wildcats will go the next eight days without a game on the schedule, before going full bore into the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference slate, opening with North Carolina A&T on Jan. 11 and North Carolina Central on Jan. 13, both at Richard V. Moore Gymnasium.
For complete story, visit www.bcuathletics.com
Howard Pulls Away Late to Take Down Delaware State
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Delaware State (3-9 overall, 0-2 MEAC) came up short on the road Thursday night against Howard (5-1, 1-0), 70-64, despite a double-double performance by Tierra Hawkins and Deanna Harmon.
DSU shot 41 percent (25-of-60) from the floor, while HU finished the game at 35 percent (24-of-69). On the glass, Delaware State out-rebounded the Bison, 50-37, but the difference turned out to be the turnovers with the Lady Hornets committing 27, compared to Howard’s 15.
Individually, Hawkins led all scorers with 26 points (10-of-18) and totaled a career-high 16 rebounds for her sixth double-double of the season. Harmon (5-of-7) and Raven Bankston (6-of-21) both poured in 15 points and dished out a team-high three assists. Harmon also pulled down a career-high 12 rebounds and collected a game-high five steals.
Howard had three players score in double figures, led by guard Te’Shya Heslip’s 22-point (8-of-13) and seven-assist performance. Along with scoring 15 points (6-of-15), Shavonne Duckett tallied 11 rebounds, while Cheyenne Brown finished with 10 points (3-of-12), six rebounds and a game-high two blocks.
Coming up, the Columbia Blue & Red will tipoff a three-game homestand next Tuesday (5:30 p.m.) against NJIT.
For complete story, visit www.dsuhornets.com or www.hubison.com