Box Score | MEACHoops.com


NORFOLK, Va., March 9, 2023 – North Carolina Central, the fourth seed, used a fourth quarter run to get pass fifth-seeded Coppin State Thursday in the quarterfinals of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Basketball Tournament at the Scope Arena.
 
Aniya Finger had 12 points and a game-high 14 rebounds, while Morgan Callahan contributed 11 points and four boards in the win, which lifted head coach Trisha Stafford-Odom’s team to 15-15 on the season. Kira Lowery tossed in eight points and Tippy Robertson seven, along with six rebounds.
 
Stafford-Odom’s team will meet top-seeded Norfolk State in a 12 p.m. semifinal game Friday.
 
Coppin State and head coach Jermaine Woods ended their campaign at 8-22. Mossi Staples had a game-high 20 points and six rebounds to lead Coppin. Hope Evans added 10 points, while Colleen Bucknor had 10 rebounds to go with seven points.
 
NCCU, which split two regular season games with Coppin State – with each winning at home -- trailed for most of the closely-contested game before seizing control in the final minutes of the third period and the start of the final quarter.
 
Down 29-23 at the half and behind 36-31 with 4:50 left in the third, NCCU closed the period with an 11-3 spree to take a 42-39 lead after three quarters, then used an a 8-0 run to start the final quarter to build a 50-39 edge with 7:20 remaining.
 
Coppin State, behind the play of Staples, closed the gap to 51-48 on a follow shot by Bucknor with 2:33 remaining, but NCCU scored six of the game’s final eight points to pull out the win in the game which featured six lead changes and four ties.
 
In pulling out the win, NCCU survived 25 turnovers. The fourth seed had a big afternoon inside, however, scoring 30 points in the paint to just 12 for Coppin. Stafford-Odom’s team also enjoyed a big edge in shooting percentage, 39.6 (21-53) to 29.3 percent (17-58) for Coppin State.