Nov. 28, 2009

Final Stats |  NCCU at IOWA Gallery 

IOWA CITY, IOWA (NCCUEaglePride.com)- The North Carolina Central University men's basketball team took on its second Big Ten opponent in the last two seasons, and the Eagles gave the University of Iowa all it could handle and more in dropping its fourth-straight contest in close fashion 73-63, the final from Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Saturday afternoon.

Storming out of the gates, NCCU took an 11-5 lead forcing an Iowa timeout with 12:58 to go in the first half thanks to a Nick Chasten (Raleigh, N.C.) putback.

A Cully Payne jumper with 9:12 remaining helped Iowa return the favor in scoring the next 11 points and grab a five-point lead at 16-11. From that point forward both teams traded baskets as Iowa took a 30-21 lead into the lockeroom.

Give credit to the NCCU defense holding Iowa to 1-of-11 shooting from beyond the arc, and forcing nine turnovers through the first 20 minutes. On the other hand, the Eagle offense hit just 2-of-7 from the perimeter, and just nine field goals in the first half, shooting just 33.3 percent.

The second half saw both team pick it up offensively as Iowa widened the gap to as high as 15 with 11:30 to go following a Brennan Cougill layup. Back came the Eagles who made yet another second half run to cut a 15-point deficit to seven less than four minutes later on the heels of a Michael Glasker (Newport News, Va.) lay-in putting the score at 53-46 with 7:49 left.

After back-to-back buckets by the Hawkeyes, NCCU made its final rally of the game thanks to a clutch three-pointer by Michael Glasker cutting what was a double-digit deficit to six at 59-53 with 5:16 to go. That was the closest NCCU got on the afternoon, unable to make the stops down stretch, falling 73-63 to the Hawkeyes.

Junior guards Vincent Davis (Nashville, Tenn.) and Glasker led the Eagles in scoring, combining for 35 points between the two of them. Davis scored 15 second-half points to finish with a season-high 18 points, while Michael Glasker topped his previous career mark of 15 against FIU, by scoring 17 points including 3-for-4 from the outside.

The focus of the Iowa defense was on trying to slow down junior transfer C.J. Wilkerson (Oxford, N.C.) who returned to Iowa a place he called home while attending Southeastern Iowa Community College in nearby Burlington, Iowa. Wilkerson finished with just three points, but the junior added a career-best 7 assists to help the Eagles cause.

NCCU (1-6) looks ahead to its next opponent, Air Force, whom the Eagles will take on Wednesday, Dec. 2 at Clune Arena in Colorado Springs.

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