THE GAME
After dropping a hard-fought 87-83 decision against Wagner on Wednesday, the Eagles of North Carolina Central University return home and make the short 83-mile trek west to Winston-Salem, N.C. to take on the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest University. This is final road game before NCCU hosts three straight at home to end November.

THE SERIES
NCCU and Wake Forest have met on two previous occasions on the hardwood with the Demon Deacons taking both matchups. The first came during the 2007-08 season on Nov. 19, 2007 as WFU beat NCCU 75-58, and the second came on opening night in the 2008-09 campaign with the No. 21 Deacs beating NCCU 94-48. NCCU is 0-11 against the ACC during its move to Division I.

NCCU SPORTS NETWORK
Eagle Gameday built by Dayeco Construction Co. begins at 6:45 p.m. exclusively at NCCUEaglePride.com, Chris Hooks and Joe Simmons will broadcast all the live action from the Lawrence Joel Coliseum.  Fans call also follow the action online by following @NCCUAthletics and @NCCURadio and using the hashtag #NCCUWFU to follow the contest live on Twitter.  ESPN3.com will also be televising the contest as Evan Lepler and former Demon Deacon great Randolph Childress will be on the call.

WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY "DEMON DEACONS"
After two contests into the 2011-12 season, the Wake Forest University Demon Deacons are sitting at 2-0 with wins over Loyola University Maryland (75-63) of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) and Georgia Southern (81-72) of the Southern Conference. The Demon Deacs are coming off a Wednesday night home-win over the Eagles where four Wake Forest student-athletes reached double figures leading with Travis McKie who finished with a game-high 23 points along with seven rebounds in the win. Winston-Salem product C.J. Harris finished the night 3-for-5 from the perimeter and added 20 points and four steals for the Demon Deacs. Point guard Tony Chennault ended the game with 14 points, four assists and four steals. After two contests, Wake Forest boasts three players in double-figures as McKie leads the way averaging 21.0 points a game shooting 13-of-22 from the field (59.1 percent) and a stellar 14-of-18 from the free-throw line. Two-guard C.J. Harris is averaging 20.0 points after the first two games hitting 5-of-8 from three-point range (62.5 percent). Seven-foot center Carson Derosiers leads the team with 11 blocks in two games. Wake Forest is led by second year head coach Jeff Bzdelik who has compiled a 121-129 record throughout his coaching tenure that includes stops at the Air Force Academy, Colorado, and the NBA’s Denver Nuggets. At Wake Forest his record is 10-24 as he has been charged with building the Demon Deacon program back to the top of the ACC mountain.

UP NEXT
NCCU returns home for its longest homestand of the 2011-12 season with four contests that include the Eagles first MEAC ballgame as official members on Dec. 3. Prior to that highly anticipated showdown with North Carolina A&T, NCCU will have a gamut of contests that will entail three games in a six day period beginning on Wednesday, Nov. 23 against Morris College at 8:00 p.m. Three days later the Eagles will host Barber-Scotia College on Saturday, Nov. 26 at 4:00 p.m. and on Nov. 29 the maroon and gray will take on Southern Wesleyan University. The final contest of the home swing will see NCCU host arch-rival North Carolina A&T to begin the month of December as the maroon and gray will partake in its first MEAC contest as official members.

LAST TIME OUT: WAGNER-87 NCCU-83 (NOV. 16, 2011)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. (NCCUEaglePride.com) – Playing in a hostile environment in Wagner College’s home opener, missing senior Nick Chasten due to injury (Raleigh, N.C.), and allowing the Seahawks to hit 10-three pointers, the Eagles of North Carolina Central University were still able to battle back from a 14-point second half hole and nearly beat Wagner in their first-ever meeting dropping an 87-83 decision on Wednesday night from the Spiro Sports Center in Staten Island, N.Y. In a contest that saw the Seahawks lead from the get-gan Lepler and Randolph Cho, NCCU always found a way to claw its way back and it began in the first half with 4:40 to go when Wagner led 38-25 following a jumper by Seahawk guard Latif Rivers. An 13-2 run over the next three minutes that ended with a Dominique Sutton (Durham, N.C.) layup cut the deficit to two at 40-38, and the Eagles took a 44-40 deficit into the locker room. The highlight of the first half came with 7:30 remaining in the when junior Ray Willis skied through the middle of the lane slamming over Wagner’s Jonathan Williams drawing the foul and sending a chorus of "oohs" and "ahs" from the crowd. Willis ended the first frame with 10 points, while his counterpart Sutton finished with 18 points including a 6-for-6 mark from the free-throw line. The Seahawks made their biggest move beginning in the second half as it scored the first eight points of the frame to widen the margin to 52-40 with 17:44 to go, forcing head coach LeVelle Moton to call a timeout to thwart the momentum. Despite the Wagner lead growing to 14 on three different occasions, NCCU would not go away into the New York night and with 10:36 remaining a Karamo Jawara (Bergen, Norway) made it 57-49 ballgame keeping the Eagles in the hunt ending an 8-2 maroon and gray run. The lead floated around the 6-to-10 point margin until NCCU made its final move with 3:40 to go following a Rivers made three to put the score at 83-73. The Eagles outscored Wagner 10-4 down the stretch, and it was almost enough to grab the big road win. With 2:23 left junior Ebuka Anyaorah (Suwanee, Ga.) drilled a three-pointer to cut the margin to two at 83-81, and just a minute later two Willis free-throws gave the maroon and gray its first and only tie of the ballgame at 83 with 1:22 left. A Chris Martin missed three gave NCCU the ball with under a minute to go, but Sutton’s shots in the lane would not go in and Wagner was able to pull away from there to score the games’ final four points thus giving the Seahawks the 87-83 win in its home opener. In the win for Wagner, the Seahawks shot a ridiculous 50.9 percent including a 10-for-21 mark (47.6 percent) from the outside. NCCU shot at a 47.3 percent clip and hit 25-for-29 (86.2 percent) free throws in the loss. The Eagles were led by Sutton who finished with his second double-double with a career-high 29 points and 11 rebounds. Willis finished with 21 points, while Landon Clement (Raleigh, N.C.) ended up with 11 points and is now tied for seventh all-time at NCCU with 115 career three-pointers tying James Tucker (99-00, 02-04).

THE SERIES