Game Statistics        Video Interviews         Video of Game-Winning Play & Celebration

DURHAM, N.C. (www.NCCUEaglePride.com) – With the scored tied and eight-tenths of a second left in the contest, North Carolina Central University freshman guard Emanuel Chapman tossed an inbounds pass from underneath his own goal to junior forward Nick Chasten, who caught the ball in mid-air and layed it in as the buzzer sounded for a 77-75 victory over Coppin State University on Monday night inside McDougald-McLendon Gymnasium in Durham, N.C.

After netting his 16th point of the night, all coming in the second half, Chasten raced down the court in celebration. He was met by hundreds of NCCU students who stormed the court and was then tackled by his teammates.

“The middle was open all night on the out-of-bounds plays,” Chasten said. “I just knew when we lined up that it was going to be open. I thought, ‘I haven’t hit many game-winners in my life, so let this be a big one.’”

It was.

“I drew that play up in the huddle,” said NCCU head coach LeVelle Moton about the final basket. “It’s one I’ve always had. I just knew they would primarily focus on C.J. and Landon, so we put Nick in the corner and had Landon screen for him.”

Chatman’s game-winning inbounds pass provided him with a season-high eight assists along with six points, none bigger than the two free throws he calmly knocked down with 37 seconds left to give the host Eagles a three point lead.

NCCU (12-11) was led by senior guard #C.J. Wilkerson# with 21 points, four rebounds and four assists. Junior guard Landon Clement added 19 points, including three 3-pointers to tie the school record for long range baskets in a season with 87, equaling the mark set by his current head coach LeVelle Moton during the 1994-95 campaign.

Coppin State (12-12) was paced by junior guard Michael Harper with 21 points, shooting 6-fof-13 from the field with five 3-pointers. Junior forward Akeem Ellis tallied 15 points with a team-high seven boards to aid the visitors.

CSU shot a blistering 53.2 percent from the field (25-of-47), including 45.0 percent from long distance (9-for-20), and forced NCCU into 16 turnovers. The hometown Eagles, however, out-rebounded CSU 33-28, and held the visitors to only three offensive caroms.

“Coppin State is a team that I think will win the MEAC Tournament, because they are so difficult to guard,” said Moton. “They present so many difficult match-up problems. They are just loaded and ‘Fang’ is doing a wonderful job.”

In a game that experienced five ties and eight lead changes, CSU enjoyed its largest lead of the night with a nine-point cushion (25-16) at 7:18 of the first half. NCCU closed the half on a 21-11 run to take a 37-36 advantage into the locker room.

CSU regained the lead after intermission and pushed the gap to 61-56 on a Harper bomb with 8:43 on the clock. NCCU scored the next seven points, all by Chasten, to take back the lead 63-61 at 6:24.

After a pair of free throws by CSU’s Harper to even the score, Clement nailed a 3-pointer to put the Eagles back on top with 4:48 remaining. Harper hit two more free throws at 3:49 to bring the visitors to within one point at 66-65, before a circus, reverse layup by Chapman extended NCCU’s lead to three points.

CSU again made it a one-point ballgame with two free throws by Ellis at 2:15, but Wilkerson had the answer for NCCU with a long triple at 1:47 to make the score 71-67.

After Wilkerson made two from the charity stripe with 1:22 left to provide the Eagles with a 73-69 margin, Ellis kept CSU within striking distance by knocking down his third trifecta of the game to trim the deficit to one point with 42 seconds remaining.

CSU coach Ron “Fang” Mitchell decided to have his squad foul the rookie guard Chapman with 37 seconds on the clock, sending him to the foul line for two shots. He made both freebies to extend NCCU’s advantage to 75-72.

Harper had one more answer for CSU when he picked up his dribble and nailed a long distance three to tie the contest at 75-75 with 19 seconds left.

On NCCU’s next possession, Wilkerson drove to the basket for the potential game-winner, but he missed the mark and the ball went out of bounds off of CSU with eight-tenths of a second on the clock, setting up the second-chance game-winner.

NCCU returns to action on Thursday (Feb. 17) at Coastal Carolina in Conway, S.C.