Complete Game Notes
THE GAME
North Carolina Central University will look to regroup following its most lopsided loss of the season on Thursday night falling 94-59 to the Chanticleers of Coastal Carolina University. The Eagles are out for revenge after falling nearly a month ago to Norfolk State 74-71 in which NCCU trailed by double figures. NCCU is 7-3 against MEAC competition in the 2010-11 season.
THE SERIES
NCCU and Norfolk State are meeting for the 35th time in program history. NSU holds a 27-7 record in the series that began in 1964. The Spartans have taken the only two meetings since NCCU has moved to the Division I level, holding on for a 74-71 win at Joseph Echols Hall on Jan. 22, 2011. NSU returns to Durham for the first time since Feb. 22, 1997, a game NCCU won 76-74.
NORFOLK STATE UNIVERSITY “SPARTANS”
Norfolk State University enters the weekend an even 6-6 in the MEAC, and because of the logjam at the top of the conference the Spartans are tied for fifth in the league with Florida A&M. After winning five-in-a-row to end the month of January, NSU has cooled off a bit beginning February with a 1-3 mark as the Spartans ended a three-game losing streak with a 76-68 victory over Howard on Monday night. In that contest perhaps the league’s most talented player Kyle O’Quinn registered his fifth consecutive double-double, his 13th overall scoring 20 pts and ripping down 15 boards. He has seven double-doubles in the last eight ballgames. With his performance since the middle of January, O’Quinn has vaulted himself into player of the year talk as he is ranked fifth in the league in scoring at 16.3 points a game and second in the conference behind NC A&T Thomas Coleman averaging 10.7 rebounds per contest. The junior center is No. 3 in the league in field goal percentage at 54.4 percent as well as No. 2 in blocked shots at 3.1 rejections per game. His teammate Rob Hampton has kept the status quo sitting in eighth position in the conference averaging 15.0 points a game, while his backcourt mate Aleek Pauline is 27th in the conference dropping in 10.0 points a game. Pauline sits third in the league The Spartans are led by fourth year head coach Anthony Evans who is 48-68 during his tenure. The last win for NCCU in this series came in Norfolk State’s previous appearance at McDougald-McLendon Gym, as NCCU took a 76-74 win on Feb. 22, 1997.
UP NEXT
Just two days after Saturday’s matchup with Norfolk State will be the long-awaited rematch between NCCU and North Carolina A&T on Monday night Feb. 21. at 7:30. In the last meeting, the Eagles outlasted the Aggies on Jan. 24 90-84 in overtime where C.J. Wilkerson blasted A&T for a career-high 41 points. The Aggies have not been in the Bull City for a contest against NCCU since Dec. 16, 1985. After that contest the Eagles head out on the road for their final two road games of the 2010-11 season in the Sunshine State (Feb. 26 at Florida A&M and Feb. 28 at Bethune-Cookman)
