NCCU vs UVU
Utah Valley will travel 2,135 miles to play NCCU on Tuesday night

Men's Basketball Chris Hooks, Assistant Sports Information Director/Broadcast Media Coordinator

NCCU MEN'S BASKETBALL GAME NOTES VS. UTAH VALLEY (NOV. 27, 2012)

Eagles and Wolverines meet for the first time since the 2007-08 campaign


NCCU vs. Utah Valley Game Notes (PDF)

NCCU Sports Network Broadcast Link (Video- $8.95)

NCCU Sports Network Live Audio Link (Free)


THE GAME
North Carolina Central University returns to the hardwood after one its worst offensive performances under fourth year head coach LeVelle Moton after hitting only 12 field goals in the 38-36 loss to Wagner. In the first home loss of the year, the Eagles and the Seahawks combined for 43 turnovers. NCCU looks to regain its offensive touch against the visiting Wolverines of Utah Valley University.

THE SERIES
NCCU and Utah Valley have met twice since the Eagles made the transition to the NCAA’s Division I level with the Wolverines taking both meetings during the 2007-08 campaign. The maroon and gray are 0-2 in the series against UVU, and are just 1-6 against teams from the Great West Conference.

THE NCCU SPORTS NETWORK
The NCCU Sports Network will have both a live video and audio stream for Tuesday night affair.  The video stream is $8.95 and the live audio is free.  Tune in beginning at 6:45 as play-by-play voice of the NCCU Sports Network Chris Hooks and NCCU hall-of-famer Joe Simmons get fans ready for the third meeting between the Eagles and Wolverines on the Champps Pregame Show.  Fans can also interact with the crew via twitter by sending tweets to @NCCUAthletics.

UTAH VALLEY UNIVERSITY "WOLVERINES"
Utah Valley University makes the trek to the Bull City having dropped its last two contests in the CBE Hall of Fame Classic played at Santa Clara University with disappointing defeats to the host Broncos (75-67) on Nov. 21 and a 25-point loss at the hands of USC Upstate two days later on Friday, Nov. 23. The Wolverines are current members of the Great West Conference, but will be moving to the WAC (Western Athletic Conference) in the 2013-14 academic year. The official date of joining the league is set at July 1, 2013. UVU is led by 11th year head coach Dick Hunsaker who has compiled a 190-114 record during his successful tenure. The Wolverines are led by 6-9 center Ben Aird who averaged 13.1 points per contest along with grabbing 7.4 rebounds, also tops on the team. 6-9 forward Nick Thompson and 6-4 Alfonzo Hubbard are tied for second on the squad averaging 10.0 points a game as Thompson averages 6.6 rebounds per affair while Hubbard is a near-perfect 16-for-17 from the foul line to begin the season. 6-3 junior shooting guard Jason Johnson is shooting a deadly 47.8 percent from three-point range (11-for-23), while his teammate Antoine Hosley is just behind him hitting 9-of-22 shots from behind-the-arc (40.9 percent). Holton Hunsaker (son of head coach Dick Hunsaker) transferred to UVU after signing at Louisiana Tech out of high school is averaging 6.6 points per game while shooting 17-for-18 (94.4 percent) from the foul line. The Wolverines boast six student-athletes that average more than six points a game, and average shooting 47.3 percent from the field as a team.

UP NEXT
The Eagles start MEAC play off with a bang as NCCU travels to the Gate City to take on the arch-rival Aggies of North Carolina A&T on Saturday, Dec. 1 at 4:00 p.m. from the Corbett Sports Center in Greensboro, N.C. Head coach LeVelle Moton is currently 3-1 all-time against the Aggies.

LAST TIME OUT: WAGNER-38, NCCU-36 (NOV. 24, 2012)
DURHAM, N.C. – The North Carolina Central University men’s basketball team dropped its first contest inside McDougald-McLendon Gym in the 2012-13 campaign as the Seahawks of Wagner College outlasted the Eagles in a defensive showdown 38-36 in which neither team shot over 30 percent from the field and committed a combined 43 turnovers in the second meeting between the two programs. The Eagles offensive struggles were apparent from the get-go as the visiting Seahawks jumped out to a 10-4 lead through the first six minutes following a Kenneth Ortiz layup with 14:14 remaining and the maroon and gray did not reach double figures until Drimir Ferguson drilled back-to-back free throws putting the score at 24-10 with 3:17 left. Head coach LeVelle Moton and his squad picked it up through the final three minutes going on a 7-to-1 spurt that included a falling three-pointer by Alfonzo Houston (Cleveland Heights, Ohio) who was clearly knocked to the hardwood as time was winding down, and the Seahawks took a 25-17 lead into the locker room. NCCU shot a paltry 5-for-29 (17.2 percent) from the field and committed nine turnovers, but thanks to stellar defense stayed in the ballgame as Wagner turned it over 14 times and shot just 8-for-22 (36.4 percent) in the first 20 minutes. The second half was a sloppy heavyweight title bout as both offenses still struggled. In fact, Wagner took nearly seven minutes into final stanza before scoring its first field goal as Ortiz hit a layup with 13:07 remaining to keep the maroon and gray at arm’s length at 27-22. A minute later, junior Jeremy Ingram (Charlotte, N.C.), who made his first start as an Eagle, drilled his first of two three-pointers on the day to cut the deficit to two. After WC’s Eric Fanning hit one-of-two free throws, Ingram drilled another three to tie the game up at 28 with 10:48 left. Wagner answered right back as Charlotte, North Carolina native Marcus Burton hit a three-pointer of his own to grab the lead back for the Seahawks at 31-28 with 10:29 remaining. Over the final 10 minutes, neither team could find an offensive rhythm, but the Eagles simply would not go away. With 5:11 to go Ingram’s jumper cut the margin back to three at 35-32, but neither team would score over the next four minutes until Wagner’s Jonathan Williams hit two shots from the foul line to stretch the lead back to five.  The maroon and gray cut it to one with 10 seconds left after a Stanton Kidd (Baltimore, Md.) jumped but Ray Willis’s (Atlanta, Ga.) running three-pointer as time expired bounced off the rim and the Seahawks held on for the 38-36 win, giving the youngest head coach in the nation, Bashir Mason, his first at Wagner. WC hit just three field goals in the second half going 3-for-16 (18.8 percent) while the Eagles picked it up in the second half going 7-for-24 (29.2 percent) to fall short in the loss.  Ingram was the lone Eagle in double figures with 10 points on 3-of-10 shooting, while Jay Copeland (Suffolk, Va.) nearly recorded a double-double with eight points and nine rebounds despite a 4-for-12 effort from the field. Kidd contributed seven points in the loss but was a disappointing 2-for-14 from the field on a frustrating afternoon for the junior transfer. Along with the low shooting percentages, there were a combined 38 personal fouls called in the game. Wagner (1-2) was led by Williams who ended up with 11 points and six rebounds, and Burton dropped in 10 points and grabbed six rebounds in the win for the Seahawks.

EAGLES VS, GREAT WEST CONFERENCE
NCCU has taken on four of the current five member league as the Eagles have yet to face N.J.I.T (New Jersey Institute of Technology) but are 1-6 against the league dating back to the 2007-08 season. Utah Valley will move to the WAC (Western Athletic Conference) in the 2013-14 season.

12/29/07 vs. Houston Baptist 56-63 L
1/22/08 at Utah Valley 52-68 L
2/19/08 vs. Utah Valley 62-69 L
12/7/08 vs. Texas-Pan American 50-56 L
1/10/09 vs. Chicago State 96-115 L
1/14/09 vs. Texas-Pan American 77-71 W
1/24/09 at Chicago State 63-103 L
2/21/09 at Texas-Pan American 66-67 L



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