NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE UNIVERSITY "AGGIES"
North Carolina A&T enters the conference enter on the heels of a 90-79 victory over crosstown rival UNCG on Wednesday, Nov. 28 at the Greensboro Coliseum. Junior Lamont Middleton led all scorers with 24 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field. Middleton drilled three shots from the outside and was 9-for-11 from the foul line in thw Aggie victory. Off the bench, junior guard Jeremy Underwood scored 22 points going 12-for-14 from the charity stripe in the win. Freshman forward Bruce Beckford went 5-for-6 from the field to add 14 points as senior Adrian Powell dropped in nine points and seven rebounds, while Austin Witter grabbed a game high 10 rebounds. Middleton, a junior transfer has made an impact from day one for the Aggies averaging 13.6 points a game placing him 12th in the league in that category. The Bronx, N.Y. product is averaging 3.9 rebounds along with 2.6 assists a game. Senior guard Jean Louisme is second on the team averaging 9.0 points a game, while fellow senior Adrian Powell contributes 8.1 points per contest as well. Senior Austin Witter is 11th in the conference in rebounding grabbing 6.6 boards a game. NC A&T is led by new head coach Cy Alexander who is no stranger to the MEAC after his days at South Carolina State where led the Bulldogs to five tournament championships in seven appearances. Alexander was also successful at Tennessee State where he led the Tigers to the 2008 Ohio Valley Conference tournament championship game. Alexander and has compiled a career record of 348-315. His first squad at A&T has beaten crosstown rival UNCG (90-79) and preseason No. 1 in the Big South Conference Campbell (85-60, Nov. 23 in Las Vegas, Nev.) in the last seven days.

UP NEXT
The Eagles play their final contest before the mandatory exam break as the Colonels of Eastern Kentucky make the trip to the Bull City for a rematch of last season’s December contest in which EKU beat NCCU 75-62 in Richmond, Ky. NCCU’s next contest will take place Dec. 19 at Drake University. The Eagles will play the final three games in the month of December on the road.

LAST TIME OUT: NCCU-70 UTAH VALLEY-52 (NOV. 27, 2012)
DURHAM, N.C. –A 16-for-26 (61.5 percent) shooting effort in the first half that included a 20-to-6 run over a seven minute span gave the North Carolina Central University men’s basketball program all the cushion it needed to take down the Wolverines of Utah Valley 70-52 on Tuesday night at McDougald-McLendon Gym. NCCU stormed out front from the opening tip as they took a 7-3 advantage through the first four minutes, but Emanuel Chapman’s (Raleigh, N.C.) one-man 8-0 run pushed the Eagle lead to 15-3 forcing Utah Valley head coach Dick Hunsaker to call a timeout and sub out his entire starting five to try and swing the momentum away from the maroon and gray. UVU’s Antoine Hosley drilled a three-pointer immediately out of the timeout to put the score at 15-6, but the Eagles were just too much for the road weary Wolverines going on a 25-12 run over the remainder of the half to take a 40-18 lead into the locker room. Chapmen’s eight points and eight assists in the first frame were just what the Eagles needed to get the squad fired up. A stark contrast from Saturday afternoon’s dismal offensive performance, the Eagles missed just 10 shots and 4-for-9 (44.4 percent) from three-point range. NCCU outscored UVU 22-to-8 in the paint through the first 20 minutes and scored 12 points off 10 Wolverine turnovers. The second half was more of the same for LeVelle Moton’s squad as the lead grew to as high as 26 on a number of occasions, while Utah Valley continued to battle hard, but simply could not catch up falling in the contest 70-52. Three student-athletes recorded double figures in the win as Ray Willis (Atlanta, Ga.) shot 6-for-11 from the field to finish with 15 points and nearly recorded fifth double-double with nine rebounds. Junior Stanton Kidd (Baltimore, Md.) ended the evening with 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting that included two big three-pointers in the second half to keep the Wolverines at arm’s length. Redshirt sophomore Jay Copeland (Suffolk, Va.) contributed 11 points as he was a perfect 4-for-4 from the field. Chapman ended up with nine assists and needs just six more to tie former Eagle Michael Glasker for ninth on the all-time career assists list at NCCU with 268. In defeat, Utah Valley’s (3-5) Ben Aird ended the game with 12 points on 6-of-10 shooting while Alfonzo Hubbard had 10 points in the loss. The maroon and gray outrebounded UVU 32-26 and outscored the Wolverines 34-26 in the paint. With the win, in Moton’s tenure the Eagles are 27-12 at home in the friendly confines of McDougald Gym.

NCCU VS. THE MID-EASTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE
Throughout NCCU’s illustrious basketball history, the Eagles have taken on every team in the conference that it helped start back in 1970. NCCU is 268-261 against MEAC opponents all-time.

Bethune Cookman 2-4
Coppin State 4-3
Delaware State 16-13
Florida A&M 6-1
Hampton 43-31
Howard 36-26
Md. Eastern Shore 17-16
Morgan State 44-40
Norfolk State 8-27
North Carolina A&T 65-74
Savannah State 5-7
South Carolina 22-19