NCCU at SCSU Game Notes (PDF)
THE GAME
North Carolina Central University has two games remaining in the 2011-12 regular season and look rebound following the 60-47 loss at the hands of the league’s top team Savannah State. The Eagles can guarantee a winning season in the conference schedule with a win over South Carolina State, a team the maroon and gray beat on ‘Senior Night’ 71-56 on Feb. 13, 2012. NCCU is 8-6 in the MEAC, while SCSU has lost 21 of its last 22 games.
THE SERIES
NCCU and South Carolina State have met 40 previous times with the Eagles holding a 21-19 advantage in the series. In fact, since renewing the matchup last year, NCCU is 3-0 against SCSU since 2010 including this season’s win over the Bulldogs two weeks ago. The maroon and gray swept the Bulldogs last season. The Eagles are 265-260 against MEAC opponents all-time.
NCCU SPORTS NETWORK
Eagle Gameday built by Dayeco Construction Co. begins at 5:15 p.m. (EST) on Saturday, Feb. 25th and can be heard only online at www.NCCUEaglePride.com. Play-by-play voice of the NCCU Sports Network Chris Hooks will call all the live action from Smith-Hammond-Middleton Memorial Center. Fans can also stay up-to-date with the doubleheader on twitter by following @NCCUradio and @NCCUAthletics and by using the hashtag #NCCUSCSU.
CHASTEN NEEDS FIVE POINTS TO JOIN EXCLUSIVE CLUB
Senior Nick Chasten (Raleigh, N.C.) needs just five points to become the 34th student-athlete in the 77 year history of the NCCU basketball program to score 1,000 points during their career. Chasten will become the second such player under the tutelage of head coach LeVelle Moton. C.J. Wilkerson scored 1,023 points during his two-year Eagle career. The Oxford, N.C. native is 29th on the school’s all-time scoring list.
EMANUEL CHAPMAN GIVES A HELPER HAND
After 28 games sophomore Emanuel Chapman has amassed 151 assists to average 5.4 helpers per game to sit second in the MEAC. He needs just five more assists to tie James Tucker for the most assists in a season since the 2003-04 campaign when he dished out 156. In his two year career "Poobie" has compiled 209 assists to place him 17th all-time at NCCU, just ahead of Clifton Daye (1990-93) who recorded 202 dimes in his Eagle career. Chapman is five away from 16th all-time. David Binion (78-81/82-83) dished out 214 assists for the maroon and gray. He could find himself in the top 15 by the end of the regular season. Since 1977-78, the most assists in a season belongs to Donald Sinclair who amassed 200 during the 1979-80 campaign. Sinclair (1979-81) is currently third in school history with 360 assists. Head coach LeVelle Moton racked up 278 helpers during his stellar playing career and is currently sixth all-time.
SOUTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY "BULLDOGS"
South Carolina State University enters Monday night’s affair with a 5-23 record overall, 0-14 in MEAC play after its 79-75 loss to North Carolina A&T on "Senior Night". With the win, A&T completed the season sweep over the Bulldogs, but senior Brandon Riley put on a show for the home faithful. Riley lit up the Aggies going 10-for-24 from the field that included a 6-for-12 mark from three-point range. The second half saw SC State take a 54-53 lead with 9:56 left, but the Aggies responded with a 10-0 run that was highlighted by a DaMetrius Upchurch monster dunk putting NC A&T 63-54 just two minutes later. Fellow Senior Omar Sanders missed the back end of a one-and-one that could have tied that game at 72 with 2:23 left. Sanders recorded his ninth double-double of the season with 10 points and 11 rebounds. The Aggie bench outscored the Bulldogs 26-4 while shooting 10-of-14 (71.4 percent) from the outside. Looking over SCSU in the MEAC, Riley is second in the MEAC in scoring averaging 17.6 points per game. He’s joined by fellow teammates Khalif Toombs who is 24th in the conference averaging 10.6 points a game and Sanders in 25th at 10.5 points a game. Sanders is in the top five in the league in rebounding sitting fourth at 8.0 boards a contest. Toombs is fifth in the MEAC in assists dishing out 4.3 helpers a game. He is 12th in the MEAC in free-throw percentage at 74.3 percent, while Riley is 11th at 74.7 percent from the line. Riley is also in the top ten in the league in ninth averaging 2.0 three-pointers a game with 49 on the season. As a team SCSU is ninth in scoring at 65.0 points a contest, while the Bulldogs are dead last in the conference allowing 77.7 points per game. Entering play on Monday, South Carolina State was 12th in the league in three-point percentage hitting just 28.6 percent of its shots from the outside. The Bulldogs are led by fifth year head coach Tim Carter who has amassed a 58-75 record during his tenure in Orangeburg and 218-227 in 15 years of coaching at the collegiate level. From Nov. 29 till Feb. 6 SCSU lost 16-straight contests that included defeats to Pittsburgh, Hawai’i, South Carolina and Oklahoma along with games within the MEAC. The streak was snapped in a 74-58 win over Longwood University at home where freshman Devin Joint scored a team-high 16 points for the Bulldogs. SCSU has lost 21 of its last 22 games this season.
UP NEXT
NCCU will end the 2011-12 regular season on Thursday, March 1 against Hampton University at 7:00 p.m. from the Convocation Center in Hampton, Va. The following week, NCCU embarks on the 2012 MEAC Tournament at the Lawrence Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem, N.C. from March 5-10.
