Box Score

HAMPTON, VA. (NCCUEaglePride.com) – In the final contest of the 2011-12 regular season, the North Carolina Central University defense held Hampton University to 27.1 percent shooting, slowed the MEAC’s leading scorer, Darrion Pellum, to three second half points, and Dominique Sutton (Durham, N.C.) recorded his ninth double-double of the season as the Eagles finished off the Pirates 60-45 on Thursday night inside the HU Convocation Center in Hampton, Va.
 
In the 74th meeting between these two programs, the first since the Jan. 5, 1995 both teams came out a little shaky with a flurry of turnovers early, as NCCU led 6-3 following a Justin Leemow (Brooklyn, N.Y.) layup.
 
Hampton scored the next four point of the game to grab the momentum and the lead at 7-6, but Ray Willis’s first three-pointer of the night quickly put NCCU back on top at 9-7 with 12:26 to go.
 
That would be the only time that Hampton led in the first half as Willis caught fire from the outside leading all scorers with 14 points that included a 3-for-4 mark from the outside. 
 
After a Mike Tuitt three-pointer to tie the game at 13 with 10:15 left, the maroon and gray answered right back on a Sutton hoop-and-the-harm putting the Eagles up 16-13 with 9:51 left.
 
Two minutes later, HU knotted the game up at 19 only to see NCCU respond with an 8-2 run on back-to-back three-pointers by Willis to put the Eagles up 27-22 with 4:47 left.
 
NCCU took a 32-27 lead into the locker room and poured the defensive pressure on in the second half.  Pellum led HU with nine first half points but the MEAC’s top scorer went just 1-of-8 from the field including 0-for-5 mark from the outside.
 
The final 20 minutes saw the maroon and gray defense lock down Pellum to only three attempts and three total points.  As a team, the Pirates went 5-for-20 (25.0 percent) from the field.
 
The tome was set to begin the second half when Tracy O’Neal was fouled, but still hit the shot as he was falling down to put NCCU up seven to start the frame at 34-27. 
 
The turning point in the second half that allowed the Eagles to put the Pirates away began with 13:58 to go with the score in favor of the maroon and gray 41-35.  NCCU went on 17-4 run over the next 11-plus minutes to stretch the lead to 58-39 with 2:39 left.
 
NCCU went on to win 60-45 to earn the fourth road win in the last five contests.
 
Sutton ended the night with 17 points and 11 rebounds recording back-to-back double-doubles in the last two ballgames with his 23 points 11 rebounds in win over SC State on Monday, Feb. 27.
 
Willis finished the game with a game-high 18 points and nearly recorded his fifth double-double of the season with nine rebounds.
 
NCCU outscored HU 30-16 in the paint as the Pirates were led by Pellum’s 12 points as the senior finished 2-for-11 from the field and went 0-for-7 from the outside in his final contest at home.
 
The 27.1 percent the Pirates shot (13-for-48) is the lowest percentage the Eagles held an opponent to this season, with previous low coming on Dec. 3, 2011 against arch-rival North Carolina A&T who shot 27.5 percent in the 65-46 NCCU victory.
 
The win clinches the first regular season with a winning record for NCCU (16-14 overall, 10-6 MEAC) since the 2004-05 campaign and more than likely earns the Eagles the fifth seed in the 2012 MEAC Basketball Tournament in Winston-Salem, N.C.
 
Be sure to tune into the MEAC Basketball Tournament edition of Eagle Talk beginning at 12:00 p.m. at Champps inside the streets of Southpoint in Durham, N.C.  The brackets for both the men’s and the women’s tournament will be unveiled as March Madness is in full effect.
 
Stay up-to-date with North Carolina Central University Athletics by flying over to www.NCCUEaglePride.com, the official website of NCCU Athletics.