NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE UNIVERSITY "AGGIES"
The seventh seeded Aggies of North Carolina A&T enter into Wednesday night’s quarterfinal showdown fresh off a 65-54 win over the 10th seeded Rattlers of Florida A&M on Tuesday evening. Junior guard Lamont Middleton scored all 12 of his team-high points in the second half including a 7-for-11 mark from the foul line. His only three pointer thwarted a Rattler rally late in the second half. Jean Louisme and Adrian Powell both scored 11 points in the win for the Aggies and combined to shoot 4-for-8 (50.0 percent) from three-point range. As a unit, NC A&T shot 9-for-15 (60.0 percent) from the field, 6-for-9 (66.7 percent) from the outside in the second half to pull away from the hard-charging Rattlers in the second frame. First year head coach Cy Alexander has put together a 16-16 record in his first campaign at the helm and has a 366-326 mark in year No. 23 of his coaching career. Over the last 10 games for NC A&T, the Aggies are 5-5 and are led in scoring this season by Middleton averaging 12.2 points a game to sit No. 13 in the MEAC, while his teammate Adrian Powell is No. 15 in the conference in scoring, averaging 12.1 points a contest. The 2012-13 MEAC Defensive Player of the Year, Austin Witter, recorded 10 or more rebounds six times, and averaged 3.0 blocks per game, which was No. 1 in the league. Witter is currently fifth in the league in rebounding at 7.1 boards a game.

MOTON NAMED FINALIST FOR BEN JOBE AWARD
BOSTON, MASS. – North Carolina Central University head men’s basketball coach LeVelle Moton has been named among 20 finalists for the Ben Jobe National Coach of the Year award given annually to the top minority coach in NCAA Division I men’s basketball CollegeInsider.com announced on Monday, March 11. In his fourth season at the helm at NCCU, Moton has turned around a program that won seven games in 2009, but since becoming a full member of the MEAC (Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference) has compiled a record of 39-23 overall, 25-7 in league action. For the first time since Moton was a freshman at NCCU, the Eagles have recorded more than 20 wins in a season as the maroon and gray ended the regular season 22-8, 15-1 in conference play. The 20 finalists include: Tommy Amaker (Harvard), Mike Anderson (Arkansas), Kevin Bagget (Rider), Roman Banks (Southern), Jamion Christian (Mount St. Mary’s), Mike Davis (Texas Southern), Anthony Evans (Norfolk State), Anthony Grant (Alabama), James Green (Jacksonville State), Frank Haith (Missouri), Joe Jones (Boston University), Cuonzo Martin (Tennessee), Bashir Mason (Wagner), Ray McCallum (Detriot), Marvin Menzies (New Mexico State), Howard Moore (Illinois-Chicago), Kevin Ollie (Connecticut), Shaka Smart (VCU), and John Thompson III (Georgetown). The Ben Jobe Award is presented annually to the top minority coach in Division I men’s basketball. Coach Jobe is an icon in the history of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. He is best known as the head coach at Southern University, a position he held for 12 seasons. He also coached at Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Talladega, Tuskegee, and South Carolina State. The 2013 recipient will be announced at the CollegeInsider.com awards banquet in Atlanta, Ga., the site of the 2013 Men’s NCAA Basketball Championship.

THREE EAGLES REPRESENTED ON ALL-MEAC SQUADS
NORFOLK, VA. – The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) has announced its all-conference squads for the 2012-13 men’s basketball campaign and North Carolina Central University had three members named to the first and second teams as juniors Jeremy Ingram (Charlotte, N.C.) and Stanton Kidd (Baltimore, Md.) were listed on the first team, while senior Ray Willis (Atlanta, Ga.) earned second-team honors. Ingram finished the regular season second in the MEAC in scoring at 15.9 points a game, No. 14 in the conference in field goal percentage (45.2 percent), third in free-throw percentage (81.9 percent), second in three-point percentage (40.9 percent), and fourth in three-pointers made (2.0 per game). The shooting guard scored a career-high 32 points against Bethune-Cookman on February 11, and dropped-in 20 points or more eight times in his junior season. Ingram earned MEAC Co-Player of the week honors on Feb. 25. Kidd, ended his first season at NCCU averaging 14.5 points a game (third in the MEAC), eighth in rebounding grabbing 6.9 boards a game, fifth in shooting percentage at 56.0 percent, No. 15 in the MEAC in free-throw percentage (69.9 percent), No. 11 in offensive rebounds (2.4 per game), and sixth in defensive rebounds (4.4 per game). Kidd scored an Eagle career-high 24 points in a 66-62 victory on Dec. 1 at North Carolina A&T. The 6-7 junior recorded four double-doubles and scored more than 20 points in a game seven times on the year. During the regular season, Willis finished No. 14 in the league in scoring at 12.2 points per game, while he was the top free-throw shooting in the MEAC at 84.0 percent. Willis’s season-high came in a huge 75-66 road win at Bethune-Cookman where he scored 26 points that include a perfect 13-for-13 from the foul line. In the last two seasons, the 6-6 guard scored 20 points or more 11 times and scored in double figures 47 times.