THE GAME
North Carolina Central University returns to the nest to begin the second half of the conference slate as the maroon and gray sit at 7-1 in the league and have pieced together an eight-game winning streak as the Eagles gets set to face the Wildcats of Bethune-Cookman University looking to earn the season sweep.
THE SERIES
These two programs have met nine previous times as this series dates back to Dec. 31, 1954, NCCU leads Bethune-Cookman 5-4 with the Eagles taking five of the last six matchups.Â
1/13/14- at B-CU- 64-49 W
2/11/13- vs. B-CU- 81-75 W
1/14/13- at B-CU- 75-66 W
3/8/12- vs. B-CU*- 59-60 L
2/6/12- at B-CU- 81-79 W
1/9/12- vs. B-CU- 69-64 W
2/28/11- at B-CU- 60-73 L
1/31/11- vs. B-CU- 64-67 L
*- MEAC Tournament (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
NCCU SPORTS NETWORK
The NCCU Sports Network will have wall-to-wall coverage of Saturday's MEAC doubleheader beginning at 1:45 p.m. with the women's contest where Jonathan Duren will have the call, while play-by-play voice Chris Hooks will take the reins for the men's contest which will start 30 minutes following the first game of the afternoon. The live video stream is available for $8.95 for each game. Fans can tune in to the men's contest on 99.9 HD3-The Ticket in the Triangle area, but the NCCU Sports Network App and NCCUEaglePride.com are available worldwide. To interact with the broadcast, follow @NCCUAthletics on twitter using the hashtag #NCCUMBB and by sending an e-mail to whooks@nccu.edu or nccusn@nccu.edu.
SCOUTING REPORT:Â BETHUNE-COOKMAN
-Bethune-Cookman enters Saturday's matchup red hot after its 91-59 blowout win over South Carolina State. In the victory, the Wildcats set school records in shooting 29-for-41 (70.7 percent) from-the-field and hitting 15-for-18 (83.3 percent) from three-point range, which put them alongside BYU and Manhattan for the nation's best single-game three-point shooting percentage. BYU went 10-for-12 against Texas (Nov. 25) and Manhattan went 10-for-12 against Columbia (Nov. 12). B-CU's Mikel Trapp scored a career-high 33 points going 7-for-7 from way downtown, setting a new school-record and tying him with UNCG's Nicholas Paulos (9-for-9) and Texas Tech's Dusty Hannah (7-for-7) for the best peformances from three-point range. Trapp tied Syracuse's Trevor Cooney for the highest scoring performance in the nation that evening. The 32-point win for the Wildcats is the largest margin of victory in a MEAC contest in the Gravelle Craig era.
-After starting the year 2-2, dropping the next 15 games, the Wildcats have won three of their last four matchups to move to 3-7 in league play including wins over Maryland Eastern Shore on Jan. 25 (69-63), Howard on Jan. 27 (58-47), and South Carolina State on Feb. 3 (91-59).
-Individually, Trapp and Malik Jackson lead the squad in scoring averaging 11.3 points a game, and 10.7 points per contest respectively. While Trapp is No. 12 in the MEAC in three-point field goal percentage at 35.2 percent, but the redshirt junior is second in the MEAC in three-pointers made on the year, but third in the league in three-point field goals made per game at 2.3. Jackson has had the hot hand as of late scoring in double figures in the last five games. Power forward Travis Elliot is just a shade outside the top-20 in rebounding grabbing 5.0 boards a game, also 10th in the conference averaging 2.4 offensive rebounds per game. Freshman point guard Tony Kynard is No. 13 in the MEAC in both assists, averaging 2.6 per game and steals 1.2 thefts per game.
-As a team, B-CU is 10th in the MEAC in scoring offense (62.6 points per game), fourth in scoring defense (69.5 points per game), second in free throw percentage (72.2 percent), ninth in field goal percentage (39.3 percent), 10th in field goal percentage defense (45.0 percent), first in three-point field goal percentage (35.6 percent), and fifth in three-point field goal percentage defense.
-B-CU is led by third year head coach Gravelle Craig who has compiled a 37-57 record in three seasons. Craig became the first coach at B-CU since Raymond McDoogle in 1966-67 to record a winning record in his first season, and only Wildcat coach to make it to the conference title game in his inaugural season (16th highest win total among first-year head coaches in the NCAA Division I level in 2011-12.
NCCU VS. MEACÂ Â Â
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 291-264 against MEAC opponents all-time.
Bethune-Cookman- 5-4
Coppin State- 6-3
Delaware State- 18-13
Florida A&M- 8-2
Hampton- 45-31
Howard- 38-26
Md. Eastern Shore- 19-16
Morgan State- 46-40
Norfolk State- 8-27
North Carolina A&T- 68-75
Savannah State- 6-8
SC State- 24-19
