THE GAME
North Carolina Central University battles the hometown team, Norfolk State, in the semifinals of the 2014 MEAC Basketball Tournament, looking to earn a berth into a conference tournament championship game for the first time since Feb. 28, 2004, which would mark their first title game appearance at the NCAA Division I level.

THE SERIES
The first meeting between NCCU and Norfolk State took place on Feb. 29, 1964.  The Spartans own a 27-9 record against the Eagles, with the last matchup taking place on Feb. 19, 2011.  Since 1987, NCCU is 8-11 vs. NSU since the 1987-88 season.

3/6/14- at Norfolk State- 76-70 W
2/19/11- vs. Norfolk State- 82-72 W
1/22/11- at Norfolk State- 74-71 L
1/7/08- at Norfolk State- 83-87 L
2/22/97- vs. Norfolk State- 76-74 W
3/1/96- vs. Norfolk State#- 67-80 L
2/24/96- at Norfolk State- 66-84 L
11/30/94- vs. Norfolk State- 69-77 L
12/1/93- at Norfolk State- 75-73 W
12/2/92- vs. Norfolk State- 75-67 W
12/3/91- at Norfolk State- 65-73 L
12/5/90- vs. Norfolk State- 48-69 L
2/23/90- vs. Norfolk State- 56-59 L
12/5/89- at Norfolk State(2 OT)- 57-58 L
3/17/89- vs. Norfolk State$- 67-64 W
2/24/89- vs. Norfolk State#- 49-62 L
12/6/88- vs. Norfolk State- 60-50 W
2/26/88- at Norfolk State#- 50-53 L
12/1/87- at Norfolk State- 57-56 W
#-CIAA Tournament
$-NCAA Division II Tournament

NCCU SPORTS NETWORK
The Denny's of Durham Pregame Show hits the airwaves at 5:30 p.m. live from the Norfolk Scope Arena as play-by-play voice Chris Hooks alongside guest color analyst Ronnie Enoch.  The game can be heard on 99.9HD3- The Ticket and online at NCCUEaglePride.com.  There is a live video stream available for free as well.  Fans are encouraged to follow @NCCUAthletics and @NCCUBasketball on Twitter, use the hashtag #NCCUMBB, and send an e-mail to whooks@nccu.edu or nccusn@nccu.edu to interact with the broadcast.

LAST MEETING:  NCCU-76, NORFOLK STATE-70 (MARCH 6, 2014)
NORFOLK, VA. – North Carolina Central University put the final cap on their MEAC Regular Season Title by earning win No. 17 in-a-row at the expense of ruining Norfolk State University's Senior Night, 76-70, on Thursday night inside Joseph Echols Hall in Norfolk, Va. completing the year 25-5 overall, 15-1 in MEAC.   The 25 victories in the regular season are not only the most in the NCAA Division I level for the program, but they are the second most since John McLendon's 1950-51 squad finished 26-5.  The 17-straight wins is tied for the second-best streak since the 1987-88 campaign.   NCCU took it to the league's perennial power through the first five minutes of play grabbing hold to a 12-5 lead with 15:07 left after senior Jeremy Ingram (Charlotte, N.C.) drilled one of his two first half trifectas.  Three minutes later, Ingram scored the next five points for the Eagles to give the maroon and gray a 21-8 advantage with 12:12 to go. 
With 9:08 remaining in the frame, the Eagles led 27-15 after a Jordan Parks (Queens, N.Y.) layup, Norfolk State started to mount a rally as the Spartans went on a 16-to-7 run to cut the deficit to three at 3 to cut the deficit to three at 34-31 with 1:55 to go.   The Eagles took a 38-35 lead into the locker room, setting the stage for the dramatic second half.   With 16:45 to go, another of Hawkins' Norfolk State school record eight three-pointers tied the game a 42 , but the maroon and gray responded with the next four points, all by Ingram to take a 46-42 advantage.   Marese Phelps drilled a three-pointer with the shot clock winding down to make it 46-45with 14:18 left in the game, but that was as close as the Spartans got as NCCU scored the game's next six points to stretch the lead back to seven at 52-45 with 11:09 left.  The maroon and gray stretched the lead back out to 13 at 64-51 on Parks' highlight worthy windmill dunk and the Eagles cruised from there despite the amount of misses from the foul line.   NCCU shot a paltry 16-for-28 (57.1 percent) from the charity stripe in the second half, which was just enough to allow the maroon and gray to pull away for the 76-70 win.
Four Eagles racked up double figures led by Ingram's 19 points as the senior was saddled with foul trouble, followed up by Parks who ended up with 14 points, while point guard Emanuel Chapman (Raleigh, N.C.) scored 13 points, while recording four assists to become the first Eagle in school history to record over 600 career assists.  He also set a new single season mark for helpers with 203 on the year.   Norfolk State (17-13, 11-5 MEAC) was led by Malcolm Hawkins who set a new NSU record going 8-for-10 from beyond-the-arc tying a career-high with 31 points.

SCOUTING REPORT:  NO. 8 SEED NORFOLK STATE
Norfolk State earned win No. 19 on the year behind a game-high 20 points from Pendarvis Williams along with a near double-double from 7-0 center Brandon Goode who finished with 10 points six rebounds in the 57-47 win over Savannah State on Thursday night.  The Spartans broke open a tight game midway through the second half with a 13-0 run over a seven minute stretch make it 46-32 with 5:21 left.  SSU came right back with a haymaker of their own with a 12-4 spurt to cut the margin to 50-44 but could not get any closer as the Tigers were eliminated.  NSU was able to find a way to win the grind-it-out type contest with SSU, who held Hawkins to 0-for-9 from-the-field as he scored one point and grabbed seven rebounds.

-The Spartans are led by arguably the best guard duo in the league in Williams and fellow senior guard Malcolm Hawkins who both landed second team All-MEAC honors as they both average 15.9 points per contest, with Williams having scored 509 points (seventh in the MEAC) on the year to just 428 points (eighth in the MEAC) in 27 games for Hawkins.  Both sit in the league's top-15 in free throw percentage as Williams is fifth shooting 83.1 percent, while Hawkins shoots 77.7 percent from the charity stripe, placing him 14th.  Hawkins is also No. 1 in the MEAC in three-point percentage at 42.0 percent from beyond-the-arc.  Not to be forgotten, Goode is third on the team averaging 11.3 points per game as he is 25th in the conference in scoring, seventh in rebounding at 6.9 boards a contest.  Goode is also second in the MEAC shooting 61.5 percent from-the-field, while his teammate and point guard Jamel Fuentes is second the MEAC at 5.0 assists per game.  Coming off the bench, Marese Phelps is ninth in the conference averaging 1.4 thefts per game with 41 on the year.

-As a team, NSU is third in the conference in scoring offense (72.8 points per game), sixth in scoring defense (71.0 points per game), sixth in free throw percentage (69.7 percent), first in field goal percentage (46.7 percent), fifth in field goal percentage defense (42.8 percent), second in three-point percentage (34.8 percent), seventh in three-point field goal percentage defense (34.7 percent), seventh in rebounding offense (35.4 boards per game), first in rebounding defense (32.2 boards per game), second in assists (13.9 assists per game), and tied for eighth in steals (6.2 steals per game).

-NSU is led by first year coach Robert Jones who has compiled a 19-13 record and recently had the interim tag taken off his title at Norfolk State.  Jones took over for Anthony Evans who left for FIU last season.  Jones was an assistant under Evans during his tenure in Norfolk.