NORFOLK, Va. — Junior forward Paulina Afriyie scored a team-high 13 points for ninth-seeded North Carolina Central University in a 79-49 quarterfinals loss to top-seeded North Carolina A&T State University in the 2019 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Women's Basketball Championship Tournament Wednesday afternoon at the Norfolk Scope Arena.
 
The defending champions and undefeated MEAC regular season champions outshot the Eagles and dominated the backboards. North Carolina A&T (20-10 Overall) will next play in the semifinals on Friday.
 
NCCU ended its season at 9-22, despite winning the program's first NCAA Division I postseason win yesterday in the first round over Delaware State University.
 
Afriyie was the Eagles' top scorer for the second straight day with 13 points. The Third Team All-MEAC performer, who was coming off her 10th double-double, was held to four rebounds as N.C. A&T crashed the glass to a 43-30 surplus on the boards.
 
Freshman Ashlyn Lockard and senior Rodneysha Martin scored nine and eight points, respectively. Sophomore Zaria Atkins was the only other NCCU player to make more than one basket on her way to six points. Lockard, senior Caira Benton and freshman Kiyana Brown all had five rebounds for the Eagles.
 
The Aggies scored the first nine points of the game in the first two and a half minutes. North Carolina A&T was then able to extend its advantage to 22 points at halftime by making majority of its shots in the first half. The Aggies made 56.3-percent of their shot attempts over the first 20 minutes, including five of their 10 tries (50%) from beyond the arc.
 
Freshman Jasmin Walton paced N.C. A&T into the locker room with 12 points, making all four of her field goal attempts and three of her four tries from the free throw line. Junior Cinia McCray made a trio of treys in the first half to follow with 11 points.
 
Afriyie scored 10 points in the first half and one of her hoops late in the first quarter pulled the Eagles within five at 17-12. However, NCCU would not get any closer as the Aggies made a couple 3-pointers in the first two minutes of the second quarter to maintain control and their third triple of the quarter at the 5:12 mark put the top seed ahead by double digits for the rest of the contest. N.C. A&T finished the half on a 19-6 run to go up 46-24 at the midway break.
 
The Eagles were able to cut the deficit to 15 points on three occasions in the third quarter, including a late 3-pointer by junior Shontai Totten to send NCCU into the fourth quarter trailing 56-41. However, the Aggies started the final period on a 15-0 run to double up their lead to 30 points at 71-41 before prevailing by that same margin.
 
Walton, who entered postseason play having not scored in double digits in her rookie season, finished with a career-high 19 points to pace four Aggies in double figures. Walton's big contest also included five steals. Junior C'coriea Foy followed with 14 points and a game-high seven rebounds.
 
N.C. A&T shot 47.5-percent for the contest while holding NCCU to 32.7-percent.