DURHAM, N.C. — Senior guard Kieche White scored a game-high 19 points and sophomore forward Anissa Rivera tallied another double-double to pace the North Carolina Central University women's basketball team in a 71-56 non-conference loss to College of Charleston on Saturday afternoon inside McDougald-McLendon Arena.
 
The Cougars forced the Eagles into a season-most 25 turnovers to spoil NCCU's home opener.
 
CofC (4-2) entered the contest ranked 32nd nationally out of 318 programs with 8.8 made 3-pointers per game and the Cougars drilled four of their eight made 3s in the fourth quarter to pull away late. CofC outscored NCCU (1-3) 25-15 in the final frame to tally its third straight win.
 
White returned to NCCU's lineup after missing the last two games due to injury and delivered 19 points on 7 of 15 shooting accuracy from the field. She also tallied six rebounds, three assists and two steals.
 
Rivera notched her second double-double of the season and eighth of her career with 14 points and 10 rebounds. She has reached double-digit scoring in all four games this season.
 
CofC led 10-9 after a slow first quarter. Rivera was instrumental in keeping the Cougars off the scoreboard for the first three and a half minutes by recording three of her game-high four blocks in that opening stretch. Both teams shot under 25-percent in the first 10 minutes of low-scoring action.
 
A 7-0 run provided the Cougars with their largest lead of the first half, 25-19, before the Eagles closed the second quarter on a 9-3 run to level the score at halftime. After missing their first 10 attempts from behind the arc, Rivera drilled NCCU's first trey from the right wing to highlight the late rally.
 
White led all players into the halftime locker room with 11 points. Rivera registered seven points, six rebounds and all four of her blocks by the midway mark.
 
A 7-0 run to start the second half put the Cougars ahead for good. The go-ahead surge to start the third quarter featured bookend layups by freshman Tyler Gray, who finished with 17 points. The two teams traded scores for the rest of the period and a second layup of the quarter by sophomore Simone Edmundson had NCCU only trailing by five, 46-41, going into the fourth quarter.
 
However, CofC drilled a trio of trifectas during a 16-8 stretch run to start the fourth quarter. The decisive run featured made 3-pointers off the arms of freshman Chelsea Wooten, sophomore Taylor Williams and junior Tyler Collins.
 
Four Cougars scored in double digits with Collins pacing the victors with 18 points. Williams made half of CofC's eight made 3s on her way to 16 points and Wooten finished with 12 points.
 
The Eagles finished with a 49-43 edge on the boards. Rivera, who pulled down a career-high 18 rebounds against the Cougars in last season's game in Charleston, topped all rebounders again with 10 boards while Edmundson corralled a career-high six rebounds.
 
CofC finished with 14 steals as NCCU committed its most turnovers in a game (seven more than its previous high of 18 mistakes). The 25 turnovers kept the Eagles to a season-low 56 points. Gray topped the Cougars with four thefts.
 
NC Central will next begin Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) play in the New Year, when the Eagles visit Norfolk State University for a pair of games on Saturday-Sunday, Jan. 2-3.