DURHAM, N.C. — All four North Carolina Central University women's basketball seniors started and the quartet delivered for 51 combined points in a 78-70 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) home win against University of Maryland Eastern Shore on Saturday afternoon inside McDougald-McLendon Arena.
 
Senior forward Paulina Afriyie (Bronx, N.Y.), senior guard Kieche White (Washington, D.C.), senior guard Zaria Atkins (Dudley, N.C.) and senior forward Theyoung Puoy (Anchorage, Alaska) were all honored before Saturday's "Senior Day" game.
 
Afriyie led all players with 22 points and 10 rebounds for her 10th double-double of the season. White and Atkins both swished 13 points while they combined for seven assists. Puoy hit NCCU's first field goal of the game with a 3-pointer to start NCCU's pursuit of a second straight win.
 
NCCU (9-16 Overall, 6-6 MEAC) leveled its league record as the Eagles improved to 4-2 in the month of February. With the win and a Howard University loss at North Carolina A&T State University on Saturday, NC Central has moved into a tie for sixth place in the conference standings.
 
The Eagles will host the Bison on Monday at 5:30 p.m., with the winner of that showdown gaining sole position of sixth place in the league standings with three regular season games left (top six teams get a first-round bye in the MEAC Tournament and automatically advance to the quarterfinals).
 
Eastern Shore (5-20, 2-10) held slim leads of 18-14 after the first quarter, 34-29 at halftime and 54-49 after three quarters of play in its attempt to sweep the season series. The Hawks shot 44-percent from the field over the first 30 minutes compared to just 33.3-percent by the Eagles.
 
NCCU finally found its touch late, making nine of its 12 field goal attempts (75%) in the fourth quarter to complete the comeback.
 
Despite being down for over 26 minutes in the game, NCCU kept battling and was able to avenge last month's two-point loss to the Hawks in Princess Anne by outscoring Eastern Shore 11-2 over the final 2:34.
 
Trailing by one point, Afriyie hit two free throws with 2:34 on the clock to put the Eagles ahead for good. A transition layup by White on a pass by Atkins after freshman Khadija Demry stole the ball and a nice finish around the rim by Afriyie on a pass from freshman Anissa Rivera on NCCU's next two possessions seemed to be the late daggers.
 
NCCU took advantage of 34 free throw attempts throughout the game by making 28 of them for 82.4-percent precision. The Eagles scored their final five points from the charity stripe in the final minute to seal the eight-point conquest.
 
Rivera finished with 14 points and just missed her sixth double-double with nine rebounds. Atkins added four assists and four steals to her 13 points. Rivera and Afriyie each had two blocks while Rivera matched Atkins with four helpers.

Freshman Mya Thomas paced the Hawks with 18 points.