DURHAM, N.C. — The North Carolina Central University women's basketball team will enter the 2021 Air Force Reserve MEAC Women's Basketball Tournament as the No. 3 seed from the Southern Division and will open up play in the quarterfinals against the No. 2 seed from the Northern Division in Morgan State University on Thursday inside the Norfolk Scope Arena at 2 p.m.
GAME INFO:
DATE: Thursday, March 11 at 2 p.m.
LOCATION: Norfolk Scope Arena, Norfolk, Va.
TICKETS: Not Open to the Public
WATCH:
FloHoops
FOLLOW:
LIVE STATS;
@NCCUAthletics
DIGITAL GAME NOTES:
NC Central;
Morgan State
TOURNAMENT INFO:
Tourney Website;
Bracket
NC CENTRAL BENCH:
The Eagles finished out the regular season with a 65-61 home victory over Norfolk State University to end a seven-game losing streak. NCCU (4-11 Overall, 2-6 MEAC) won its last MEAC Tournament quarterfinals game last season to North Carolina A&T State University, but was unable to make the first semifinals appearance in program history due to the coronavirus pandemic cancelling the rest of postseason play later that day. The Eagles will try and get back there with a win against Morgan State 365 days later.
Sophomore forward
Anissa Rivera collected a bunch of postseason awards last week for her outstanding play throughout the season. Rivera was named the MEAC Defensive Player of the Year, First Team All-MEAC and MEAC All-Defensive Team after leading the league in scoring, rebounding and blocking.
Rivera enters postseason play ranked seventh nationally with 3.07 blocks per game. She has also scored in double digits in every game this season to pace the conference with 16.1 points per game. Rivera collected eight double-doubles in 15 games to also top the league with 10.2 rebounds per game. She also slips in the top-10 of the MEAC with 1.8 steals per contest.
Graduate student
Necole Hope is NCCU's second leading scorer at 10 points per game. Junior
Kiyana Brown is supplying 7.5 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game. Senior
Faith Williams has been averaging 9.5 points, 2.5 assists and 1.8 steals per game since moving into NCCU's lineup six games ago. Freshman
Paris McBride, who returned to action after a two-week absence, is chipping in 5.5 points and a team-best 3.5 assists per game.
MORGAN STATE BENCH:
The Bears enter the MEAC tourney on a three game win streak. Morgan State (11-3 Overall, 8-2 MEAC) had its last two games of the regular season get cancelled, which did not allow the Bears to potentially tie Howard University for the Northern Division regular season title with two wins.
A trio of Bears earned All-MEAC honors last week. Senior guard Dahnye Redd was tabbed First Team, sophomore guard Ja'Niah Henson collected Second Team attention and junior guard Ashia McCalla garnered Third Team praise.
Redd led Morgan State with 13.4 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. Henson added 11.3 points per game and a team-best averages of 3.0 assists and 1.8 steals per game. McCalla followed closely behind with 11.2 points and 4.5 rebounds per game.
McCalla, Henson and Redd rank third, fourth and fifth in the league, respectively, in free throw shooting percentage with all three players swishing at least 75-percent of their attempts from the charity stripe. The Bears top the league with a team free throw percentage of 74.1-percent.
SERIES:
Morgan State topped NCCU, 86-79, in the last time the two programs met in Baltimore, Maryland, on Feb. 10, 2020. Redd had a double-double in that contest with 21 points and 12 rebounds. McCalla added 16 points for the victors. Rivera was held to five points, seven rebounds and three blocks in that loss for the Eagles as she fouled out in just 19 minutes of playing time.
