BALTIMORE, Md. – The North Carolina Central University women's basketball team received strong play from its two starting post players, but Coppin State University used balanced scoring to win Monday's Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) by a final score of 84-61.
Senior forward
Ashlyn Lockard led the visiting Eagles with 16 points while also grabbed a season-high nine rebounds.
Sophomore forward
Tianna Carter followed with a double-double, scoring 14 points and pulling down a game-high 13 rebounds. Carter, who has three double-doubles on the season and is the reigning MEAC Defensive Player of the Week, also led NCCU with three assists and three blocks.
Coppin State (13-9 Overall, 7-2 MEAC) had six players reach double digits in the scoring column and the victorious Eagles matched their season-high output of nine made 3-pointers in the triumph.
Layups by Carter and Lockard provided NCCU its only two leads of the game in the early stages at 2-0 and 4-2 before CSU pulled away by catching fire in the first half.
The hot-handed Coppin State Eagles made over half of their shots in the first half, including majority of their 3-point attempts to construct a 25-point advantage at halftime. CSU fired at 55.6-percent precision from the floor and a precise 84.6-percent from the free throw line over the first 20 minutes.
Junior Aliyah Lawson canned Coppin State's seventh trey of the half as time expired to send the home team into the locker room leading 48-23. CSU swished seven of its 13 attempts from behind the arc for a sizzling 53.8-percentage at the midway point.
The hosts maintained at least a 20-point cushion throughout the second half as Coppin State won its fifth straight game. Sophomore Mossi Staples made three of CSU's nine 3-pointers on the way to a game-high 23 points.
Two-time reigning MEAC Freshman of the Week
Diamond Thomas scored 12 of her 14 points in the second half to extend her streak of double-digit scoring performances to 10 consecutive contests.
NC Central (0-6) will next host MEAC foe Delaware State University on "Pink Day" when the Eagles tipoff against the Hornets inside McDougald-McLendon Arena on Saturday at 2 p.m.
