DURHAM, N.C. — The North Carolina Central University women's basketball team will conclude its regular season slate on its Senior Night when the Eagles host Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) rival South Carolina State University inside McDougald-McLendon Arena on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.
NCCU will celebrate
Ashlyn Lockard,
Madalyn Anderson and
Breonna Mayfield with a Senior Day presentation at halftime.
GAME INFO:
GAME NOTES 24 vs. South Carolina St.
DATE: Thursday, March 3 at 5:30 p.m.
LOCATION: McDougald-McLendon Arena, Durham, N.C.
WATCH:
NCCU Sports Network
FOLLOW:
Live Stats;
@NCCUAthletics
NC CENTRAL BENCH:
The Eagles dropped a pair of close road games to the top two teams in the league last week, losing at Howard University (L, 63-65) and Norfolk State University (L, 63-71). NCCU (4-19 Overall, 2-11 MEAC) is locked into the seventh position in the league standings and will play the No. 2 seed in the quarterfinals of the MEAC Women's Basketball Tournament in Norfolk, Virginia, next week (opponents/game times will be officially announced by the league office after all regular season games have been played).
Six-time MEAC Rookie of the Week
Diamond Thomas is coming off a 24-point performance against the Spartans and she continues to rank second in the conference with an average of 14.2 points per game. The sharpshooter matched her season-best mark of six made 3-pointers on Monday and maintains her second-place position in the league rankings with 2.4 made 3-pointers per game.
NCCU's been starting the same lineup for the last seven games and joining Thomas in that lineup have been Lockard (8.6 PPG, 5.7 RPG), junior guard
Kira Lowery (7.1 PPG, 2.9 APG, 1.6 APG), sophomore forward
Tianna Carter (8.9 PPG, 7.2 RPG, 0.9 BPG) and sophomore guard
Taylor Williams (4.1 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 1.6 SPG).
Off the bench, sophomore guard
Paris McBride (5.9 PPG, 2.4 APG, 2.1 SPG) and freshman
Nia Ford (5.2 PPG, 1.2 SPG) have played the most minutes. Anderson (2.6 PPG, 2.0 RPG) is graduating early and will be playing her final home game with Lockard. Mayfield played in seven games for NCCU, but has been out of lineup since the start of the New Year due to injury.
SOUTH CAROLINA STATE BENCH:
The Bulldogs are 0-2 since Ervin Monier was named the new interim head coach on Feb. 24, losing to the same two opponents as NCCU last weekend in Norfolk State (L, 29-68) and Howard (L, 48-64). South Carolina State (4-23 Overall), 4-9 MEAC) is locked into the sixth position in the conference standings and will play the No. 3 seed in the MEAC quarterfinals next week.
Freshman guard Nicole Gwynn is SCSU's leading scorer at 11.2 points per game and her 1.9 made 3-pointers per game ranks fourth in the MEAC. She also provides 4.5 rebounds per game and about one steal and one assist per contest.
Sophomore forward Trinity Klock ranks second on the team with 9.6 points per game. Klock, who was named Preseason All-MEAC Second Team after earning MEAC All-Rookie Team honors last season, is contributing team-best averages of 6.9 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game. Classmate guard Nadia Reese joins Klock as the only two Bulldogs to have played all 27 games and she is averaging 5.4 points and a team-best 2.0 assists per game. Junior forward Jayah Hicks was MEAC All-Rookie Team award winner in 2020, and has returned to the starting lineup for S.C. State after missing 11 games early in the season and is averaging 5.7 points and 4.1 rebounds per game. Freshman guard Victoria Jordan is chipping in averages of 5.1 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.
SERIES:
South Carolina State defeated the Eagles, 63-51, in the first meeting in Orangeburg on Jan. 15. The Bulldogs held NCCU to just 10 points in the first half, outscoring the Eagles 37-10 in the first half. NCCU fought back and outscored SCSU, 41-26, in the second half, but still lost by 12 points. Lowery and Carter paced the Eagles with 12 and 10 points, respectively, and NCCU's leading scorer in Thomas did not play in that contest. Gwynn led the Bulldogs with 26 points, which is still her season-high performance. SCSU leads the all-time series, 15-9.
