DOVER, Del. – Junior guard Janiah Jones made five 3-pointers on the way to a game-high 19 points and the North Carolina Central University defense held host Delaware State University to under 20 percent shooting from the field in the second half to secure a 64-58 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference women's basketball victory on Monday evening.
 
Jones kept the Eagles in the game early with her sharpshooting in the first half on the way to her highest scoring output since transferring to NCCU before the Eagles defense stepped up against the Hornets in the second half.
 
NC Central (9-11 Overall, 3-2 MEAC) moved back over .500 in conference play and ahead of Delaware State (6-12, 2-3) in the league standings. The Eagles finished with a winning 4-3 record in the month of January, including a closing 2-1 road trip.
 
The first half was a seesaw affair with five lead changes and a couple of ties. Delaware State was clinging to a 31-28 edge late in the second quarter when the Eagles finished the half on a 9-2 run to take a 37-33 advantage at the midway break. Jones highlighted the run with bookend 3-pointers to begin and start the late surge.
 
Jones made all five of her 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes of the play as she went into the locker room having already tallied her 19 points. The resident of Woodbridge, Virginia, sank her handful of treys on just seven attempts for a sizzling 71.4 percent precision from behind the arc in the first half.
 
The Hornets went ahead one last time early in the third quarter, but NCCU used balanced scoring throughout its lineup to quickly regain the lead for good. DSU was still within one possession of the Eagles, 55-53, in the early stages of the fourth quarter before the Eagles handed the Hornets the decisive blow with seven unanswered points that featured hoops by senior Kimia Carter, junior Aniya Finger and freshman Jada Tiggett.
 
Tiggett flirted with a double-double with nine points and eight rebounds while rejecting four DSU shot attempts for her sixth four-block performance of her rookie season. She also tallied four assists.
 
Freshman Kyla Bryant was NCCU's top scorer in the second half on the way to 10 points. Bryant matched Tiggett and Finger for joint team-high rebounding honors with eight boards apiece. Callahan followed with seven points and seven rebounds. Senior Tippy Robertson handed out a team-high five assists.
 
The maroon and gray finished with 46-41 rebounding edge. NCCU shot 36.6 percent from the field while holding the Hornets to a chilly 26.9 percent, including just 16.7 percent in the fourth quarter.
 
Delaware State stayed in the game by converting on 18 of its 22 free throw attempts (81.8%), shooting more than twice as many free throws than NCCU. Junior forward Tyshonne Tollie led the Hornets with 16 points, including all four of her free throw tries, while also supplying nine rebounds.
 
NC Central next returns home to host MEAC foe Coppin State University inside McDougald-McLendon Arena on Saturday, Feb. 3 at 2 p.m.
 
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