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57th Annual CIAA Men’s Basketball Tournament
Wednesday, February 26, 2002
Eagles Rebound to Bounce Trojans
RALEIGH, NC – Second-chance opportunities propelled the North Carolina Central University Eagles past the Virginia State University Trojans in the opening game of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Men’ s Basketball Tournament, winning 62-55.
The Eagles (9-17) shot just 35 percent from the field (20-57) but held a distinct advantage on the glass, outrebounding the Trojans by a 46-28 margin.
Trailing by three at the 10:25 mark, the Eagles began an 11-2 run that gave them a 51-45 lead with 5:09 to play and prompting Trojans’ head coach Robert Booker to call a timeout.
The Trojans (6-19) would respond immediately with a Mackey 3-pointer. After a Boswell King jumper for the Eagles, Lavar Griffin hit a jumper to cut the Eagles’ lead to 53-50.
That would be the Trojans last points until there was just 25.4 remaining in the game when Griffin followed a James Mackey miss. At that point the game was in hand for the Eagles as they held a 60-52 lead.
Dekendric Perry and Shawn Ray controlled the glass for the Eagles grabbing 11 rebounds apiece. Curtis Knight led the Eagles with 15 points, Perry added 14 and Boswell King dished out four assists.
“We played with emotion in the last 10 minutes of the game and that was the difference in the game,” said Eagles’ head coach Phil Spence.
Griffin led all scorers with 19 points, converting three-of-seven attempts from 3-point range. Mackey struggled, connecting on three-of-14 from behind the arc but would finish with 11 points.
The Trojans took their first lead of the game on a Griffin jumper at the 3:49 mark of the first half. The Eagles had led 28-19, but went cold from the field, scoring just two points from the 9:27 mark until there was 1:41 left in the half when King’s jumper stopped the Trojan’s 14-2 run. The Trojans went into the break with a 35-32 margin.
The Eagles will now play CIAA Eastern Division Co-Champion Shaw University at 9 p.m. Thursday night.