NCCU Basketball: Eagles Fall to Iowa State In NCAA Tournament Debut

In North Carolina Central University’s first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance at the Division I level, the Eagles ran into a ninth-ranked Iowa State Cyclone squad that simply couldn’t miss on the way to a 93-75 defeat, ending a historic season for the program on Friday night inside the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas.

The maroon and gray finish the 2013-14 season 28-6 overall, tying the 1950-51 and 1988-89 squads with the most wins in a single season.

In the first meeting between NCCU and Iowa State, both teams game out guns blazing as a Karamo Jawara (Bergen, Norway) three-pointer put the Eagles up 14-11 with 14:46 to go.

A 10-2 Cyclone run gave Iowa State a 21-16 following the first of Georges Niang’s four three-pointers on the night with 11:27 remaining.

The first half saw seven ties and six leads changes, but Jawara’s second straight bucket tied the game at 30-30 with 6:47 left in the first frame, but Iowa State came alive as the Cyclones scored the next eight points with Melvin Ejim sending the crowd to their feet with a fastbreak dunk to make 38-30.

Head coach LeVelle Moton’s squad responded with a 9-2 run forcing an Iowa State time out with 1:45 to go in the frame.

ISU took a 45-39 lead into the locker room as Cyclone small forward Dustin Hogue helped take a six-point lead on his putback dunk with four seconds left.

In the final half, the Cyclone buzzsaw keep going as Iowa State missed just nine shots including 7-for-12 (58.3 percent) from three-point range, while the Eagles simply could not keep up.

With 11:09 to go, a DeAndre Kane layup made it 68-53 forcing Moton to call a 30-second timeout, but the Cyclones were well on their way.

Iowa State led by as much as 23 points as the Cyclones advanced to the round of 32 in the 93-75 win over NCCU.

ISU shot a season-high 63.6 percent from the field, including 9-for-17 (52.9 percent) from three-point range on the way to the victory, while NCCU shot 46.2 percent from-the-field in the tough defeat.

In his final game donning the maroon and gray uniform, Jeremy Ingram (Charlotte, N.C.) scored a game-high 28 points to finish his career with 1,525 points which ties him for sixth all-time at NCCU.

Jawara ended up with a career-high 16 points  on 7-for-11 shooting with three assists, while senior Emanuel Chapman added 10 points along with four assists to finish his career with 617 helpers.

The NCCU basketball team ends their historic season as the 2013-14 MEAC Regular Season Champion and the MEAC Tournament Champions.

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