Norfolk, VA --- Graduate student forward
Shavonne Duckett scored 15 points to lead five players in double figures as Howard University pulled away to a 74-59 win over North Carolina Central in the opening round of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Tournament at the Norfolk Scope Arena.
The eighth-seeded Lady Bison (11-19) advance to the quarterfinal round, where they will take on the top-seeded Hampton Lady Pirates on Wednesday, March 12 at noon.
The game was a nip-and-tuck affair through most of the first half as neither team could gain an advantage, demonstrated by the game's five ties and eight lead changes. After the Lady Eagles (11-15) got to within 27-25 at the 3:02 mark, Howard went on a pivotal 9-2 run to close the half with a 36-27 lead. The mini run was led by Duckett, sophomore reserve guard
Tasia Majors, junior forward
Cheyenne Brown and freshman guard
Jasmine Hill.
"That last 2:25 of the first half, we held them to two points," noted Howard head coach Tennille Adams, who won her earned her first MEAC Tournament victory with today's win. "We came out of a timeout and tried to make it our focus to really dial in defensively and not allow (NCCU) to go on a run."
Buoyed by the halftime lead, Howard came out energized and opened the second half with a 10-4 spurt that expanded the lead to 46-31 just four minutes into the second stanza - with Hill and Duckett supplying most of the offense.
From there, freshman
Sydni Johnson, Â Brown and redshirt freshman
Te'Shya Heslip took turns scoring as the Lady Bison shot 54 percent (26 of 48) from the field, including six of eight from beyond the arc.
In addition to Duckett's production, HU got 14 from Brown off the bench, 11 from Heslip, 10 from Hill and a double-double (12 points, 11 rebounds) from Johnson.
"We had very good ball movement," explained Adams, who is in her first year as a head coach. "The young ladies came in ready to play. Â We had five different players score in double figures so we shared the ball extremely well."
North Carolina Central was led redshirt senior guard Jessica Freeman and junior post Racquel Davis, who each scored 17 in a losing cause.
The Lady Bison will be playing the regular season and defending tournament champions for the third time this season. They lost both games, 76-64 at Hampton and 59-52 at home. Â The Lady Pirates are going for an unprecedented fifth straight tournament title.
"I think that we feel really good going in," said Adams. Â "This is our third time being matched up with them. Â We played them very competitively both times. Â Hampton is a great team and we have to go through them to get to where we want to go, so we welcome that challenge and we're looking forward to the game. Â It's going to be an up-and-down game and it's one of those games that you can ill afford a lot of mistakes."
