Eagles Protect The Nest, End Season With Win
DURHAM, N.C. – The North Carolina Central University Eagles Men’s Basketball team closed out the regular season at home against the Florida A&M University Rattlers with a 74-71 victory on the second night of a back-to-back homestand.
NCCU fell behind early in the first half after FAMU jumped out to a 13-2 lead. The Rattlers controlled the paint with physical play from their frontcourt in the first few minutes and Eagles’ senior forward Jahnathan Maxwell even had to exit the game due to bleeding after sustaining an injury to his head. This seemed to provide a spark of energy for NCCU and after going cold earlier, the Eagles were able to finally get some shots to fall.
Senior guards CJ Keyser, Mike Melvin, and Deven Palmer scored the final 15 points in the first half to allow the Eagles to take the lead 34-33 going into halftime.
Coming out of the locker room after halftime, the Eagles were led by their upperclassmen and carried over their momentum from the end of the first half by forcing the Rattlers into turnovers and controlling the boards.
Senior guard Deven Palmer notched his first career double-double by scoring 17 points and securing 10 rebounds. And despite the injury in the first half, forward Jahnathan Maxwell also had a stellar night by scoring a career-high 14 points.
NCCU won the overall turnover battle 13-18 and outrebounded FAMU 31-29.
The Eagles’ upperclassmen took control of the game in the second half and ensured that they finished the game better than their previous matchup against FAMU.
“Today, our mindset was to put together a complete 40 minutes–from start to finish,” said Palmer about coming out strong in the second half.
The Eagles held the lead for the remaining 18:43 of the second half and even stretched their lead out to 10 points. The Rattlers wouldn’t go away easily without a fight as Jalen Speer and M.J. Randolph hit a barrage of threes to cut the lead down to 2 points with just seven seconds remaining. Ultimately, it was the Eagles’ clutch free-throw shooting late in the second half that secured victory as they made 9 out of 10 free throws in the final two minutes of the game.
“I was happy that they showed up just to compete and complete the remainder of the season,” said Coach LeVelle Moton after wrapping up the regular season with a win.
The Eagles (5-8, 3-5 MEAC) look ahead to the MEAC tournament in Norfolk, VA beginning on March 8th, and hope to secure their fourth consecutive MEAC Championship.
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