Elizabeth City State Survives and Advances to CIAA Semifinals with Win Over Johnson C. Smith

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Blake Price buried the go-ahead bucket to help Elizabeth City State knock off Johnson C. Smith 65-63 in the quarterfinal round of the CIAA Tournament on Thursday afternoon at Time Warner Cable Arena.

With the game tied at 63, Price sank a layup with 29 seconds remaining to give the Vikings the lead for good. He drove the length of the floor as time was winding down on the shot clock and got a nice reverse layup off to put the Vikings ahead.

"We're fortunate to be advancing," said Elizabeth City head coach Shawn Walker. "This was a difficult game and we knew it would be difficult. Johnson C. Smith beat us in January by 30. Of course, we know they are a very good team and capable of doing it again. We're very lucky to win and very blessed to be moving on and happy to be moving on."



The Golden Bulls had several chances to make something happen in the latter stages of the game. After a failed lob attempt to Emilio Parks inside, ECSU's Angelo Sharpless tapped the ball out of bounds to give the Golden Bulls another chance.

On the ensuing inbounds pass, the Golden Bulls didn't get the shot they wanted but they were given another opportunity as the ball fell out of bounds once again with .07 left on the clock. A three-point shot by Joshua Linson was short as time expired.

"It was a bit of a miscommunication," said Johnson C. Smith head coach Stephen Joyner, Sr. "I wanted a jump ball in the lane and Emilio went for the jump ball behind the defense, which was to their advantage. I really felt he could have gotten in front of the guy and out-jump the guy to get to the basket and have an opportunity to score the bucket. We didn't get it done."



The Vikings, the No. 2 seed from the Northern Division, were led by four players with double figures. Faulcon had a team-high 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting to lead the way for ECSU. Glenn Patterson added 11 while Price and Shaquil Barber contributed 10 apiece in the win. Angelo Sharpless, the CIAA Player of the Year, was limited to just eight points.

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