Shaw Bears Build Early Lead, Hold Off ECSU 96-81 in CIAA Opener

RALEIGH, North Carolina  --  The Shaw University men's basketball team built an early lead, then held off a late charging Elizabeth City State squad to claim the 96-81 win in the contest played Thursday night at Shaw's C.C. Spaulding Gymnasium.

 

The game was the CIAA opener for both squads.  Shaw improves to 3-8 overall, while Elizabeth City State falls to 5-6.

 

The Bears built their first half lead on hot shooting from the field, while the Shaw defense kept ECSU from finding the bottom of the net.  Shaw hit 57.7 of their shots in the first, and held the Vikings to 31 percent shooting.  Both teams improved in the second half, with ECSU hitting 69 percent of their shots while the Bears hit 68.2 percent.

 

Shaw built their lead early, and increased it to as many as 36 in the second before ECSU hit some critical threes and cut that lead by more than half before time ran out.

 

With 15:54 left in the first half, Mykael Faulcon hit a three to give ECSU a 7-6 lead.  Those would be the last points they would hit for over seven minutes.

 

In those intervening minutes, Shaw scored 20 straight, including ten from Curtis Hines, making the score 26-7 with 9:17 left in the half.

 

The two teams traded buckets for three minutes, then Larry Richardson hit a three for the Bears, giving them a 37-15 advantage with 4:58 left.  The lead would hover around the 20-point mark for most of the rest of the half.

 

With two seconds left in the half, Derrick Hunter hit a long three to give the Bears a 46-23 lead going into the half.

 

In the first seven minutes of the second half, the Bears outscored ECSU 21-8 to stretch the lead to 36 on a layup from DaAaron Ward.

 

Brachon Griffin hit a three for ECSU to cut the Shaw lead to 67-34.  This would be the first of eight three pointers that the Vikings would hit the rest of the way, trimming the Shaw lead from 36 to as few as 14.  Hines closed out the Shaw scoring with 24 seconds left, hitting a three of his own to make the score 96-79.  Jake McDaniels would add a layup for ECSU to close out the scoring, giving Shaw the 96-81 win.

 

Four Bears finished in double digits on the evening, led by Hines with 26 and Hunter with 24.  Larry Richardson added 19, and Joe Reid had 14.  Hunter's seven rebounds and eight assists were tops in the game for both teams.

 

Faulcon was the leading scorer for the Vikings with 24 points -- 12 off of threes.  LaShawn Alexander added 12 points.  Alexander had five rebounds and Griffin had four assists to lead ECSU.

 

Shaw returns to action Saturday afternoon when they host Chowan at C.C. Spaulding Gymnasium on the Shaw campus.   Tipoff is 4:00 p.m.

Box Score

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