NORFOLK, Va. (March 7, 2016)-For the first time in three seasons, the Morgan State women's basketball team has advanced out of the first round of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Tournament. Behind a double-double of a team-high 17 points and a game-high 14 rebounds from sophomore Zuri Smith, the fifth-seeded Lady Bears defeated No. 12 North Carolina Central, 52-42 in a first round contest on Monday at the Norfolk Scope Arena.
 
White, a native of Durham, N.C., where N.C. Central is located, shot 7-of-13 from the floor and hauled in 10 defensive rebounds to help the Lady Bears to a 48-35 rebounding advantage over NCCU. Fellow Durham native Tykyrah Williams added eight points and Braennan Farrar finished with eight points, and a game-high three steals.
 
Morgan State (13-16) advances to the quarterfinal round on Thursday, March 10 and will face crosstown rival and No. 4 seed, Coppin State. Tip-off is slated for 2 p.m. North Carolina Central (5-23) ended its season dropping seven of its last eight games.
 
Morgan State used a 9-0 run to take an 11-4 advantage after Makakala hit a three-pointer from the right wing with 3:49 remaining in the first half. The Lady Bears' lead would grow to 11 points at 17-6 on a layup from Spears with 56 seconds left. The Lady Eagles would score the final four points to cut the Morgan State lead to 17-10 after one quarter of play.
 
The Lady Eagles would get within 19-15 in the second quarter, before Morgan State used an 11-2 spurt, capped off by a three-point play by Williams to make it a 30-17 lead with 2:52 left in second quarter. Morgan State would hold a 34-21 lead at the intermission.
 
Morgan State had built its largest lead of the contest of 20 points (43-23) after a layup and free throw from Zuri White with 3:39 left in the third quarter.
 
The Lady Eagles would counter with a 17-5 run over the course of eight minutes, which ran into the fourth quarter. A Tisha Dixon layup capped off the run and brought NCCU within eight points at 48-40 with 6:13 to play. That would be as close as the Lady Eagles would get, as Morgan State responded with back-to-back layups by Farrar and Spears to up the lead to 12 points (52-40) with 3:39 left in the game. 
 
NCCU was led by Dixon, who finished with a game-high 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting and grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds to record a double-double. Morgan Jones added eight points and Chantal Thomas finished with seven points.
 
The Lady Bears shot 20-of-69 (29 percent) from the floor, including 2-of-12 (16.7 percent) from three-point range. N.C. Central shot 16-of-45 (35.6 percent) and was 2-of-7 (28.6 percent) from beyond the arc.
 
Morgan State and Coppin State will meet for a third time this season, marking the second consecutive season the two squads will square off three times and meet in the MEAC Tournament. Last season Coppin State defeated Morgan State in the first round. It was the first time ever in four MEAC Tournament meetings that the Lady Eagles defeated Morgan State.
 
This season the two teams split the season series, each winning on their own home floor. The Lady Bears won the first meeting, 72-51 at Hill Field House (2/1), but Coppin State returned the favor in a big way, handing the Lady Bears an 82-38 defeat at the Physical Education Complex (2/27). Coppin State leads the all-time series, 38-33, but Morgan State holds a 3-1 series lead in MEAC Tournament action.