DAYTON, Ohio _ North Carolina Central will leave Dayton, Ohio once again still searching for the school's first NCAA Tournament win. In the Eagles' third trip to the Big Dance, NCCU was defeated by Texas Southern, 64-46, on Wednesday night as part of the First Four games.
The Tigers will advance to take on Xavier, the No. 1 seed in the West on Friday in Nashville. The Eagles (19-16) will return to Durham 0-3 in NCAA Tournament appearances.
On the national stage once again, it was too much Damontra Jefferson and Donte Clark for the Tigers, and not enough help around N.C. Central junior center Raasean Davis for the Eagles to advance.
Davis led N.C. Central with a team-high 19 points and 11 rebounds. But the Tigers figured out early to double, and sometimes triple team the 6-9 Davis, and make everyone else hurt them. On this night, the rest of the offense was missing in action. Meanwhile, Jefferson scored a game-high 25, and got plenty of help from Clark, who added 18 points.
At one point late in the second half, already trailing by double-digits, the Eagles missed eight (and counting) from the field. The Tigers didn't do much better, but with a 20-point lead it didn't matter.
Down 10 at the break, N.C. Central started the second half with two turnovers, and were 2-for-5 from the field in the first five minutes. They pulled to within seven, 37-30, but were outscored 11-2 over the next five minutes.
As much as Davis dominated the first half, he was held to three points after the intermission, and only took one shot after halftime.
If N.C. Central had any jitters because of the big stage it definitely didn't show early. The Eagles jumped out to a 4-0 lead, but TSU stayed within striking distance, never falling behind by more than four points, eventually tying the game 10. A lot of that had to do with the Eagles missing four straight baskets after taking a 10-6 lead.
Over the next four minutes, the Tigers would outscore the Eagles 10-6, taking their first lead, 12-10, on a dunk by 7-2 center Trayvon Reed. The Tigers would lead the rest of the half, gaining more confidence with each made basket.
The biggest play of the stretch came when Jefferson missed a wide open three, grabbed his own miss and scored a layup while drawing a foul. The 5-7 Jefferson completed the old-fashioned three-point play to put the Tigers up five. N.C. Central would get three consecutive baskets from Davis, to remain within four, but the Tigers would pull away, going up 10, 36-26, by the break.
Davis was a one-man show for the Eagles in the first half, scoring 16 of their 26 points, and 14 of the first 20. For the first time this season, N.C. Central didn't make a 3-pointer, going 0-for-14 against the Tigers. The 46 points scored by the Eagles was their lowest point total out of their three NCAA Tournament trips. It was also the fewest points they have scored since scoring 40 in the season-opener versus Clemson in 2015.
North Carolina Central falls to 4-3 versus the SWAC. This was the first NCAA Tournament win for Texas Southern in their fourth trip.
"It's bigger than us, this is for the University," Jefferson said about the first victory for an HBCU in the NCAA Tournament.
