DURHAM, N.C. – First-place Morgan State outscored N.C. Central 20-8 in the fourth quarter to rally for a narrow 68-63 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference road win Saturday afternoon.
Trailing 59-50 with less than seven minutes left in regulation, freshman guard Gabrielle Johnson drilled a trio of 3-pointers during a decisive 17-2 run over the next five-plus minutes, lifting the Bears to their eighth straight league triumph.
Morgan State (15-6 Overall, 8-0 MEAC) remained undefeated against conference competition while NCCU (10-13, 4-4) had its four-game home win streak come to an end.
Callahan made five of her seven field goal attempts (71.4%) and eight of her nine free throw tries (88.9%) to score her team-high 18 points. Callahan added three assists while her seven rebounds matched seven boards grabbed by junior Kimeira Burks for team-high honors.
A couple of other Eagles reached double-digit scoring with junior forward Tianna Carter bucketing a season-high 14 points and classmate Tippy Robertson supplying 11 points. Robertson also had four assists.
Callahan scored NCCU’s first four points of the game and the Eagles flew out to an early 10-2 advantage. NC Central never trailed in the first half and Callahan had 11 of her 18 points by the midway break, helping the Eagles maintain four-point leads of 17-13 after the first quarter and 35-31 at halftime.
NCCU extended its advantage to as many as 12 points in the third quarter before the Bears closed the deficit to 55-38 entering the fourth quarter. Morgan State made just one of its first 20 attempts from three-point distance over the first three quarters before the Bears found a hot hand in Johnson in the fourth quarter.
Johnson finished with a game-high 21 points. Graduate student Charlene Shepherd made a transition hoop as the clock ticked inside three minutes left in the fourth quarter to give MSU its first lead of the game. The Bears would remain ahead and Shepherd totaled 15 points.
The Eagles only shot 7.7 percent from behind the arc (1-of-13), which prevented NCCU from answering during the late rally by the Bears.
Courtesy: North Carolina Central Athletics
