The second week of Division I HBCU basketball conference play was eventful.
The usual suspects marked their territory on the men’s side, and a women’s basketball team won a game by hockey rules.
Here are some of the important takeaways from the week that was on the D-I level.
North Carolina Central women win shorthanded
Injuries have derailed the Lady Eagles’ goals of becoming a MEAC contender, but they refused to let any insults be added to their health woes.
Central defeated Maryland-Eastern Shore 92-86 in double overtime on Saturday, finishing the game with just four players on the court after only dressing eight to start the game.
Four players—leading scorer Kyla Bryant (32 points), Morgan Callahan, Jada Creech, and Bradyn Griffin—fouled out during the game, but somehow, Central held on for its first MEAC win of the season.
NCCU Women’s basketball opened their first conference game at home with a double-overtime win over UMES. Check out some of the highlights.#meac #collegehoops #eaglepride pic.twitter.com/iV0pLYn3PG
— NCCU Athletics (@NCCUAthletics) January 12, 2025
“They are learning how to fight for 40 minutes,” head coach Terrence Baxter said. “They have stopped looking at me like they are tired. They know they got to play through it.”
If NCCU can get some of their injured players back, their hopes of making things tough on the MEAC’s upper tier may be alive and well after all.
North Carolina A&T women put icing on their coach’s birthday cake
Tarrell Robinson couldn’t have asked for a better birthday gift than the one the North Carolina A&T women’s basketball team gave him.
Happy Birthday, TRob! 💙💛 @LadyAggieBall x #AggiePride pic.twitter.com/eDgCvc2zPj
— N.C. A&T Athletics (@NCATAGGIES) January 10, 2025
The Lady Aggies got 16 points from Jordyn Dorsey and 13 from Paris Locke, limiting the Blue Hens to a miserable 16-of-42 (38.1 percent) shooting performance.
More Bison buckets
For the second consecutive game, defending MEAC men’s champion Howard hit the century mark, defeating Morgan State 100-95 on Saturday.
In spite of losing Bryce Harris to a foot injury, the Bison continue to pile up the points, with six players reaching double figures against the Bears, led by senior guard Marcus Dockery’s 25 points.
Howard surprisingly trails North Carolina Central (80.8) and Morgan State (82.4) in the MEAC offensive standings with a 78.9 points per game average. That may not be the case for long if HU keeps hitting triple digits.
Grambling men still winless in SWAC play
As unsurprising as Howard’s fast MEAC start has been, Grambling’s slow start in defending their SWAC title has been a shocker. The Tigers fell to 0-3 in conference play thanks to a 65-59 loss at the hands of visiting Bethune-Cookman on Saturday.
Wildcat senior guard Brayon Freeman, on his fourth team in four seasons, led all scorers with 26 points as BCU jumped out to a 34-17 halftime lead and held on to improve to 2-0 in SWAC play.
It’s still early in the season, but GSU’s concerns have to be mounting, especially after its best season in program history.
Jackson State remains unbeaten against conference opponents
Make that 21 straight SWAC wins for the Lady Tigers, who knocked Alabama A&M from the ranks of the conference unbeaten with a 65-55 victory on Thursday, then followed that up with a 74-44 extermination of Alabama State on Saturday.
JSU is led by senior guard Taleah Dilworth, a transfer from Division II Kentucky State. Dilworth has made the jump to Division I fairly quickly, averaging 14.6 points per game on 47 percent shooting from the field and 72 percent from the free throw line.
There’s still a lot of basketball to be played, but it appears the rest of the SWAC will be struggling to catch a Tiger by the tail all season long.
