RALEIGH, NC – North Carolina Central University overcame a poor shooting performance and costly turnovers by cleaning up the glass to escape with a 59-54 victory over Saint Paul’s College in the first round of the CIAA Women’s Basketball Tournament at the RBC Center in Raleigh, NC. NCCU committed 26 turnovers resulting in 24 points for the Lady Tigers, compared to five Lady Eagle points off of 17 St. Paul’s turnovers. NCCU also struggled from the field, shooting just 9-for-28 (32.1 percent) in each half. It was a 56-38 rebounding advantage for the Lady Eagles that made the difference, scoring 20 second-chance points to SPC’s 12. “One of the things that we knew is that we had to come out and defend them,” said NCCU head coach Joli Robinson. “They have good players that can shoot the three, and we had to defend against that. We did a good job at certain points of the game.” NCCU (14-13) received double-double efforts by freshman Cassie King and junior transfer Shaunda Gallon. King finished with 14 points and 16 rebounds for her eighth double-double of the season, while junior transfer Gallon amassed 14 points and 15 boards for fifth double-double as a Lady Eagle. All-CIAA senior guard Tiona Beatty added 12 points for NCCU. SPC (2-24) was topped by senior guard Quisannah Noel with a game-high 22 points, while adding eight rebounds and four assists. LaQuanda Rouse chipped in 16 points, eight caroms and four steals for the Lady Tigers. In a first half that saw five ties and four lead changes, St. Paul’s, the sixth seed in the East, held a 22-17 advantage with 6:19 on the clock. NCCU, the third seed in the West, posted an 11-3 run to go ahead 28-25 with 1:47 left in the first stanza. The Lady Eagles held a slim 29-28 lead at the break. “We wanted to be sure that we could come in and run our system,” Robinson added. “We did not do a good job of running it in the first half.” SPC took a 35-31 advantage on a put-back jumper by India Elliott at the 16:19 mark. The Lady Eagles responded with a 7-2 spurt to pull ahead 38-37 on a jumper by King at 12:24. SPC’s Noel knotted the score at 48-48 at 4:18, but Gallon’s old-fashioned three-point play at 4:02 snapped the tie and put NCCU on top to stay. The Lady Eagles hit 8-of-12 in the final two minutes to preserve the victory. NCCU takes a four-game win streak into second round action against the No. 2 seed in the East, Virginia Union University (21-5), at 3 p.m. Tuesday.