CHARLOTTE -- N.C. Central came within a fraction of a second of its first outright CIAA Western Division championship since 1999.

But when Johnson C. Smith’s John Fulton scored in the lane with 0.2 seconds left to give his team a 69-68 win in the nightcap of the "Black College Queen City Classic" on Saturday night at the Charlotte Coliseum, it set up a coin flip between the Eagles and co-champion St. Augustine’s for the division’s top seed in the CIAA Tournament next week at Raleigh’s RBC Center.

Regardless of how the flip goes, the Eagles (15-12, 10-6 CIAA, 8-2 CIAA West) will have a bye to Thursday’s second round. But instead of having a guaranteed quarterfinal matchup against a team with a losing record, the Eagles could have to play reigning conference champion Shaw on Thursday night.

"This is just devastating," NCCU coach Phil Spence said after his team lost for the first time in four trips to arenas seating more than 10,000 this season. "We just seem to keep finding ways to beat ourselves.

"We were up seven [with 4:25 to play] and just had to play possession basketball, but we just couldn’t finish it."

NCCU won the first meeting with the Golden Bulls, 84-78 on Jan. 29 at McLendon-McDougald Gym.

JCSU coach Steve Joyner, whose team finished the regular season 19-7, 12-4 and 7-3 and will have the No. 3 seed from the division, said the win was a "must" for his team to make its fourth straight trip to the NCAA Division II Tournament.

"The plan was to get the ball to Marco [Spears], and he did a great job recognizing the double-team and getting out of it," Joyner said. "He got the ball out to Wayne Hinton, and Wayne got the ball down to Johnny for the basket.

"I told our guys with three minutes left that this would be a very good game for us to win, and they went out and got the job done."

Fulton finished with 12 points.

Smith’s All-CIAA senior Spears, who led his team with 25 points, and classmate Hinton were recognized on the Golden Bulls’ Senior Night, and Spence started his five seniors for the fourth straight game.

Shawn Ray led NCCU with 25 points, including 8-for-12 from the floor in his final regular-season game.

"We had our chances to win, but we just didn’t get it done," Ray said. "It just wasn’t meant to be tonight, I guess.

"We’re just going to have to get ourselves mentally prepared to play because we can win the tournament if we play like we’re capable of playing."

Freshman Charles Nickens added 16 for the Eagles, including 5-for-9 from outside the 3-point arc.

"I think I’ve finally got my shot back, and it’s about time," Nickens said. "But I’m really disappointed we didn’t win this one. We just didn’t finish them like we should have. We’ve got to get back into the right frame of mind, and we have to do it quickly."

NCCU outshot the hosts 49 percent to 48.1 percent but was outrebounded 33-26 and committed 21 turnovers to JCSU’s 19.

NCCU led 39-34 at halftime after outshooting the Golden Bulls 53.8 percent to 48.1 percent and outrebounding them 15-12 in the period. Ray had 12 points in the first half.

JCSU got off to a quick start, leading 9-2 on Vernon Benjamin’s layup with 17:52 left in the half. But the Eagles stormed back, going on a 12-0 run and taking a 17-13 lead on Michael Noel’s steal and layup with 14:06 left in the half.