Eagles' win streak turns to dust at VUU 
 
By MIKE POTTER : The Herald-Sun
mpotter@heraldsun.com
Feb 18, 2007 : 12:33 am ET 

RICHMOND, Va. -- An awful lot of visiting CIAA basketball teams have come into Barco-Stevens Hall and had short winning streaks turn to dust. 

And that's what happened to N.C. Central on Saturday on Virginia Union's senior night. 

The Eagles gave a decent account of themselves, but it wasn't enough as their three-game winning streak ended with a 63-56 defeat to the three-time defending CIAA champions. 

Brad Byerson had 15 points and 14 rebounds to lead four Panthers in double figures. 

Billy Wilson had season highs of 18 points and 10 rebounds for NCCU, which fell 11-13 overall and 7-11 in CIAA action. Bryan Ayala added 13 points for the Eagles. 

The win gave Dave Robbins' Panthers (17-4, 14-4) a sweep of the season series. 

"We were lucky," Robbins said. "Central has a good team and they played hard. One thing I don't like about senior night is that everybody thinks he's supposed to have his greatest game and be the hero and try to do something he can't do. We've got to play better than this." 

The Panthers' 63-52 victory at McLendon-McDougald Gym on Feb. 8 had been the Eagles' most recent loss and was the largest margin of defeat at home all season. 

"Playing here is a tough assignment, and our guys still seem like they come in here and look at all the [championship] banners," NCCU coach Henry Dickerson said. "And it's the seniors who have played in here before who seem to be the ones doing the looking. 

"We didn't play bad, but we made a few mistakes that kept us from winning -- a couple of bad passes and some missed free throws. But I think we've been playing well lately, so this shouldn't hurt our momentum." 

Wilson had eight first-half points for the Eagles. 

"I just went out and played like Coach [Dickerson] has been telling me to play," Wilson said. "I stepped it up a notch. We can win games like this, but we have to stop making mental mistakes. And we still need to increase our work ethic." 

VUU led 35-33 when Drew Johnson hit a 3-pointer with 18:30 to play. But the Panthers followed that with a 13-3 run ending in Tim Young's layup for a 48-36 lead with 11:41 to go. 

NCCU rallied to cut the lead to 48-43 on Wilson's alley-oop from Brandon Alston at 8:23, but the hosts stretched the lead to 60-47 on a Greene jumper with 4:01 to play. 

"This is a tough place to play with all their tradition," Ayala said. "You have to play a hell of a game to win in here. 

"I was happy to see the way Billy played tonight. He's got so much athletic ability -- he can play like this every game if he just goes out and plays."