[Game Statistics]
By MIKE POTTER : The Herald-Sun
mpotter@heraldsun.com
Feb 25, 2007 : 12:12 am ET

CHARLOTTE -- N.C. Central was hoping to avoid being part of history on Saturday night.

But because of some poor free-throw shooting among other things, the Eagles will indeed be part of the Johnson C. Smith history books.

NCCU went 6-for-16 from the line while the Golden Bulls were 16-for-24 as JCSU won its historic 1,000th men's basketball game 61-54 at Brayboy Gym.

Edmund Rainey had 15 points, Maurice Hooper 12 and Jerry Hollis 10 as the Golden Bulls (16-8, 14-6 CIAA) clinched the conference's Western Division championship in the regular-season finale for both teams.

NCCU (12-14, 8-12), which lost on its last nine trips to Brayboy, now will have to make a run in the CIAA Tournament to have a winning season.

Jason Hervey led all scorers with 17 points for the Eagles, while Billy Wilson chipped in 11 points and 13 rebounds. Chris Mayshack added 10, but the Eagles were 4-for-18 from 3-point range on a night they shot 36.7 percent from the floor overall.

"It's great to be a part of winning the 1,000th game here [and 696 losses]," said Smith coach Steve Joyner Sr. (357-216 at the Golden Bulls' helm), who has his son and former NCCU women's coach Steve Jr. on his staff while former Durham High great Mark Sherrill is his longtime lead assistant. "I've been here a long time.

"[N.C.] Central was in position to win the game in the last few minutes and I thought they went for it. But our guys stepped up and made some big stops."

JCSU shot only 39.2 percent from the floor, and the Eagles won the rebounding battle 42-37, all of which had NCCU coach Henry Dickerson shaking his head.

"It seems like there's always one statistic that jumps out when we lose, and tonight it was free throws," Dickerson said. "I don't mean to disrespect anybody in this conference, because they're all good teams. But we keep finding ways to beat ourselves. Our guys are playing hard, but we're just not making the big plays."

JCSU led 25-19 after a first half filled with plenty of defense.

The Golden Bulls shot 42.3 percent from the floor in the first half to 23.3 for the Eagles, who turned the ball over nine times to 12 for JCSU.

Hervey had 11 points at halftime for the Eagles, who had just three players score over the opening 20 minutes.

"We gave a pretty good effort tonight," said Hervey, who went 7-for-11 from the floor and had seven rebounds. "We just missed too many shots."

Hollis' layup gave the hosts a 7-6 advantage with 14:18 left in the first half, and the Eagles never led again.

The Golden Bulls' biggest lead in the first half was 11, at 23-12 on a Rainey jumper at the 4:15 mark.

NCCU trimmed the lead to 39-38 on Wilson's 3-point play with 8:50 left, but the hosts responded with 11 straight points and took a 50-39 lead on a Hooper 3-pointer with 5:10 to go.

The Eagles made a run, cutting the gap to 52-48 on a Steve Randolph layup with 1:46 left. But after Jerome Givens' free throw made it 55-50 with 1:02 remaining, NCCU could get no closer.

"I thought we played well enough to win," Mayshack said. "We just couldn't knock down our shots from the outside."