Jan. 26, 2013

Final Stats

ELIZABETH CITY, NC- A.J. Johnson hit six first half three pointers in route to a season high 20 points as the Elizabeth City State University Vikings toppled Virginia State University 88-68 Saturday afternoon at the RL Vaughan Center.

After missing the first attempt (a three pointer) of the game Johnson, hit on his next four shots from beyond the three-point arc. His fourth three-ball, which came at the 11:54 mark of the opening half, began a 9-0 run that was capped by an assisted alley-oop from Blake Price to Angelo Sharpless. That gave the Vikings a 19-17 lead a prompted a quick timeout by the VSU bench.

That proved to be a momentum changer for the Vikings who would lead the rest of the way. The Vikings finished the first twenty minutes with 10 made three pointers, giving them a 45-29 lead at the break.

The second half was more tightly contested point-wise (43-39 in favor of ECSU) but the Trojans were never able to gain ground due to ECSU's hot shooting.

The Vikings shot a season best 61.5% from the floor and ironically was 16-26 (61.5%) from the field in both the first and second halves. The Vikings largest lead of the night was a spread of 24 points with 9:27 to go in the game. Kenny Mitchell led the Trojans with 20 points as Virginia State slips to 9-9 overall and 4-5 in the CIAA.

ECSU (12-7, CIAA 5-4) will host Virginia Union University in a nationally televised game on Wednesday, January 30th. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:0pm at the RL Vaughan Center. Log onto www.ecsuvikings.com and follow on Twitter @ECSUVikings.