BALTIMORE, MD – The CIAA Tournament reaches its halfway point on Thursday with four quarterfinals matchups.
Claflin University men and women will both take the court on Thursday afternoon. The Claflin women will make their tournament debut on Thursday. The no. 2 team in the CIAA South, it will take on Shaw University tipping off at noon. Shaw (14-14) advanced to the quarterfinals by knocking off Virginia Union on Tuesday in the first round. Claflin swept the regular season series, beating Shaw 87-77 at home and pulling out a 66-64 victory on the road in Raleigh.
The Claflin men will also make their debut as they take on Virginia State at 2 PM. The two teams split the regular season matchup against each other, with Virginia State taking a 73-71 win over Claflin in the US Virgin Islands back in December in a non-conference matchup. The teams met again at Virginia State, with Claflin coming up with an 82-75 win on the road.
The Virginia State women will also make their tournament debut on Thursday, directly after the VSU-Claflin men’s game. The second-seeded Trojans will take on Johnson C. Smith, the third seed from the CIAA South. Virginia State comes into the tournament with an impressive 22-4 record, including a win over Johnson C. Smith in Charlotte. It was hard-fought, however, going into overtime with Virginia State ultimately taking a 73-69 win out at Brayboy Gym.
The final matchup of the night will see the debut of Virginia Union, the CIAA North co-champion and the no. 2 seed from the division. It is set to take on an upstart Bluefield State program that comes in with a lowly 9-21 record, but has made heads turn in its first CIAA Tournament since returning to the league after leaving in the mid-1950s. BSU beat Saint Augustine’s 60-58 on Day One of the tournament, then pulled off the upset of the year as it knocked off defending CIAA Champion Winston-Salem State University 67-66 in overtime.
Virginia Union (13-17), the CIAA team with the most tournament titles, will look to avoid a similar fate. The two CIAA North teams met twice in the regular season, with Virginia Union winning by 16 and 12 points, respectively.
No. 1 seeds Fayetteville State and Lincoln both await the winners of Thursday’s games in the semifinals on the men’s side. The Fayetteville State women and Elizabeth City State women do the same.