The Fayetteville State women’s basketball team showed they are the defending CIAA Champs in their 72-54 win over the Bluefield State Big Blue in the quarterfinals of the 2025 CIAA Tournament at CFG Bank Arena.
After the Broncos took a slim six-point lead at halftime, they came out in the third quarter on fire and went on a 10-1 scoring spurt and never looked back. Fayetteville State eventually led by as many as 22 points and held Bluefield State to 3-of-13 (33 percent) shooting in the third quarter.
“We wanted to win. We wanted to come here and prove our point like we did last year,” said senior forward Morgan Graham.
Fayetteville State (19-7) had four players in double-figures—Daziyahna Wilson (10), Keayna McLaughlin (10), Nyah Wilkins (12) and KaNyah O’Neal (10).
Broncos coach Tyrese Brown said he liked the way his team, which hadn’t played a game since last Wednesday, responded after a layoff.
“That’s our mentality. We’ve been doing that all year,” said Fayetteville State head coach Tyrese Brown. “We’re a heck of a second-half team. “We had been off since Wednesday, and we got our second wind. We played our brand of basketball. That’s something we’ve been doing for the last two years.”
FSU advanced to Friday’s CIAA Tournament semifinal and will take on the winner of Virginia Union-Claflin, who will play their quarterfinal matchup on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Bluefield State head coach Paul Davis said after his team missed an open basket after a Fayetteville State turnover, things went downhill from there for Bluefield State which saw its season end at 11-19. “It all fell from there. Chaos,” Davis said. “We weren’t smart and Fayetteville State is the type of team that you cannot make mistakes. If you make a mistake, they’re going to convert it and that’s kinda what happened.”