NORFOLK, Va. — Don’t look now but Delaware State is one victory away from going to the NCAA Tournament.

For the second night in a row, the sixth-seeded Hornets upset a higher seed, toppling No. 2 North Carolina Central;, 71-58, in the MEAC men’s basketball semifinal late Friday night.

The win puts Delaware State in the conference championship game for the first time since 2015.

The Hornets (15-17) will face fourth-seeded Howard (17-16) in the MEAC championship game on Saturday at 1 p.m. at The Scope Arena. The contest will be televised on. on ESPN-2.

The Bison upset top-seeded Norfolk State, 80-74, in Friday’s first semifinal. DelState has lost its last six meetings with Howard.

But the Hornets had lost eight games in a row to N.C. Central before Friday’s upset.

"As a team, we try to approach it one game at a time, but again I'd be less than honest if I told you that each one of these young men in that locker room is not going to be satisfied to just be in the championship game," coach Stan Waterman said in a story on DSU's website.

"Our goal is to win it. We've worked hard enough to put ourselves in that position and we just want to make sure we seize that opportunity."

The Hornets are trying to make the NCAA tourney for just the second time in their history. The only other time they made the Big Dance was in 2005 under former coach Greg Jackson.

N.C. Central had DelState’s lead down to just 50-47 with 6:46 remaining. But the Hornets answered with a 12-0 run to take control for good.

Freshman Deywilk Tavarez twice sank three-pointers in that run. He missed his first attempts of the game from beyond the arc.

DelState finished just 3-of-13 from three-point range but all three made threes were in the final 10 minutes.

Four players scored in double figures for DSU: Deywilk Tavarez, (20 points), Jevin Muniz (16), Martaz Robinson (12) and Alston Andrews (10). Wesley Oba added seven points and 14 rebounds.

The Hornets limited the Eagles to just 34.4-percent shooting (22-of-64) for the game, including 6-of-22 from three-point range. North Carolina Central also committed 18 turnovers,

After five lead changes in the first half, Delaware State ended up leading for 28:05.

The Eagles led briefly at 28-27 after hitting the first basket of the second half. DelState, though, took the lead for good at 32-30 on a layup Tavarez with 17:55 remaining.

The Hornets eventually led by as much as 66-49 with 1:34 left in the contest.

Delaware State is 1-6 in MEAC championship games since making its first one in 1991. The Hornets are 0-3 in title games since winning the championship in 2005.

"This is a testament to the hard work and fortitude we have shown and demonstrated all year as a program," Waterman said ."We just talked about it in the locker room that we've had more close games than anybody in the country.

"All that time we talked about making deposits that we'd be able to draw on later in the season and that has come to fruition for us the last two games."