RALEIGH – Emoki Manning is glad she took her dad’s advice. It turned out to be worth almost a quarter million dollars.

As Manning visited her dad over the weekend in the Charlotte area, he suggested she buy a ticket for Sunday’s Carolina Cash 5 drawing.

The next day, Manning was back home in Southern Pines when her dad called to remind her to check her numbers. So she brought up the results on the lottery’s mobile app. She saw that two lucky tickets matched all five numbers in the drawing, which meant she won half the $492,374 jackpot.

“My mind kind of blanked,” she recalled. “I still don’t think reality has set in. I think once I check my bank account it will.”

Manning said the after-tax winnings of $170,484 would help her and her husband buy their first home together.

“It will be a good way to celebrate our one-year anniversary,” Manning added, saying the couple would mark the occasion next month.

Manning bought her winning ticket at the Kangaroo Express on South Tryon Street in Charlotte. The other half of the jackpot was claimed Monday by a Fayetteville woman. Evangeline Kelly bought her winning ticket at the Sonoco on Raeford Road in her hometown.

Ticket sales from games like Cash 5 made it possible for the lottery to raise more than $600 million for the state last year. For details on how lottery funds have made a difference in each of North Carolina's 100 counties, click on the “For Education” section of the lottery’s website.