Box Score
NORFOLK, Va. – Rob Hampton scored a game-high 21 points and Kyle O'Quinn added 20 points and 15 rebounds for his fifth straight double-double as Norfolk State snapped a three-game losing streak with a 76-68 win over Howard on Monday night at Echols Hall.
The Spartans (8-16, 6-6 MEAC) blocked a season-high 10 shots, half of them from O'Quinn, to lead a solid defensive effort. The Bison (5-20, 3-9) shot 43 percent from the floor, just 32 percent in the first half.
NSU led throughout thanks to 53 percent shooting from the floor, 56.5 percent in the first half. Hampton scored seven of the Spartans' first eight points to take an early 8-3 lead. NSU gradually stretched its lead to as many as nine in the first half, 18-9, after a Marcos Tamares jumper with 10:26 left in the stanza.
Howard got as close as four at 20-16, but NSU hit six of its final nine field goals in the half, capped by Rodney McCauley's buzzer-beating lay-in, to take a 36-26 lead into the break.
The Bison clawed within five, 36-31, on a three-point play by Alphonso Leary with 18:18 remaining in the game. NSU then responded with a 7-0 run, capped by a Hampton trey, to make it a 12-point game, 43-31.
The Spartans extended their lead to as many as 17, but Howard had one more run left. Leary had another three-point play to bring the Bison within 61-53 with 3:35 remaining. But NSU freshman guard Pendarvis Williams scored off a pass from McCauley. Williams then recorded a block and rebound at the other end, and his long outlet pass led to McCauley's three-point play that put NSU ahead by 13.
Williams added 11 points, five assists, four rebounds and two blocked shots. Aleek Pauline was the third Spartan in double figures, with 10 points. He also dished out five assists. McCauley chipped in with eight points, three assists and three steals off the bench.
Leary had a career-high 17 points for Howard. Anton Dickerson also had 17.
The Spartans hit the road for the final time this regular season for their next two games, beginning with a 4 p.m. Saturday tilt at North Carolina Central.
