Box Score
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The 2010-11 season came to a close for the Norfolk State women's basketball team as the Spartans fell to Howard, 68-56, Tuesday afternoon in the first round of the MEAC tournament at the Lawrence Joel Coliseum.
The No. 11 seed Spartans dropped their final game of the year much like they did throughout the season, getting off to a slow start and then making a late push in the second half. NSU fell to 9-19 on the season, while No. 6 seed Howard improved to 14-17.
MEAC Player of the Year Saadia Doyle torched NSU again with 23 points on 6-of-11 shooting, including 11-of-15 from the free throw line. Tamoria Holmes and Cheyenne Curley-Payne each tallied 13 points for the Bison. Curley-Payne also added eight assists and three steals, while Doyle had game highs of nine rebounds and four steals.
NSU actually shot better than Howard, hitting 45.8 percent for the game compared to 41.7 percent for the Bison. Howard held a slight rebounding edge, 31-28, but as has been the case throughout the year, NSU's opponent had a huge edge at the free throw line. Howard sank 23-of-28 for the game, compared to just 9-of-14 for NSU. The Spartans committed 19 fouls, and the Bison had 13.
Howard turned the ball over just 11 times on the day, although NSU was below its season average with 17 turnovers.
The Spartans were led by freshman Rae Corbo with 14 points, while freshman Rachel Gordon and junior Whitney Long added 12 and 10 points, respectively. Gordon also had a team-high five boards.
Doyle scored the first seven points for Howard as the Bison took a 15-3 lead to start the game. Sophomore Marian Brooks got the Spartans on the board with a traditional three-point play at the 16:53 mark, NSU's only basket in the first five and a half minutes of the game. Junior Sarah Daily's baseline jumper made it 15-8 in favor of the Bison, but a 7-0 run by Howard opened up a 22-8 lead with 11:27 to go in the first half.
NSU held the Bison scoreless for slightly more than five minutes but could only get the deficit down to 10 at 22-12 and then again at 24-14 when Corbo knocked down an off-balance shot with a pair of defenders in her face from 10 feet out. The Spartans cut the Howard lead to nine, 29-20, when Brooks hit one of two free throws at the line, and sophomore Batavia Owens converted the layup off the second-shot miss with 2:52 left in the half.
The Spartans outscored the Bison, 30-16, in the paint.
The Bison, though, extended the lead to 18 from that point forward and took a 16-point lead at the break, 40-24, after finishing the half on an 11-4 run. Doyle, with 13 points, and Adelle Walton, with 10, led the way for the Bison in the first stanza.
Howard pushed the lead to 20 to open the second half, but NSU was able to cut it to 14, 40-34, when sophomore Recca Trice sank a jumper in the paint before the Bison defense was able to get set. Howard went up by a 49-32 margin, but NSU kept the Bison from pulling away. Long cut the deficit to 12 at the 11:33 mark with a tough fastbreak layup and then sank a 3-pointer with 9:04 left to make it 53-42.
NSU clamped down on the defensive side of the ball, holding Howard to one field goal in almost 10 minutes of play. With a defender seemingly right in her face, Corbo hit a tough shot in the paint to again cut the deficit to 11, 57-46. Corbo drove in from the right side of the basket and converted on a tough shot down low to make it 59-48, and on the next possession Gordon completed a traditional 3-point play to get NSU within eight, 59-51, with 4:11 left in the game.
Daily hit a tough shot off the glass along the right baseline for a 61-53 Howard lead, but the Spartans were unable to get any closer the rest of the way.
