This Weekend's Schedule
Saturday: Morgan State at NSU, 4 p.m., Joseph Echols Hall
Monday: Coppin State at NSU, 6 p.m., Joseph Echols Hall
Radio: WNSB Hot 91.1 (Live on Saturday, Tape-Delayed Until after the Men's Game on Monday)
Live Stats | Live Audio/Video | Live Audio Only | Game Notes
NORFOLK, Va. - It will be rematch weekend at Joseph Echols Hall as the Norfolk State women's basketball team gets set to first host Morgan State Saturday at 4 p.m. The Spartans will also welcome Coppin State Monday at 6. NSU beat the Bears by one and lost to the Eagles by five two weeks ago in Baltimore.
NSU has won two in a row over Morgan State, after the Bears had been victorious in the previous eight meetings before that, and the Spartans now lead the all-time series by a 15-11 margin. Coppin State owns an 18-6 advantage over NSU in the all-time series and has won the last 12 meetings between the two teams.
Media Coverage: The game against Morgan State can be heard live on WNSB Hot 91.1 FM, with Joe Cook and Ross Gordon on the call. The Coppin State contest on Monday will be tape-delayed until after the men's game. In addition, live stats and a live video stream of the game will be available through www.nsuspartans.com, and the video stream will carry the radio play-by-play as well.
Last Time Out: Hampton used its 3-point barrage to cruise past the Norfolk State women's basketball team, 92-43, last Saturday at the HU Convocation Center. The Pirates hit 13-of-35 from long range and handed NSU its worse conference loss ever.
Rae Corbo hit 6-of-14 from the floor and 5-of-5 from the free throw line for a game-high 19 points for NSU. Tyisha Bridges added seven points, with no other player scoring more than four. The Spartans hit just 12-of-48 for the game (25.0 percent) and committed 25 turnovers compared to six for Hampton. NSU did find success at the free throw line, hitting 17-of-20 for the game.
March to 1,000: Whitney Long needs just 31 points to become the 20th player all-time at NSU with 1,000 career points. She has reached double digits in scoring in 12 of the last 15 games, and at her current pace, she could finish as high as 14th all-time in scoring at NSU by the end of the season.
Ending Some Losing Streaks: NSU broke a 40-game road conference losing streak with its win over Morgan State on Jan. 14. Before that, NSU's last win on the road in MEAC play occurred Jan. 3, 2007 in a 69-59 win at UMES. The Spartans had won eight MEAC games at home since their last road conference win.
Heading into the season, NSU had lost at least six games in a row to seven different MEAC opponents. The Spartans were able to cross UMES off that list, as the Hawks saw their six-game win streak over NSU come to an end on Jan. 7. Delaware State, Coppin State, Howard, Hampton, North Carolina A&T and Florida A&M each own an active seven-games-or-more win streak against NSU. The Spartans ended an eight-game losing streak to Morgan State last year.
Defensive Minded: Rachel Gordon has tallied double-digit efforts in rebounds in 11 of the team's 18 games this year. Dating back to last season, Gordon has posted 10 or more rebounds in 14 of the last 23 games.
Winning the Rebounding Battle: NSU outrebounded its first six opponents of the season and has held the edge in 10 games overall. So far this year, the Spartans are outrebounding their opponents by 1.8 boards per game, a +3.3 difference from a season ago.
Cracking the Top 10: Recca Trice moved into eighth place all-time in the NSU record book for career assists during the contest at Hampton, and her 279 career helpers now puts her 31 away from tying LaMonica Filer for seventh all time. In addition, Whitney Long now sits alone in third place all-time in career treys as well (See Page 5).
MEAC, NCAA Leaderboard: As a team NSU ranks in the top 4 in six different categories in the MEAC, while NSU players rank in the top 5 in five different categories, including Rachel Gordon, who ranks second in the league with 9.3 rebounds per game.
Heading into the week, Gordon ranked 50th in the nation in rebounding. As a team, NSU is ranked better nationally than last year in all categories except field goal percentage, scoring defense, 3-point field goal defense and 3-point field goals per game.
What's the Opposite of a Sophomore Slump?: Rachel Gordon has tallied 8.4 points and 9.3 rebounds per game this year. Her production is up 2.6 points and 2.7 rebounds per game from last year. Rae Corbo, meanwhile, has upped her scoring average by 2.9 points per game.
Better in the Second Half: So far this season, NSU has scored 100 more points in the second half than the first half, an average of 5.6 points per game. NSU is 7-0 this year when either leading or tied at the half, but just 1-10 when trailing at the break. Whitney Long, meanwhile, has scored 141 of her 243 points on the year (58.0 percent) after the intermission.
Up Next: NSU will head north across the Delmarva Peninsula to face Delaware State and UMES Feb. 4 and 6.
