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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – For the first time in five years, the Norfolk State women's basketball team will not be heading back to Norfolk after the first day of the MEAC Championship, as the Spartans downed Bethune-Cookman, 51-41, Monday morning in the first game of the women's tournament at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

A little more than a week after the Wildcats scored their most points of the season in an 83-73 win in Daytona Beach, No. 9 seed NSU held No. 8 seed Bethune-Cookman to just 26.3 percent shooting for the day. The last team to score 41 or fewer points against the Spartans was B-CU on Feb. 7, 2005, a 72-41 win for NSU.

The victory propelled NSU to the quarterfinal round on Wednesday, where the Spartans will face the top seed in the tournament, Hampton, at noon at the LJVM Coliseum.

Thanks to its stout defense, NSU was able to capture a tournament win for the first time since 2007, a first-round victory over UMES. The Spartans improved to 12-16 overall on the season, the most wins since 2004-05 when NSU posted a 12-18 record. B-CU saw its season come to a close with a 10-19 slate.

Thanks to a tight 2-3 zone and a dominating 52-28 margin on the boards for NSU, Bethune-Cookman was only able to shoot 15-of-57 for the game, compared to an 18-of-51 effort for the Spartans (35.3 percent). Sophomore Rae Corbo led NSU with 10 points, while junior Batavia Owens added nine points and 12 rebounds. Sophomore Rachel Gordon added eight points on the day with a game-high 16 boards.

Jalisa Isaac and Cleniece Roberts had 12 and 10 points, respectively, for the Wildcats.

Roberts made B-CU's first three baskets of the game and the Wildcats took the early 8-4 lead to start the game. The Spartans then held them scoreless for the next seven minutes to take a 10-8 lead at the 9:46 mark when Corbo got the steal at the top of the key and went the other way for the fastbreak layup.

Gordon converted a basket and hit a pair of free throws a minute apart, and then senior Whitney Long nailed a jumper after a B-CU turnover to make it 16-11 with four minutes to go in the half. The Spartans pushed the lead to as much as 20-11 on a putback jumper from freshman Quineshia Leonard before Jasmine Elum's jumper from the left elbow ended a nearly seven-minute drought from the floor for B-CU.

Elum sank a trey with three seconds in the half, one of just two 3-pointers in the entire game for B-CU, to cut NSU's lead at the break to 21-16. The Spartans held the Wildcats to just 30.4 percent shooting for the half.

Isaac's 3-pointer at the 15:53 mark helped cut the deficit to two for Bethune-Cookman early in the second half, 27-25. Junior Recca Trice snuck a pass to Leonard running the floor for the layup with 12:52 to go to end a four-minute scoreless drought for NSU. A short time later, the Spartans then used a 13-2 run to get the lead into double digits, 42-29, with a little more than five minutes left in the game.

Long and Gordon each had four points during that run, which ended with NSU up by the largest margin of the game at 13 points. Owens later stretched the NSU advantage back to 13, 44-31, with 3:55 to go. Isaac hit 5-of-6 free throws within a minute's span to help cut the deficit to six late in the game, but NSU got a pair of offensive boards to help keep possession in the last minute of play.

NSU hit 15-of-24 from the free throw line, while Bethune-Cookman only attempted 12 shots from the charity stripe for the game. The Wildcats held the Spartans to a 0-of-5 effort from the 3-point line. Elum finished with nine points for B-CU.

The 92 combined points between NSU and another team marks the lowest since a 54-37 loss to William & Mary on Nov. 29, 2000.