Box Score WASHINGTON, D.C. – Norfolk State survived some sloppy play and poor free throw shooting late in the game to come out of Burr Gymnasium with a 54-49 win over the Howard men Monday night in front of an ESPNU audience.

Neither team shot particularly well on national TV, but NSU's tenacious defense had the Spartans staked to a 13-point advantage with less than four minutes to go and seemingly in control of the contest. Howard, though, scored 16 points in the last three minutes of the game to force NSU to sweat out the win.

The Bison turned several Spartan mishandles into points down at the other end, and NSU shot just 8-of-16 from the charity stripe in the final four-plus minutes of the contest. Still, even with 20 seconds left, Howard had been unable to get any closer than seven points of NSU.

Prince Okoroh hit a 3-pointer with 17.6 on the clock and Tre Lee's layup with just 8.1 seconds left got Howard to within four, the closest margin of the second half. The Bison, though, did not have enough time left to score in two possessions after NSU went back to the line.

Despite making it closer than needed, the Spartans still came away with the victory, their third in a row. The win bumped up their record to 4-0 in MEAC play and kept NSU in first place in the conference. NSU improved its overall record to 9-10, while Howard fell to 4-14, 1-3.

NSU got all but two of its points from a quartet of players, including a game-high 17 from junior Pendarvis Williams. Junior Brandon Goode and senior Rob Johnson each added 12, while junior Malcolm Hawkins scored 11. NSU received a 0-of-7 effort from its bench.

Okoroh and Lee posted 15 and 13 points, respectively, on a combined 11-of-24 shooting to lead Howard.

After Williams had a SportsCenter worthy dunk early on, he and Hawkins hit back-to-back 3-pointers to help NSU eventually take a 15-4 lead to start the game. Howard made just one field goal in the first 10 minutes of the contest before a 9-0 run cut the deficit to 15-13 at the 6:28 mark.

Just 30 seconds later, a trey from Williams ended an eight-and-a-half minute scoring drought for the Spartans. NSU's defense limited Howard to just one field goal the rest of the half, a trey from Lee with a little less than four minutes to go, for a 26-18 lead at the break.

Williams had 10 points at the half.

NSU stretched the lead to 12 early in the second half before a 9-3 run by the Bison, covering six and a half minutes, cut it back down to six with 10:27 on the clock. The Spartans converted just one field goal in more than 12 minutes of play before Williams sank a 3-pointer from the right wing at the 7:09 mark.

The Bison, on the other hand, went 1-of-10 in more than eight minutes of play to help NSU get its lead to double digits and eventually the 13-point advantage with 3:41 left in the game.

Okoroh added six steals and five rebounds for the Bison, who hit just 32.7 percent on 17-of-52 shooting. After hitting better than 45 percent in the first half, NSU finished 15-of-42 for the night (35.7 percent).

The Spartans shot just 20-of-36 from the free throw line and took 22 more attempts than the Bison. Junior Jamel Fuentes scored the other two Spartan points to go with seven boards and three assists.

NSU will play its first MEAC home game of the season next Saturday against Coppin State at 6 p.m.