Box Score NORFOLK, Va. – Led by 19 points from Malcolm Hawkins and Brandon Goode's double-double, the Norfolk State men's basketball team improved to 5-0 in conference play with a 75-68 victory against Coppin State Saturday night at Joseph Echols Hall.

NSU (10-10, 5-0 MEAC) led by as many as 15 in the second half and maintained first place in the MEAC despite a cold shooting night from beyond the arc. The Spartans hit just 1-of-19 from long range but made up for it with some hot shooting and a 20-of-24 effort from the foul line in the second half.

Goode posted his second straight game in double figures with 11 points and added his second career double-double with a game-high 11 boards. Senior Rob Johnson and junior Pendarvis Williams chipped in with 11 and 10 points, respectively, for the Spartans.

Andre Armstrong led Coppin State (4-15, 1-3 MEAC) with 22 points, while Michael Murray added 17 points and nine boards. Taariq Cephas contributed 14 points and six assists but was also charged with eight of Coppin State's 20 turnovers on the night.

Goode started off on fire, tallying seven points and eight rebounds within the first seven minutes of the game to help NSU take an early 14-10 lead. Patrick Cole and Zachary Burnham each hit a pair of free throws to twice cut the Spartan lead to one, the latter at 6:02 that made it 18-17 in favor of NSU.

A tip-in from junior Kievyn Lila-St. Rose ended a short 6-1 run for the Spartans that pushed their lead to the largest of the half, 24-18, with a little less than three minutes to go. Cephas sank a pair from the charity stripe with 28 seconds to go in the half to send Coppin State into the break down by just three, 26-23.

The Eagles hit 10-of-14 from the free throw line in the first half to stay in the game despite hitting just 25 percent (6-of-24) from the floor. NSU, on the other hand, sank just 11-of-37 shots (29.7 percent) in the first stanza.

Both teams then shot at least 50 percent in the second half. Burnham went 1-of-2 from the free throw line and converted a layup to give the Eagles their first lead since hitting the first bucket of the game. Down 30-29 at that point with 15:41 on the clock, NSU then used an extended 17-5 run that lasted six minutes to pull out to a 46-35 lead.

Junior Riley Maye stretched it to 16 at the 7:19 mark after scoring two of his career-high eight points. Johnson's layup with just under four minutes to go put the Spartans up by 14, 61-47, but the Eagles started to chip away at the deficit. Coppin State hit three 3-pointers in a minute and a half and got to within five when Murray finished a 3-point play with 34.1 seconds to go.

NSU, though, hit 10-of-12 from the charity stripe in the last minute of play, and Coppin State got no closer than that five-point margin.

NSU finished 24-of-31 (77.4 percent) from the charity stripe for the game, while Coppin State hit 20-of-27 (74.1 percent). Junior Jamel Fuentes had a game-high seven assists for the Spartans.

Burnham finished with 10 boards for CSU, but the Spartans held a sizeable advantage on the boards, 44-32, and in points in the paint, 40-26.

NSU will host Morgan State Monday at 8 p.m. at Echols Hall.