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NORFOLK, Va. – Thanks to a big run in the latter stages of the second half, the Norfolk State men's basketball team kept its perfect MEAC record alive and won round 1 of the Battle of the Bay with a 74-67 victory over Hampton Saturday night in front of a capacity crowd at Joseph Echols Hall.

The Spartans were down by seven at the break after a poor-shooting first half but came out on fire in the second. NSU quickly erased that deficit early in the second stanza and used an extended 18-5 run to awaken the sold-out crowd and go up by 11 with less than four minutes to go.

Hampton got no closer than five the rest of the way, and NSU won its sixth straight game.

The victory also kept the Spartans perfect in MEAC play at 7-0 while improving their overall record to 12-10. Hampton fell to 5-13, 2-3 in conference play and dropped its third straight to the Spartans.

NSU overcame foul trouble from its big men and poor free throw shooting but made up for it with a 17-of-29 effort (58.6 percent) from the floor in the second half. The Spartans hit just 17-of-35 from the free throw line for the game, though, including a 6-of-16 effort in the second half when NSU could have extended its lead in the last couple of minutes.

Junior Pendarvis Williams led the Spartans with 16 points and six rebounds, while senior Rob Johnson (13) and junior Malcolm Hawkins (11) also reached double figures.

Deron Powers led all scorers with 20, but the freshman also had five turnovers for Hampton. The Pirates committed 18 on the night, compared to just 10 for the Spartans, and NSU turned those mistakes into a 19-8 advantage in points off turnovers, with 15 of those points coming after the intermission.

Hampton had 11 turnovers in the second half as the Spartans turned up the defensive pressure and held the Pirates to a 12-of-30 effort. NSU outscored Hampton by 14 in the second stanza and wiped out a nine-point Hampton lead after intermission.

After a pair of free throws from HU's Emmanuel Okoroba got the second half scoring started, NSU went on an 11-2 run, capped by a shot in the lane from Johnson, to tie it up at 43-43 at the 14:22 mark. After the teams traded baskets, junior Brandon Goode finished a 3-point play in between the under-8 media timeout to give NSU a 52-51 advantage, the team's first lead since the 15:49 mark of the first half.

Williams followed that up with a pair of 3-point plays over the next three Spartan possessions. Johnson eventually capped the 18-5 run than began less than five minutes prior with a trey from the left wing at 3:47. Up by 11 at that point, 67-56, NSU held on despite getting just a pair of fastbreak dunks and a 3-of-11 effort from the foul line in the last three minutes of the game.

Okoroba had 13 points and seven rebounds for Hampton, while Du'Vaughn Maxwell added 12 points and 10 boards.

Hawkins scored seven of NSU's first nine points of the game to get the Spartans going early. But after a bucket from Williams at the 12:36 mark, NSU converted on just one shot over the next five and a half minutes. That allowed the Pirates to go up by eight, 25-17, with 7:31 to go in the first half.

A pair of baskets from Williams ended that 11-4 Hampton run, and the Spartans scored nine of the game's next 13 points beginning with those buckets from Williams. He went 1-of-2 from the free throw line with 4:02 to go to cut the deficit to one, 29-28, but the Spartans failed to hit a field goal in the last five minutes of the half and fell behind by seven, 39-32, at the break.

Goode finished with nine points for NSU, but he and freshman Rashid Gaston played just a combined 30 minutes after both got into quick foul trouble in both halves.

Senior Kris Brown added seven points, six rebounds and two blocks and came up with some big second-half plays for the Spartans. Junior Jamel Fuentes also played a major part in NSU's second-half clampdown on defense and ended the night with six assists and five steals.

Johnson tied his career high with six assists as well. The Spartans finished the night 26-of-56 from the floor (46.4 percent), while the Pirates hit 25-of-58 (43.1 percent).

NSU will hit the road next weekend to play at Coppin State and Morgan State.