Saturday
NSU at Coppin State, 4 p.m., Physical Education Complex
Radio: WNSB Hot 91.1 (Ross Gordon, Play-by-Play)
Live Stats | Live Video | Game Notes

NORFOLK, Va. - The Spartan men's basketball team opens up the month of February with a pair of games against the Baltimore schools, beginning Saturday at Coppin State's Physical Education Complex at 4 p.m. Norfolk State will look to keep its perfect MEAC record intact against two schools the Spartans faced two weeks prior.

Media Coverage: The game can be heard live on WNSB Hot 91.1, with Ross Gordon on the call. Links to a live video feed as well as live stats will also be available.

MEAC Standings: NSU currently sits atop the conference at 7-0 ahead of North Carolina Central (6-0), Savannah State (5-1) and Delaware State (4-1). Every other school has at least three MEAC losses. The Spartans also enter the contest riding a six-game win streak with a 12-10 overall record. Coppin State sits in 10th place in the 13-team MEAC with a 2-5 record (5-17 overall).

NSU is one of 13 schools in the country that has yet to lose a conference game this season (minimum 6-0 record).

Last Time Out: NSU was forced to make a second-half comeback this time, and the Spartan defense held its own in the second half of a 74-67 victory over Hampton last Saturday in the Battle of the Bay at Joseph Echols Hall. NSU was down by seven at the half but used an 18-5 run to go up by 11 with four minutes remaining. Despite some poor free throw shooting, NSU held on for its third straight win over HU.

Pendarvis Williams led NSU with 16 points and six rebounds, while Rob Johnson and Malcolm Hawkins also scored in double figures with 13 and 11 points, respectively. NSU forced 11 Pirate turnovers and had 15 points off turnovers in the second half. Deron Powers led Hampton with 20 points.

Series History: NSU leads the all-time series with Coppin State, 21-11, after winning by a 75-68 margin on Jan. 19 at Joseph Echols Hall.

About Coppin State: Four players spread the scoring around and average in double figures for Coppin State. Michael Murray is tops with 12.4 points per game, followed by Troy Franklin (11.8), Patrick Cole (11.5) and Andre Armstrong (10.2). Murray also leads the way with 9.1 rebounds, although CSU does get outrebounded by nearly nine boards a game. Coppin State shoots just 36.5 percent from the floor while scoring 64.3 points per game.

Baltimore Battle: In each of the last three seasons, NSU has played a double overtime game against either Coppin State or Morgan State when the Spartans made the trip to Baltimore. NSU lost to Morgan State 88-87 in 2010 and then defeated Coppin State 110-108 in 2011 and Morgan State 90-80 in 2012.

Conference Streak: With one more victory, NSU will be assured of finishing no worse than .500 in conference play. Since moving to Division I in 1997, the Spartans have yet to finish worse than .500 in MEAC play (except for the transition 1997-98 season, when NSU didn't play a conference schedule). In fact, since the 1953-54 season, NSU has finished with a losing conference record just once (9-10 in 1990-91) in 56 seasons (not counting the independent 1997-98 and 1961-62 seasons).

Taking Care of the Ball: NSU piled up a season-high 14 steals on 29 Morgan State turnovers on Jan. 21. It marked the most turnovers by a Spartan opponent since Bethune-Cookman had 30 on Feb. 9, 2008. The Spartans have averaged 11.3 steals while forcing 22.3 turnovers over the last three games.

Only once in the past 10 games has NSU committed more turnovers than its opponent. NSU's 14 steals against Morgan State marked the most since having 15 against Randolph on Nov. 16, 2011.

Making It Interesting: NSU has had a double-digit lead in the second half of all 12 wins this season, although the final margin in nine of those wins was 10 points or less. The Spartans have won all seven of their MEAC contests by an average of 6.0 points per game despite having an average high lead of 13.4 points in the second half of those six games.

Heating Up: Pendarvis Williams has scored in double figures in nine straight and 10 of the last 11 games. He's averaged 15.6 points, 4.6 boards, 1.7 steals and shot 46.4 percent (45-of-97) from the field and 37.5 percent (21-of-56) from 3-point range over the last nine games.

Also coming up big lately have been Rob Johnson, Malcolm Hawkins and Brandon Goode. Johnson has posted 12.7 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists in the last seven games. Hawkins, meanwhile, tallied 15.2 points on 24-of-54 field goals (44.4 percent), including 10-of-25 from 3-point land (40.0 percent) with 3.0 rebounds 1.8 steals duirng a five-game stretch from Jan. 2-19 and has scored in double figures in six of the last seven games.

After scoring no more than six points in the prior eight games, Brandon Goode has also scored in double figures in three of the last four contests, including a career-high 18 against Morgan State and his second career double-double (11 points, 11 rebounds) against Coppin State. He's averaging 12.5 points on 18-of-30 shooting (60.0 percent) and 5.8 rebounds in his last four games.

Leading the Way: NSU is averaging 3,292 in attendance for its home games, tops among all MEAC teams and at least 1,000 more ahead of Hampton (2,250), UMES (2,167) and North Carolina A&T (2,114). NSU had a sellout crowd of 6,191 against Hampton.

First Half on Fire: For the third time this season, NSU hit better than 60 percent in a half after shooting 17-of-27 (63.0 percent) against Morgan State in the first half. NSU also went 15-of-24 (62.5 percent) against Navy in the first stanza and 18-of-26 (69.2 percent) against St. Francis Brooklyn in the second half.

NSU hit 54.5 percent against Navy for the entire game as well, the best shooting percentage since connecting on 56.8 percent (21-of-37) against Howard on March 7, 2012 in the MEAC tournament. NSU led for the entire game against the Midshipmen.

Thanks for the Free Points: NSU has averaged 19.5 made free throws in the previous four games thanks to opponents averaging 21.8 fouls per game during that time.

Better in the 2nd: NSU is averaging 29.8 points per game in the first half but bumps that up to 36.2 points in the second half. Opponents are the same, averaging 30.5 in the first stanza but 37.5 in the second.

March to 1,000: Now with 938 career points, Pendarvis Williams needs just 62 more to become NSU's 30th all-time 1,000-point scorer and the fifth since Corey Lyons finished with 1,000 career points after the 2008-09 season.

Good From the Line: Pendarvis Williams ranks second in the MEAC and 42nd in the nation in free throw shooting at 86.6 percent. So far this year, Williams has connected on 58-of-67 attemps from the charity stripe.

The MEAC, NCAA Leaderboard: Several players stand in the top 5 in the MEAC statistics, including Pendarvis Williams and Jamel Fuentes. Fuentes ranks second in assists (5.6), third in assist-turnover ratio (1.9) and fifth in steals (1.8), while Williams sits second in free throw percentage at 86.9. Fuentes also sits 34th in the nation in assists per game.

Rashid Gaston ranks third in offensive rebounds with 2.9 per game and fifth in field goal percentage (55.0). As a team, the Spartans rank second in 3-point field goal percentage (32.0) and third in defensive rebounding (22.9) and assist turnover ratio (0.9).

Crashing the Offensive Glass: For the entire season, Rashid Gaston has had an almost 50-50 split in terms of his offensive and defensive rebounds. So far this year, Gaston has had 56 of his 117 total rebounds on the offensive glass.

Halftime Lead: The Spartans have had a halftime lead seven times so far this year, all wins for NSU. The Spartans have overcome halftime deficits of seven points (UMES and Hampton), five points (Rhode Island), three points (Savannah State) and one point (St. Francis Brooklyn) this year in their other victories.