Box Score HOUSTON, Texas – Texas Southern's offense was too much for the Norfolk State men's basketball team on Saturday afternoon, as the Tigers ran away to a 95-83 win over the Spartans at H&PE Arena.

A 33-point effort from Aaric Murray and 25 points from Jose Rodriguez helped the Tigers get past the Spartans in the season opener for both teams. Texas Southern shot better than 58 percent for the game, wasting an excellent offensive game from NSU's Malcolm Hawkins.

The Spartan senior hit 8-of-15 from the floor and 10-of-13 from the free throw line for 31 points, becoming the first Norfolk State player to reach the 30-point plateau since January of 2011.

Senior Riley Maye also scored in double figures with a career-high 15 points.

The scoring was frantic throughout the game, as the teams often traded bucket for bucket with very little time off the clock. Rodriguez had a trio of baskets and Murray hit a pair of treys to give Texas Southern an early 14-12 lead just four and a half minutes into the game.

Halfway through the first stanza, NSU found itself down by double digits, including 15 at the break at 47-32. Norfolk State outscored Texas Southern by two in the second half, but the Spartans were unable to get the stops needed to cut the deficit into single digits until late in the half.

NSU was down by as much as 22 before the Spartans slowly chipped away. Hawkins and senior Anell Alexis hit back-to-back treys to cut the TSU lead to 12 with a little more than nine minutes left. Another 3-pointer from Hawkins, who hit 5-of-8 from beyond the arc for the game, made it 74-65 with 7:15 left.

The Spartans, though, got no closer the rest of the way.

Texas Southern extended its lead to double digits in the first half at 23-12 after a 9-0 run. Back-to-back buckets by sophomore RaShid Gaston and senior Brandon Goode ended that spurt.

Murray, though, hit another 3-pointer for a 28-16 advantage. Rodriguez continued to torch NSU with a trey from the left corner, although three straight jumpers from Maye kept the Tigers from pulling away late in the first half.

The Tigers took their largest lead of the half, 45-27, after an alley-oop dunk and a 3-pointer from Murray, who had 17 in the first stanza alone. The Tigers shot 17-of-27 (63 percent) in the first half.

Immediately after NSU called timeout early in the second half, Murray had another backdoor alley-oop slam to get the crowd on its feet. The Spartans had to call another timeout after Lawrence Johnson-Danner nailed a fastbreak trey at 14:35 for a 60-38 Tiger lead, the largest of the game.

The Spartans hit a respectable 44.4 percent from the field on 32-of-72 shooting, including 8-of-19 (42.1 percent) from the 3-point line. Senior Pendarvis Williams chipped in with nine points, six assists and five rebounds.

Goode led NSU with seven rebounds to go with 10 points and four blocks. NSU had a 41-31 advantage on the glass.

Rodriguez completed the double-double with a game-high 11 boards, while Ray Penn totaled eight points and 10 assists. Murray added eight boards and five blocks.

Texas Southern shot 21-of-32 from the free throw line compared to 11-of-15 for NSU.

NSU will return home to host Newberry next Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Joseph Echols Hall.