Saturday
NSU at Delaware State, 4 p.m., Memorial Hall
Radio: WNSB Hot 91.1 - Ross Gordon (Play-by-Play) | Listen Live
Live Stats | Game Notes

NORFOLK, Va. - The last road trip of the season finds the Norfolk State men's basketball team in a not-so-comfortable location. The Spartans will try to break a losing streak of seven games at Delaware State with a 4 p.m. contest on Saturday at Memorial Hall.

NSU has not won at Delaware State since Jan. 26, 2004, an 82-80 overtime win. The Spartans have lost seven in a row at Delaware State, once a year except for the 2009-10 season. Aside from North Carolina Central, whom NSU has not faced, the Spartans have defeated every other MEAC school on the road the last two years except DSU.

Media Coverage: The contest against the Hornets can be heard live on WNSB Hot 91.1, with Ross Gordon on the call. Live stats will be available as well.

MEAC Standings: NSU currently sits atop the conference at 12-0 ahead of North Carolina Central (11-1) and Savannah State (10-2). Every other school has at least four MEAC losses. NSU needs just one more win to secure a top-3 spot in the conference and thus a bye into the quarterfinal round of the MEAC tournament.

The Spartans also enter the contest riding an 11-game win streak with a 17-10 overall record. NSU is one of six schools in the country - Miami, Memphis, Akron, Louisiana Tech and Gonzaga being the others - that has yet to lose a conference game this season. Delaware State sits in fifth place in the MEAC at 7-4, a half game behind Hampton, and 12-13 overall.

Last Time Out: Seemingly in control with a 12-point advantage with seven minutes left, NSU saw its lead dwindle down to one against Hampton with less than a minute left. The Spartans, though, held on for a 62-59 victory last Monday to keep their perfect conference record intact. Malcolm Hawkins hit a driving layup with 22.6 seconds left for the final scoring of the game and finished with 18 points on the night.

Rashid Gaston added 17 points and nine boards for the Spartans, while Pendarvis Williams contributed 11. Hampton turned the ball over twice and missed three different shots, including two potential-tying 3-pointers, in the last 25 seconds of the game to help NSU escape.

Series History: NSU broke a five-game losing streak to Delaware State with a 74-56 win over the Hornets on Feb. 9, the first win over DSU since Jan. 17, 2009. The Spartans now lead the all-time series 28-23.

About Delaware State: The Hornets defeated Coppin State and Morgan State at home last weekend in inch closer to .500 on the year. A team that scores barely 60 points a game is led by Tahj Tate's 13.1 points-per-game clip. Marques Oliver paces the Hornets with 6.5 boards to go with 8.4 points, while Casey Walker (8.1) and Tyshawn Bell (7.9) also add offense. Kendall Gray and Oliver had combined for more than 100 blocks on the year, while Oliver also leads the team with 44 steals. DSU shoots 41 percent from the floor but also gets outrebounded by 3.0 boards per game.

Winning: NSU's 12-0 start in the MEAC stands as the best start in conference play during the Division I era and the best since going 14-0 in the CIAA to start the 1989-90 season. The team's current 11-game win streak is the longest in the D-I era and the best since winning 14 straight during the 1994-95 season. The 11-game streak also ranks tied for sixth in the nation for the longest current win streak (through games of Feb. 20).

NSU has already guaranteed itself a winning record for this year, marking just the fourth time overall since moving to Division I in 1997 NSU has had a winning record and the first time doing it in back-to-back years. Just one more win would also tie last year's team for the most MEAC victories in a season.

Catching Fire: Pendarvis Williams has scored in double figures in 13 of the last 14 games, and in the last seven games alone he is averaging 16.9 points, 4.7 boards and 2.0 assists while shooting 51.4 percent (37-of-72) from the field and 50 percent (17-of-34) from 3-point range. He's also averaging 14.8 points in conference games.

Stepping Up: Coming up big lately have been Malcolm Hawkins and Brandon Goode. Hawkins has scored in double figures in 10 of the last 12 games and has tallied 18.0 points on 20-of-39 field goals (51.3 percent) with 3.0 rebounds over his last three games. Goode is averaging 11.1 points on 37-of-59 shooting (62.7 percent) with 7.0 rebounds and 2.6 blocks in his last nine games.

Solid 3-Point Defense: The Spartans have held nine of their last 10 opponents to 33.3 percent shooting or worse from 3-point range. Collectively, opponents are hitting 39-of-154 (25.3 percent) during that time. On the season, NSU rankes 45th in the nation in 3-point field goal defense at 30.5 percent.

Making It Interesting: NSU has had a double-digit lead in the second half of 16 of the team's 17 wins this season, with the Feb. 4 Morgan State game the exception, although the final margin in 12 of those wins was 10 points or less. NSU's 18-point win over Delaware State on Feb. 9 marked the first time in 14 conference games dating back to last season that the Spartans won by more than 10 points. NSU is 12-4 in games decided by 10 points or less this season.

In fact, aside from NSU's wins over Delaware State (18 points) and UMES (22) at home, NSU has won its 10 other conference games by an average of just 6.0 points despite having an average high second half lead of 13.4 points.

Taking Care of the Ball: Just three times in the last 15 games has NSU committed more turnovers than its opponent. In the last 11 games alone since Navy, NSU has outscored opponents by a 204-143 margin in points off turnovers, topping 18 points in eight of those 11 games.

Better in the 2nd: NSU is averaging 30.9 points per game in the first half but bumps that up to 36.5 points in the second half. Opponents are the same, averaging 30.1 in the first stanza but 36.6 in the second.

Halftime Lead: The Spartans carry an 12-0 record when either leading or tied at the half. NSU has 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.