Box Score BALTIMORE, Md. – The Norfolk State men's basketball team held off a second-half charge from Morgan State and remained undefeated in the conference with a 64-59 victory over the Bears Monday night at the Talmadge Hill Field House.

Morgan State never had the lead in the second half and tied it up just once, but the Bears prevented the Spartans from gaining a double-digit advantage for the first time in the team's 14 wins on the year. NSU moved to 9-0 in the MEAC, won its eighth straight game and continued to hold down first place in the conference while improving to 14-10 overall.

It marks the first time NSU has started out conference play 9-0 since moving to Division I in 1997.

Junior Pendarvis Williams again had a big game, scoring in double figures for the 11th straight contest and hitting the 20-point plateau for the third time in four games with a game-high 22 on 8-of-13 shooting. He finished out the game with five rebounds, three steals, two blocks and two assists.

Down by eight early in the second half, the Bears (6-13, 3-5 MEAC) never let NSU get beyond that eight-point barrier but were unable to capitalize on several opportunities to pull ahead. Morgan State finally tied it up at 41-41 when Blake Bozeman went 2-for-2 from the free throw line after NSU senior A.J. Rogers was assessed a technical foul.

But junior Malcolm Hawkins, who was fouled on the same play when Rogers got his technical, went 1-of-2 from the line right afterwards to give NSU the lead back with 11:14 to go. The Bears, meanwhile, were mired in the middle of a shooting slump in which the team failed to nail a field goal for nearly six and a half minutes.

Nevertheless, NSU still only led by six at 8:51 before Anthony Hubbard's three-point play cut it to three, 47-44. A layup by Bozeman at the 4:47 mark made it 53-52, but freshman Rashid Gaston came up big for the Spartans, scoring on three straight possessions over the next minute and a half. He also had a couple of big blocks in the waning minutes of the game.

Morgan State, on the other hand, missed a layup and turned it over on two straight possessions after getting to within two with two minutes left. Williams hit a floater in the lane with 30.1 to go after the Bears turned it over on their side of the floor, and he and senior Rob Johnson went 3-of-4 from the free throw line to seal the win.

Gaston tied his career high with 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting and added six rebounds and four of NSU's nine blocks on the night. After a season-high 24 turnovers on Saturday at Coppin State, the Spartans committed just nine turnovers on Monday, the second-lowest total of the season.

Along with Williams and Gaston, junior Brandon Goode added 12 points, five rebounds and two blocks before fouling out. The Spartans held MSU to just 18-of-61 shooting (29.5 percent), also the second-lowest output by an opponent this year.

Morgan State grabbed an early 8-3 lead to start the game, but Williams hit a pair of treys, including a deep 3 from near the top of the arc, and a pair of free throws following a technical on MSU coach Todd Bozeman to tie it up at 14-14 at the under-12 media timeout.

NSU extended it to 21-14 after a third trey from Williams and a layup from Gaston at the 7:45 mark. Blake Bozeman ended a five and a half minute scoring drought for the Bears with a trey a little more than a minute later, and then Gaston converted a thunderous fastbreak dunk that had the entire hoop swinging back and forth.

Williams hit a step-back jumper with 3:12 left in the half, but Morgan State scored six of the last eight points of the stanza to cut NSU's lead to 31-26 at the half.

Williams had 13 points before the break.

The Spartans called timeout after Jackson's backscreen dunk cut NSU's lead to two, 38-36, at the 15:27 mark of the second half. Jackson got the Bears to within one after a 3-pointer from the left wing, and three minutes later Bozeman tied it up with his free throws.

Despite shooting poorly from the floor, Morgan State connected on 20-of-29 from the free throw line, compared to just 11-of-21 for NSU. DeWayne Jackson led MSU with 18 points, while Hubbard and Justin Black each added 12. Hubbard had 13 rebounds on the night, helping the Bears finish with a 49-38 advantage on the boards.

NSU hit 25-of-57 (43.9 percent) for the game. Hawkins added nine points and a team-high seven boards. Johnson led all players with six assists.

NSU will return home to face Delaware State and UMES next weekend.