Saturday
Delaware State at NSU, 6 p.m., Joseph Echols Hall
Radio: WNSB Hot 91.1 (Ross Gordon, Play-by-Play; Maguell Davis, Color) | Listen Live
Live Stats | Live Video | Game Notes

NORFOLK, Va. - Having beaten every other MEAC team on its schedule the last two years, the Norfolk State men's basketball team will attempt to exorcise one last demon when Delaware State comes to Joseph Echols Hall Saturday for a 6 p.m. tipoff. The Spartans have not defeated the Hornets since Jan. of 2009, having lost five in a row.

The game has been designated Alumni and Breast Cancer Awareness Day. Members of the NSU Alumni Association will be admitted for $5 with the promotion postcard that was mailed out by the alumni office.

Media Coverage: The game can be heard live on WNSB Hot 91.1, with Ross Gordon and Maguell Davis on the call. Live stats and a live video feed will be available as well. The video feed will carry the WNSB radio call with it.

MEAC Standings: NSU currently sits atop the conference at 9-0 ahead of North Carolina Central (8-0) and Savannah State (6-1). Aside from Delaware State (5-2), every other school has at least three MEAC losses. The Spartans also enter the contest riding an eight-game win streak with a 14-10 overall record.

Delaware State sits in fourth at 5-2 with a 10-11 overall record. A win over DSU would drastically improve NSU's chances of finishing in the top 3 of the conference and thus earning a first-round bye in the MEAC tournament.

NSU is one of 11 schools in the country that has yet to lose a conference game this season.

Last Time Out: Down by eight early in the second half, Morgan State's late charge fell short and NSU held on to defeat the Tigers, 64-59, last Monday at the Talmadge Hill Field House. MSU never had a lead in the second half and tied it up just once, but for the first time in their 14 wins the Spartans failed to gain a double-digit second-half advantage.

Pendarvis Williams hit the 20-point plateau for the third time in four games with a game-high 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Rashid Gaston added 13 points, six rebounds and four blocks, while Brandon Goode tallied 12 points and five boards. NSU committed just nine turnovers and held Morgan State to just 18-of-61 shooting (29.5 percent).

Series History: Despite dropping the last five games to Delaware State, NSU still leads the all-time series, 27-23.

About Delaware State: The Hornets do not score a lot but do not give up a lot either, averaging slightly more than 60 points a game while allowing almost 64. Tahj Tate is the only player averaging nine points or better at 13.7 per game. Tyshawn Bell (8.1), Marques Oliver (8.0) and Casey Walker (7.9) also chip in. Oliver (5.7 rebounds), Tate (2.3 assists) and Kendall Gray (2.8 blocks) lead in their respective categories. Not a great 3-point shooting team at 28.7 percent, the Hornets do most of their damage inside, averaging almost 49 percent on shots inside the arc.

March to 1,000: Now with 983 career points, Pendarvis Williams needs just 17 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.

Conference Streak: At 9-0 in the MEAC, NSU is assured of finishing with a winning conference record. Since moving to Division I in 1997, the Spartans have yet to finish worse than .500 in the MEAC (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).

Winning: NSU's 9-0 start in the MEAC stands as the best start in conference play during the Division I era, topping the 8-0 start last year. The team's current eight-game win streak is tied for the longest in the D-I era with a pair of eight-game win streaks in 2011-12. Prior to that, NSU hasn't had a longer win streak since 14 straight victories during the 1994-95 season.

Catching Fire: Pendarvis Williams has scored in double figures in 11 straight games and 12 of the last 13. He has also topped 20 points in three of his last four, averaging 20.3 points, 6.3 boards and 2.0 assists while shooting 56.8 percent (25-of-44) from the field and 52.4 percent (11-of-21) from 3-point range during that time.

Making It Interesting: NSU has had a double-digit lead in the second half of 13 of the team's 14 wins this season, with Feb. 4 Morgan State game the exception, although the final margin in 11 of those wins was 10 points or less. The Spartans have won all nine of their MEAC contests by an average of 6.3 points per game despite having an average high lead of 13.3 points in the second half of those six games. NSU is 11-4 in games decided by 10 points or less.

Taking Care of the Ball: Just twice in the last 12 games has NSU committed more turnovers than its opponent. 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. NSU's 14 steals marked the most since having 15 against Randolph on Nov. 16, 2011.

Limiting Those Turnovers: NSU had nine turnovers at Morgan State, the fewest since posting eight against St. Francis Brooklyn on Nov. 29. The last time the Spartans had less than eight turnovers in a game occurred on Dec. 22, 2008 against UC Irvine, when NSU had seven. Since the 2003-04 season, NSU has had fewer than 10 turnovers in just six games, with two of those coming this year.

Big-Time Defense: NSU held both Morgan State (Feb. 4) and Rhode Island (Nov. 9) to under 30 percent shooting in both halves. Rhode Island hit just 28.3 percent for the game, the lowest by a Spartan opponent since Howard shot just 27.3 percent on Jan. 9, 2012. Morgan State shot just 29.5 percent in its second meeting of the year with NSU.

Stepping Up: Also coming up big lately have been Rob Johnson, Malcolm Hawkins and Brandon Goode. Hawkins has tallied 13.0 points on 38-of-92 field goals (41.3 percent) with 3.0 rebounds and 1.6 steals over the last nine games. Goode is averaging 11.2 points on 25-of-38 shooting (65.8 percent) with 5.8 rebounds and 2.2 blocks in his last six games. Johnson averaged 12.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.0 blocks in eight games from Jan. 2 - Feb. 2.

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) and North Carolina A&T (2,114), the only other schools above 2,000. NSU had a sellout crowd of 6,191 against Hampton.

Better in the 2nd: NSU is averaging 30.1 points per game in the first half but bumps that up to 36.4 points in the second half. Opponents are the same, averaging 30.0 in the first stanza but 37.6 in the second.

Good From the Line: Pendarvis Williams ranks second in the MEAC and 28th in the nation in free throw shooting. So far this year, Williams has connected on 65-of-75 attempts from the charity stripe (86.7 percent).

The MEAC, NCAA Leaderboard: Several players stand in the top 5 in the MEAC statistics, including Pendarvis Williams and Jamel Fuentes. Fuentes ranks tied for second in assists (5.4) and fourth in assist-turnover ratio (1.8). Williams sits second in free throw percentage at 86.7, tied for fourth in 3-point field goals per game (2.0) and fifth in 3-point field goal percentage (37.0). Fuentes also sits 37th in the nation in assists per game.

Rashid Gaston ranks third in both offensive rebounds (3.0) and in field goal percentage (57.6). As a team, the Spartans rank third in 3-point field goal percentage (32.2), rebounding (35.9), defensive rebounding (23.5) 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 62 of his 131 total rebounds on the offensive glass.

Halftime Lead: The Spartans have had a halftime lead nine 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.