Saturday
Bethune-Cookman 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. - The Norfolk State men's basketball team will not have to leave the city until any sort of national postseason play, beginning with three games at home to close out the regular season. The first of those three games finds the Spartans facing Bethune-Cookman at 6 p.m. on Saturday at Joseph Echols Hall.

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 13-0 ahead of North Carolina Central (12-1) and Savannah State (10-3). Every other school has at least four MEAC losses. NSU has already locked up a top-2 finish in the MEAC and needs to win two out of three to close the season to earn the No. 1 seed.

The Spartans also enter the contest riding a 12-game win streak with a 18-10 overall record. NSU is one of five schools in the country - Memphis, Akron, Louisiana Tech and Gonzaga being the others - that has yet to lose a conference game this season. Bethune-Cookman sits in a tie for fifth place in the MEAC with Delaware State and Morgan State at 7-6, 12-16 overall.

Last Time Out: Delaware State's full-court pressure in the second half brought the Hornets back into the game, but Norfolk State withstood a last-minute rally by DSU in a 60-56 win over the Hornets last Saturday at DSU's Memorial Hall. NSU was up by seven with a little more than a minute left, but Amere May hit a jumper and a deep 3-pointer to get DSU back into it. May missed a potential game-winning trey with six seconds left and NSU held on with a pair of free throws.

Pendarvis Williams led NSU with 18 points, while Brandon Goode tallied 16 points, eight rebounds and three blocks. The Spartans shot 25-of-53 for the game (47.2 percent). Tyshawn Bell (13 points) and Marques Oliver (12 points, 11 rebounds) led the way for Delaware State.

Series History: NSU won both contests agaisnt Bethune-Cookman last year, including in the MEAC Championship game, and now leads the all-time series, 15-10.

About Bethune-Cookman: The Wildcats have won three in a row, includuing an upset of Savannah State on Monday, to move up the conference standings. Adrien Coleman easily leads the team with 18.0 points and 7.1 rebounds per game, followed by Kevin Dukes at 10.4 points, 3.4 assists and 1.6 steals. The Wildcats score 66.6 points a game while giving up 67.3. B-CU does a good job of taking care of the ball, posting an assist-turnover ratio of better than 1.0 with almost 100 fewer turnovers on the season than its opponents.

Winning: The Spartans are attempting to become the first MEAC school to go undefeated in conference play since Coppin State did it in back-to-back years in 1992-93 and 1993-94 (16-0 both times). North Carolina A&T (16-0, 1987-88) is the only other school to accomplish the feat.

NSU's 13-0 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 12-game win streak is the longest in the D-I era and the best since winning 14 straight during the 1994-95 season. The 12-game streak also ranks fifth in the nation for the longest current win streak (through games of Feb. 28). Only Akron (19), Louisiana Tech (17), Middle Tennessee State (15) and Davidson (13) have longer streaks.

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 set the record for most MEAC victories in a season, and two more would give NSU back-to-back 20 win seasons for the first time since the 1994-95 and 1995-96 seasons.

Home Sweet Home: NSU owns an 8-0 record at home this season and has won nine straight dating back to last season. The Spartans have not gone undefeated at home in the regular season since going 12-0 during the 1988-89 season.

Catching Fire: Pendarvis Williams has scored in double figures in 14 of the last 15 games, and in the last eight games alone he is averaging 17.0 points, 4.9 boards and 2.0 assists while shooting 51.8 percent (43-of-83) from the field and 51.4 percent (19-of-37) from 3-point range. He's also averaging 15.0 points in conference games.

Looking for Win No. 100: Head coach Anthony Evans needs four more wins to reach 100 for his NSU coaching career. He would join the ranks of Charles Christian (319), Ernie Fears (147), John Turpin (136) and Mike Bernard (141) as coaches who got to 100 career wins at NSU and the only one to do it solely during the Division I era.

Goode, Gaston Honored: Brandon Goode was named the Co-Defensive Player of the Week, while Rashid Gaston earned Rookie of the Week honors from the MEAC on Feb. 25. Goode had 20 points, 14 rebounds, eight blocks and one steal, while Gaston tallied 19 points, 12 rebounds and one assist in two games.

Gaston was also named the MEAC Rookie of the Week on both Dec. 17 and Dec. 31. During that time, the freshman averaged 12.0 points per game over a four-contest span from Dec. 11-Dec. 29 after failing to get into double figures in the previous six games. Goode also earned MEAC Player of the Week honors on Nov. 12 following his season-opening performance at Rhode Island, in which he reached double-digits in both points (13) and rebounds (13) for the first time in his career.

Stepping Up: Brandon Goode has averaged 12.2 points, 8.2 rebounds and 3.0 blocks while shooting 24-of-38 (63.2 percent) in the last five games and has scored in double figures in seven of the last 10. Malcolm Hawkins has scored in double figures in 10 of the last 13 as well and averaged 18.0 points over a three-game stretch from Feb. 9-18.

One More Check Mark: NSU had not won at Delaware State since Jan. 26, 2004, an 82-80 overtime win, until last Saturday's 60-56 victory. The Spartans broke a seven-game losing streak at Delaware State. Aside from North Carolina Central, whom NSU has not faced, the Spartans have now defeated every other MEAC school on the road the last two years.

Pressure Defense: NSU's defense limited Delaware State to just 18 points in the first half on Feb. 23. It marked the third time this season the Spartans gave up fewer than 20 points in a half. Howard scored just 18 points in the first half on Jan. 14, and on Dec. 1 against Savannah State, the Spartans limited them to just 17 second half points. It marked the fewest NSU gave up in a half since allowing 12 in the first half against Randolph on Nov. 16, 2011. The last time the Spartans gave up 17 or fewer points in a half against a Division I team was on Feb. 4, 2006, when NSU held Howard to just 17 points in the first half.

Solid 3-Point Defense: The Spartans have held 10 of their last 11 opponents to 33.3 percent shooting or worse from 3-point range. Collectively, opponents are hitting 45-of-173 (26.0 percent) during that time. On the season, NSU rankes 28th in the nation in 3-point field goal defense at 30.2 percent.

NSU also ranks in the top 100 in the nation in blocks (57), steals (88) and field goal percentage defense (89).

Making It Interesting: NSU has had a double-digit lead in the second half of 17 of the team's 18 wins this season, with the Feb. 4 Morgan State game the exception, although the final margin in 13 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 13-4 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 11 other conference games by an average of just 5.8 points despite having an average high second half lead of 13.7 points.

Dominating the Paint: NSU has scored at least 30 points in the paint in each of the last nine games.

Leading the Way: NSU is averaging 3,272 in attendance for its home games, tops among all MEAC teams and ahead of Hampton (2,727), UMES (2,186) and North Carolina A&T (2,030), the only other schools above 2,000. NSU had a sellout crowd of 6,191 against Hampton.

The MEAC, NCAA Leaderboard: Several players stand in the top 5 in the MEAC statistics, including Brandon Goode and Pendarvis Williams. Goode ranks first in field goal percentage (60.6), while Williams sits second in free throw percentage at 84.4, third in 3-point field goal percentage (38.5), fourth in 3-point field goals per game (2.0) and fifth in scoring (14.0).

Jamel Fuentes ranks third in assists (5.3) and fourth in assist-turnover ratio (1.8) and steals (1.8). Fuentes also sits 43rd in the nation in assists per game. Rashid Gaston ranks third in field goal percentage (57.0) and fifth in offensive rebounds (2.8).

As a team, the Spartans rank second in 3-point field goal percentage (32.3) and defensive rebounds (23.4) and third in scoring offense (67.1), scoring margin (+0.7), field goal percentage (42.3), rebounding (36.1), assist-turnover ratio (0.9) and blocks (4.5).

O'Quinn's NBA Season: Selected with the 49th overall pick in the Draft by the Orlando Magic, Kyle O'Quinn made his NBA debut on Nov. 2 against the Denver Nuggets, grabbing one rebound in a little more than three minutes of action. He scored his first career points two days later against the Phoenix Suns with a pair of free throws.

He has tallied 6.0 points and 4.6 rebounds in 12 games in the month of February. On the season he's averaging 3.3 points, 2.5 rebounds and 0.6 assists per game while shooting 51-of-93 (54.8 percent) from the field and 20-of-26 (76.9 percent) from the free throw line.