Monday
NSU at Delaware State, 7:30 p.m., Memorial Hall
Live Video | Live Stats | Game Notes

DOVER, Del. - After getting a victory at UMES on Saturday, the Norfolk State men's basketball team will look to make it a weekend sweep when the Spartans head a little farther north to face Delaware State on Monday night. Tip-off at Memorial Hall is set for 7:30 p.m.

Media Coverage: The game against the Hornets can be heard live on WNSB Hot 91.1 FM with Ross Gordon on the call. Delaware State will also have live video through its YouTube page and a live stats feed.

Series History: NSU swept both contests against the Hornets last year, and the Spartans now lead the all-time series that dates back to the early 1960's, 29-23. Last year's win at DSU marked the first time NSU had won at Memorial Hall since the 2003-04 season. The Spartans have not won three in a row against the Hornets since the late 1990's.

About Delaware State: The Hornets fell to Hampton on Saturday, 73-60, to drop to 0-3 in MEAC play. They also stand 4-11 overall as they score just 60 points a game. Most of the scoring comes from four players who each average in double figures. Casey Walker leads the way with 12.3 points per game with Tyshawn Bell at 11.0. Kendall Gray has tallied 10.7 points and team-leading 6.5 rebounds and 2.5 blocks. Kendal Williams has posted 10.1 points for a DSU team shooting a little less than 40 percent from the floor and less than 30 percent from 3-point range.

Last Time Out: UMES slowly erased a 13-point deficit, getting to within two in the last minute of play, but Pendarvis Williams closed out the victory at the free throw line in a 66-62 NSU win on Saturday. Williams scored 20 points - his 16th career 20-point game - with seven rebounds, hitting all eight of his free throw attempts on the day, including four in the last 20 seconds of play. Kievyn Lila-St. Rose added 13 points, including 11 straight during a 90-second span in the first half. Anell Alexis (13 points) and Brandon Goode (12 points, seven rebounds) also scored in double figures. Both teams shot close to 43 percent overall.

Conference Win Streak: A setback against Delaware State on Feb. 15, 2012 at Joseph Echols Hall was the last time the Spartans lost a regular season conference game. NSU has won 22 in a row, which includes last year's 16-0 record. The Spartans currently rank first in the nation for the longest active conference regular season win streak after both Memphis and Gonzaga lost last week. NSU is 32-3 in MEAC play since the start of the 2011-12 season.

Senior Leadership: NSU has scored 1,266 points this year, with 1058 of those points (83.6 percent) coming from NSU's eight-player senior class.

Don't Foul 'Em: Malcolm Hawkins and Pendarvis Williams have been on fire from the charity stripe lately. Hawkins has hit 35-of-38 from the free throw line over his last eight games, while Williams has connected on 33-of-36 in the last nine games. Hawkins has made his last 18 free throw attempts, while Williams was 8-of-8 at UMES, including 4-of-4 in the last 20 seconds of the game.

Rare Company: Pendarvis Williams is one of six all-time NSU players with at least 1,000 points, 400 rebounds, 200 assists and 100 steals along with Ralph Tally, Barry Mitchell, Chakowby Hicks, Tony Murphy and Michael Deloach. Williams needs 51 more rebounds to reach 500 for his career, and 25 more points to get to 1,400. Should he accomplish both, he will join Tally and Mitchell as the only players to reach 1,400 points, 500 rebounds, 200 assists and 100 steals.

Dominating the Inside: Norfolk State has outscored opponents 604-457 in points in the paint, an average of 9.2 points per game. Against East Carolina, the Spartans had a 50-16 edge in points in the paint, and against Stillman that margin was 62-26. On the flip side, opponents have taken 102 more 3-pointers than NSU this year.

Stepping Up: Several players outside of Pendarvis Williams and Malcolm Hawkins have contributed at various points this year as injuries have taken their toll on the roster. Brandon Goode has tallied 14.3 points on 18-of-26 field goals in his last three games and has scored in double figures in 11 of the last 12. He scored in double figures in eight straight from Nov. 19-Dec. 19. During that time, he averaged 14.3 points, 8.4 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game while shooting 50-of-79 (63.3 percent).

Marist transfer Anell Alexis has posted 14.5 points on 12-of-17 shooting in the last two games. In five games from Nov. 19-Dec. 5, he posted 12.8 points on 21-of-39 shooting (53.8 percent), shot 17-of-20 (85 percent) from the foul line and averaged 4.6 rebounds per game. Against Boston University and Seattle, he posted 13.5 points on 11-of-18 shooting with 5.5 rebounds.

Backup point guard Marese Phelps, meanwhile, is averaging 6.0 points over the last five games. Starting guard Jamel Fuentes has tallied 9.0 points on 6-of-11 shooting in the last two games, and has also posted 6.0 assists in his last three games. He has had at least four assists in the last eight games.

Riley Maye stepped up off the bench, averaging 11.7 points on 13-of-19 shooting over a three-game stretch from Dec. 5-15. All four of his career double-digit scoring games have come this year. After scoring just six points all year, Kievyn Lila-St. Rose added a career-high 13 points on 4-of-6 shooting at UMES when NSU was down to just nine active players.

Hot Shooting: Thanks to a 35-of-53 effort over a five-game stretch from Nov. 26-Dec. 15, Pendarvis Williams is now currently shooting 50.3 percent (94-of-187) from the floor this year, including 63.1 percent (65-of-103) from inside the arc. Williams also connected on 11-of-23 from the 3-point line during that earlier five-game stretch.

Brandon Goode, Riley Maye, and Anell Alexis meanwhile, have combined to hit 176-of-298 (59.1 percent) from the floor this year. Maye and Alexis have hit a combined 19-of-39 (48.7 percent) from 3-point range as well.

The Spartans shot at least 42 percent from the field in all but one game this year, including the first 12 games of the season, the best shooting stretch since hitting at least 40 percent in 15 straight from Jan. 17-March 9, 2011.

As a team, the Spartans are shooting 49.3 percent from the floor and 35.9 percent from 3-point range this year, the best marks in a season since 1994-95 (49.5 percent) and 1992-93 (40.4 percent), respectively. The Spartans are also connecting on 71.8 percent from the foul line this year. Only once in the previous 30 years has NSU hit better than 70 percent from the free throw line in a season (72.0 percent, 2003-04).

MEAC Rankings: Several NSU players rank in the top 5 in the league, including Malcolm Hawkins (4th - 17.4 points, 40.6 3-point field goal percentage), Brandon Goode (2nd - 61.5 field goal percentage; 3rd - 6.9 rebounds; 4th - 2.6 blocks), Jamel Fuentes (1st - 2.9 assist-turnover ratio; 2nd - 5.5 assists), Anell Alexis (5th - 55.9 field goal percentage) and Pendarvis Williams (5th - 83.7 free throw percentage, 33.8 minutes).

As a team, NSU ranks first in scoring offense (79.1), field goal percentage (49.3), 3-point field goal percentage (35.9), opponent rebounding (32.5), assists (14.8) and assist-turnover ratio (1.2). The Spartans also stand second in scoring margin (+1.6) and third in free throw percentage (71.8), rebounding margin (2.1), offensive rebound percentage (36.5) and defensive rebound percentage (66.2).

Ahead at the Half: NSU had a one-point lead at the intermission in the loss at Hawai'i, marking the third time this year the Spartans have lost after leading at the break. The Spartans are 25-4 since the start of the 2012-13 season when leading or tied at the half and 45-5 dating back to the 2011-12 season.

Hot Hands: Jamel Fuentes has a 47-13 assist-turnover ratio over the last seven games.

Taking Care of the Ball: NSU has had fewer turnovers than its opponent in nine of the last 13 games.

Frequent Flyer Miles: The Spartans have traveled approximately 9,013 miles through the air this year on its four trips to Houston, Boston, Seattle and Honolulu, as well as 1,197 miles on the ground in road trips to Duke and Rutgers (NIT Season Tip-Off) as well as to Virginia, LIU Brooklyn and UMES/Delaware State. Still on tap: 805 miles on a flight to Miami and 489 miles on the ground to Savannah, Ga.

Beginning the Climb: Sitting at No. 21 right now in the all-time scoring list at NSU with 1,375, Pendarvis Williams needs 29 more points to reach 20th all-time. From there he would need more than 130 points to get to the next spot.

Jamel Fuentes now has 339 career assists, which ranks in a tie for eighth all-time at NSU. He needs 20 more to reach seventh place.