Box Score NORFOLK, Va. – The opponents may change but their production does not. And after leading the Norfolk State men's basketball team to another solid win on Friday night at Joseph Echols Hall, juniors Jeff Short and RaShid Gaston have become arguably the top duo in the MEAC.
 
For the third time in five games, both players reached the 20-point plateau in the same contest, and the most recent result was an 81-62 victory over Northern Arizona in NSU's last home game in nearly a month.
 
Short tallied 25 points on 9-of-12 shooting, while Gaston added 20 points and 11 rebounds to pace the Spartan offense. NSU outscored Northern Arizona by 18 in the first half while shooting better than 57 percent overall for the game.
 
The Lumberjacks were coming off an upset of mid-major Saint Mary's on Tuesday on the road, but the Spartans used an efficient offense and some tight defense to move to 8-5 on the season.
 
The decisive stretch came late in the first stanza, when NSU outscored Northern Arizona 19-4 to close out the half. That turned a three-point lead into an 18-point edge going into the locker room. The Spartans led by at least 14 the rest of the way and by as much as 27 late in the contest.
 
They shot 57.4 percent overall, connecting on 27-of-47 field goal attempts. Short and junior D'Shon Taylor each hit 3-of-5 from long range, helping NSU end the night 7-of-15 from the 3-point line. Only a 20-of-36 night from the free throw line prevented the Spartans from scoring even more.
 
Short scored at least 20 points for the fifth time in seven games, while Gaston had his seventh double-double in the last eight games. The forward also tallied his eighth straight game with double-digit rebounds, the longest such stretch by an NSU player in Division I history. Gaston has also scored at least 20 points in four of the last six games.
 
Taylor sank a 3-pointer several feet out from the left wing with 11:10 to go in the first half, giving NSU a six-point lead. The Lumberjacks (4-7), though, got to within three at 19-16. From there, the Spartans dominated the rest of the stanza. Gaston and Short hit back-to-back layups to start that 19-4 spurt.
 
Part of that run included NSU scoring 10 straight during a four and a half minute span. Taylor hit another trey with time running down to close out the half, putting the Spartans up by a 38-20 margin at intermission.
 
Early in the second half, senior Malik Thomas pushed the lead to 19 at 45-26 when he finished a 3-point play at the line. Thomas got fouled on the fastbreak attempt and converted a nifty off-balance layup before crashing to the floor. The Lumberjacks cut the deficit to 15 just one minute later, but NSU scored seven of the next nine points in the game to get the advantage to 20.
 
The Spartan lead fluctuated between 16 and 20 points for the next four and a half minutes before NSU began to pull away even more. Short was all alone in the left corner, and his 3-pointer with 5:18 left made it 68-46. A few minutes later, freshman Zaynah Robinson drove past a defender for a layup to give NSU its largest lead of the game, 77-50.
 
A 12-4 run after that point to close out the contest allowed the Lumberjacks to get to the final margin of 19.
 
Aaseem Dixon and Jaleni Neely led the way with 17 and 12 points, respectively, off the bench for Northern Arizona. No Lumberjack starter reached double figures, including leading scorer and Norfolk native Quinton Upshur.
 
A 50 percent clip in the second half, when NSU outscored them by only one, put the final Lumberjack shooting total at 20-of-56 (35.7 percent).
 
Taylor finished with 13 points for NSU, while Thomas totaled eight points and 11 rebounds.  Despite committing just two less giveaways, the Spartans finished with a 21-11 edge in points off turnovers.
 
NSU will hit the road for six straight games, beginning next Monday with a contest at James Madison.