Norfolk State Men's Basketball
Tuesday, Dec. 30; 8 p.m. EST
NSU at Baylor, Ferrell Center
TV: Fox Sports Southwest (Pat Nunley, Play-by-Play; Nick Joos, Color)
Live Stats | Game Notes

NORFOLK, Va. - Returning from the holiday break, the Norfolk State men's basketball team faces perhaps its toughest test all year with a road contest at No. 22/22 Baylor on Tuesday. The Spartans and Bears will get started at 8 p.m. EST at the Ferrell Center.

Media Coverage
The game will be broadcast live on Fox Sports Southwest. Fans can also follow along with the live stats here.

Series History
NSU and Baylor have met once before, at the beginning of the 2009-10 season. LaceDarius Dunn scored 32 points to lead the Bears to an 86-58 victory on Nov. 13, 2009. Michael Deloach had 20 points and eight boards for NSU.

About Baylor
The Bears fell by eight to Illinois on Nov. 28, their only loss on the season. Baylor owns a 26-point win over Texas Southern and a three-point victory over Vanderbilt. NSU also played both those programs, defeating Texas Southern by 10 and losing by 10 to Vanderbilt. On the year, Taurean Prince and Johnathan Motley lead the way with 11.4 and 10.0 points per game, respectively. Four other players are averaing at least 8.5 points per game as well. Rico Gathers is one of those players, posting 9.8 points and 10.5 rebounds. He is a major reason why the Bears are outrebounding opponents by 11.5 boards per game. Baylor can also hit the 3-point shot, at 37.2 percent for the season, while limiting opponents to less than 27 percent.

Last Time Out
Jeff Short scored a career-high 30 points, and Jamel Fuentes hit a floater in the lane with 27.1 seconds left in overtime to give NSU a 74-71 win over James Madison on Dec. 22. The Spartans picked up a big CAA victory on the road. JMU erased a six-point deficit in the last few minutes of the game, but Fuentes connected on his last-minute jumper in the extra session and later hit 1-of-2 from the free throw line for the final three-point margin. James Madison came up empty on its last two possessions of the game. Short went 9-of-19 from the floor with eight rebounds. The Spartans shot 25-of-48 overall, compared to 21-of-57 (36.8 percent) for the Dukes. There were a total of 17 lead changes in the game.

Player Tidbits
RaShid Gaston
 • Averaging 18.0 points on 62.8 percent shooting with 12.0 rebounds last seven games
 • Nine straight games with 10+ rebounds, the most in the Division I era
 • Eight double-doubles in the last nine games
 • Four 20-point games in last seven contests
 • Named MEAC Defensive Player of the Week on Dec. 22 with 20.0 points and 12.5 rebounds in two games
 • Ranks 2nd in the MEAC in offensive rebounds (3.7), rebounds (9.8), field goal % (61.1) and defensive rebounds (6.2), 7th in scoring (15.3) and 10th in blocks (0.8)
 • Stands 4th in the nation in double-doubles (8); Also ranks in field goal % (14, 61.1), rebounding (21, 9.8), offensive rebounds (23, 3.67), defensive rebounds (32, 6.17) and scoring (182, 15.3)
 • Ranks 36th in NCAA Division I in career field goal percentage (.552), 42nd in double-doubles (13) adn 45th in rebound average (7.0)
 • Stands 11th in NSU records with a .552 career shooting percentage

Jeff Short
 • 27.3 points, 28-47 shooting, 10-19 3-point shooting and 5.3 rebounds last three games
 • Also averaging 23.5 points last six games and 21.7 last nine games
 • Has scored in double figures in nine straight games
 • 7th 20-point game of season, and 6th in the past eight games, with career-high 30 at James Madison
 • NSU's first 30-point game since Malcolm Hawkins had 31 against NCCU on March 6, 2014
 • Ranks 1st in the MEAC in scoring (19.3), 3rd in free throw % (86.4) and 3-point field goal % (42.9), 4th in 3-point field goals (2.4) and 7th in field goal % (49.5) and minutes (33.1)
 • Stands 27th in the nation in scoring (19.3); Also ranks in free throw percentage (51, 86.4), field goal percentage (113, 49.5), 3-point field goals per game (121, 2.36) and minutes (168, 33:04)

Jamel Fuentes
 • 5.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 6.5 assists last four games
 • 6.1 assists last nine games
 • Ranks 2nd in the MEAC in assist-turnover ratio (2.1) and assists (5.5)
 • Stands 33rd in the nation in assists (5.5) and 109th in assist-turnover ratio (2.12)
 • Ranks 11th in NCAA Division I in career assists (486), 15th in assist-turnover ratio (1.93), 44th in assist average (4.30) and 46th in games played (113)
 • Ranks 3rd all-time at NSU in assists with 486 and 1st among D-I players; Needs 17 more to move into second place
 • Stands 15th at NSU in career steals (130); Needs three more to move into 14th place

D'Shon Taylor
 • 16.8 points, 28-52 FG, 15-27 3-Pt, 5.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists last five games
 • Career high four blocks at James Madison
 • Ranks 1st in the MEAC in 3-point field goal % (45.1),10th in field goal percentage (46.7) and 11th in scoring (12.9)

Jordan Butler
 • 7.3 points, 3.0 rebounds, 2.0 blocks and 1.3 assists last three games
 • Ranks 7th in the MEAC in blocks (1.1) and 227th in the nation (1.14)
 • Career highs of 12 points, five rebounds and three assists vs. U.Va.-Wise

Good Start
Thanks to seven wins in the last nine games, NSU's 9-5 record on the year is tied for the best start to a season in the Division I era with the 2011-12 squad, a team that eventually held a 15-5 record over the first 20 games of the year.

Road Trekking
The Spartans are in the midst of a six-game road trek that lasts from Dec. 22-Jan. 12. Included in that timeframe are trips to James Madison (Dec. 22), Baylor (Dec. 30), Georgia (Jan. 3), Princeton (Jan. 6) and the two Florida-based MEAC schools, Florida A&M (Jan. 10) and Bethune-Cookman (Jan. 12). After playing four of five games at Echols Hall prior to that stretch, the Spartans will go four weeks without a home game.

Rally Cats
NSU was down by 10 in the first half against James Madison, marking the third time this season the Spartans have won after facing a double-digit deficit. NSU was down by 16 in the victory over St. Francis Brooklyn and 14 in the win over Saint Peter's. The deficit against St. Francis Brooklyn marked the largest deficit a Spartan team has overcome in a win since a 90-89 victory over Morgan State on Jan. 14, 2012. The Spartans were down by 17 with 8:31 left in the second half against the Bears that day. NSU has overcome double-digit deficits in six victories since the start of the 2010-11 season, with three of them coming this season.

On Fire
The Spartans are currently shooting a combined 51.6 percent (247-of-479) over the last nine contests, including 40.6 percent (56-of-138) from 3-point range. NSU has shot better than 50 percent overall in six of those nine games.

NSU's current 46.6 percent clip from the field is the best since the Spartans connected on 48.1 percent of their shots in 1998-99. The team's current 36.9 percent 3-point shooting is also the best mark since 1992-93, when NSU hit 40.4 percent from long range that year.

Winning the Rebounding Battle
The Spartans have had the rebounding edge in the last 11 contests, 12 of the 14 games this year, and in 23 of the last 26 games dating back to last season. NSU is a collective +97 in rebounding margin over those last 11 games alone, including a +20 effort against U.Va.-Wise. It marked the largest margin for the Spartans since outrebounding Coppin State by 23 on Feb. 2, 2013.

NSU, meanwhile, had 49 rebounds against Coppin State this year, the most since grabbing 50 against North Carolina A&T on March 3, 2011. On the season, the Spartans have a +6.5 rebounding margin.

Block Party
The Spartans had nine blocks against James Madison, the most since tallying nine against Virginia Union on Nov. 15, 2013, and the most against a D-I opponent since posting nine versus Morgan State on Feb. 4, 2013. Over the last two games, NSU has outblocked its opponents by a collective 17-2 margin.

Lend a Helping Hand
Norfolk State's current 13.9 assists-per-game rate is slightly ahead of the D-I record of 13.8 set in 1998-99. It is also the most since NSU tallied 14.2 assists per game in 1995-96.

Get to 20
Jeff Short (25) and RaShid Gaston (20) both reached the 20-point plateau against Northern Arizona, the fourth time in five games two players scored 20 or more points. Short and Gaston did so against Morgan State (24, 20) and U.Va.-Wise (27, 20), and D'Shon Taylor (24) and Short (20) accomplishing the same versus Coppin State. It marked the first time NSU had two 20-point performances in back-to-back games since Feb. 20 and 25, 2012 against Longwood and Bethune-Cookman.

NSU has had a 20-point scorer in nine straight games and in 11 contests overall this year for a total of 15 20-point games. The Spartans have not had nine straight 20-point performances since they closed out the 2008-09 season with 11 straight.

Balanced Scoring?
NSU has four players averaging double figures, including leading scorer Jeff Short (19.3) as well as RaShid Gaston (15.3), D'Shon Taylor (12.9) and Malik Thomas (11.0). After those four, though, the next highest scorer is Jamel Fuentes at 3.2 points. Six players have tallied between 1.9 and 3.2 points per contest. A year after losing nearly 80 percent of its scoring from its senior class, NSU is now getting 77.9 percent of its scoring (777-of-998 points) from just four players.

Better After the Break
NSU has scored more points in the second half than the first half in 10 of the last 11 games.

Opponents have shot a collective 157-of-356 (44.1 percent) in the first half but 143-of-379 (37.7 percent) in the second half and overtime this season.

Specialty Stats
NSU has outscored the other team by an average of 9.4 more points in the paint (31.3-21.9). The Spartans have outscored their last six opponents 278-168 in that category. On the year, NSU has outscored 12 of its 14 opponents in points in the paint, including the last 11. The Spartans have attempted 104 more shots from inside the 3-point line than opponents on the season.

On the other side, opponents have made more 3-pointers in 10 of NSU's 14 games thanks to 82 more attempts on the season.

The Spartans are outscoring teams 16.1-14.2 in points off turnovers on the year. Over the last three games, NSU has averaged 18.0 points off turnovers. They are also averaging 7.9 fastbreak points over the last nine games.

Doubling Up
The Spartans have had 12 double-double performances in the last 12 games, including five straight from RaShid Gaston from Nov. 28-Dec. 8 and eight overall.

Nationally Ranked
The Spartans rank 47th in the nation in rebounding margin (+6.5) as well as in the top 125 in field goal percentage (67, 46.6), 3-point field goal percentage (86, 36.9), defensive rebounds (101, 25.57), assists (107, 13.9), blocks (108, 4.2), scoring offense (112, 71.3), win-loss percentage (112, 64.3), scoring margin (115, +6.4) and field goal percentage defense (125, 40.8).

Ahead at the Half
The Spartans are 60-8 since the start of the 2011-12 season when leading or tied at the half. They also have three wins this year when trailing at the half after winning just one game last year.

O'Quinn's NBA Season
Kyle O'Quinn is back for his third season with the Orlando Magic after being drafted in the second round in 2012. NSU's first NBA player in 25 years, O'Quinn averaged 4.1 points and 3.7 rebounds per game during his rookie campaign in 2012-13 and 6.2 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.3 blocks and 1.1 assists per game in 2013-14. He missed 15 games this year after injuring his ankle in the season opener. He's averaging 8.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.2 blocks this season, including a 18-point, 13-rebound effort against Boston on Dec. 23.

Spartans in the Pros
Aside from Kyle O'Quinn, NSU has three other former players competing professionally. Both Pendarvis Williams and Michael Deloach are currently in Italy, while Malcolm Hawkins is competing in Lithuania. Williams is averaging 16.1 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.4 steals per game for Moncada Solar Agrigento of the A2 Gold league, while Deloach is tallying 14.5 points, 5.7 assists, 4.0 rebounds and 1.3 steals per contest for Liomatic Viola Reggio Calabria of the A2 Silver league. Hawkins recently joined Jazz-Diremta Kaunas, where he's averaging 18.2 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.3 steals.