Norfolk State Men's Basketball
Saturday, Dec. 6; 6 p.m.
NSU vs. Morgan State, Joseph Echols Hall
Radio: Star 1310 AM, Live Audio | Hot 91.1 FM, Live Audio
Live Video | Live Stats | Game Notes

NORFOLK, Va. - Back at home after a four-game road swing, the Norfolk State men's basketball team will begin conference play with a matchup against Morgan State on Saturday at 6 p.m. at Joseph Echols Hall. It will mark the first MEAC contest for both teams.

Media Coverage
The game will be broadcast live on Star 1310 AM as well as Hot 91.1 FM with Ross Gordon on the call. Live audio is available through the Star 1310 website as well as through the Hot 91.1 website. Both feeds are available on smartphones through the Star 1310 website or through www.TuneIn.com or the TuneIn Radio App (search for "WNSB") for Hot 91.1. Fans can also follow along with the live stats and the live video feed. The live video feed also carries the radio broadcast.

Series History
NSU has a big edge in the all-time series with Morgan State, 33-12. The Spartans have won seven of the past eight meetings after the Bears had won four in a row before that. Morgan State won the first meeting last year in Norfolk by an 87-70 score before NSU returned the favor with a 64-53 victory in Baltimore later in the season.

About Morgan State
The Bears own a 1-6 record this season, thanks in part to an offense that is scoring just 55.9 points per game while shooting 33.6 percent overall and 24.8 percent from 3-point range. Blake Bozeman leads all scorers with 14.0 points per game, followed by Cedric Blossom (10.4 points, 6.4 rebounds) and Donte Pretlow (6.4 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 2.1 steals). Morgan State commits just 12.0 turnovers per game while forcing more than 16. The Bears, though, also get outrebounded by more than four boards a game and have been to the free throw line on average 11 less times per contest than the opposition.

Last Time Out
Hofstra connected on 14-of-25 from 3-point range and better than 52 percent overall in an 88-74 win over Norfolk State on Tuesday at the Mack Sports Complex in Hempstead, N.Y. Ameen Tanksley had 30 points to lead the Pride. NSU countered their 3-point shooting with the inside game of RaShid Gaston. He totaled a career-best 28 points on 12-of-15 shooting and had his third straight double-double with 10 rebounds. The Spartans finished with a 32-14 advantage in points in the paint. Hofstra also went 26-of-37 from the free throw line, while NSU sank just 6-of-10. Jeff Short and Malik Thomas added 16 and 13 points, respectively.

Balanced Scoring?
NSU has four players averaging double figures, including leading scorer Jeff Short (16.1) along with RaShid Gaston (14.2), Malik Thomas (13.4) and D'Shon Taylor (10.9). After those four, though, no one else is averaging more than 3.0 points per contest, with six players having tallied between 1.8 and 3.0 points per contest. A year after losing nearly 80 percent of its scoring from its senior class, NSU is now getting 78.8 percent of its scoring (408-of-518 points) from just four players. The Spartans have gotten a combined 14 bench points the last three games.

Rally Cats
NSU was down by 16 in the victory over St. Francis Brooklyn and 14 in the win over Saint Peter's. They marked the largest deficits 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 five victories since the start of the 2010-11 season.

The Spartans now have two wins this year when trailing at the half. They won just one game last year when trailing at the half.

Road Trekking
It will be a back and forth start to the season for NSU. After playing three of their first four games at home and all four in the state of Virginia, the Spartans played four games in eight days out of state. They will now play four of their next five at home beginning with Morgan State before heading on the road for six straight from Dec. 22-Jan. 12.

Doubling Up
The Spartans have had a double-double performance in each of the last six games. More remarkably, they have come from three different players. RaShid Gaston has posted three straight, including a pair of 14-point, 10-rebound performances against St. Francis Brooklyn and Saint Peter's. He then had a career-high 28 points with 10 rebounds at Hofstra. It marked the first time an NSU player had three straight double-doubles since Kyle O'Quinn from Jan. 14-21, 2012.

Malik Thomas had 19 points and 12 rebounds against Boston University (Nov. 19) and then 20 and 10 against Texas Southern (Nov. 22). D'Shon Taylor added 19 points and 11 boards at Vanderbilt on Nov. 25.

Winning the Rebounding Battle
The Spartans have had the rebounding edge in the last five contests and in six of the eight games this year. NSU is a collective +26 in rebounding margin over the last five games.

Specialty Stats
NSU has outscored the other team by an average of 6.6 more points in the paint (26.5-19.9) after averaging 5.6 points per game more than the opposition in that category last year. The Spartans have outscored their last two opponents 52-20 in points in the paint. On the other side, opponents have made more 3-pointers in six of NSU's eight games.

NSU is also outscoring opponents by an average of 17.8-13.1 in points off turnovers and 11.0-8.6 in second-chance points, thanks to 13 less turnovers and 27 more offensive rebounds than its opponents. In addition, the Spartans are also averaging 9.0 fastbreak points over the last three games.

After setting the Division I record in 2013-14 for fewest turnovers per game at 13.4, NSU is currently averaging 13.1 giveaways per contest this season while forcing 14.8. The school record for fewest turnovers per game was set in 1987-88 at 13.1.

The Spartans also finished with their best free throw percentage in 10 years last year at 69.3, the best mark since the 2003-04 campaign (72.0 percent). So far in 2014-15, NSU is connecting on 68.3 percent of its attempts from the charity stripe.

Better After the Break
NSU has scored more points in the second half than the first half in four of the last five games. The Spartans have also allowed an average of 3.4 less points in the second half than the first stanza this year.

Opponents have shot a collective 88-of-181 (48.6 percent) in the first half but 79-of-189 (41.8 percent) in the second half and overtime. From 3-point range, opponents are connecting on 38-of-89 (42.7 percent) in the first half compared to 29-of-71 (40.8) after the break.

Nationally Ranked
The Spartans rank 100th in the nation in turnover margin (+1.6) as well as 121st in offensive rebounds per game (12.00), 150th in rebounding margin (+2.5) and 152nd in turnovers (13.1).

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 8.5 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.2 blocks in six games this season, including a 21-point, 11-rebound effort at Golden State on Dec. 2.

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 15.8 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game for Moncada Solar Agrigento of the A2 Gold league, while Deloach is tallying 15.0 points, 5.5 assists and 3.8 rebounds per contest for Liomatic Viola Reggio Calabria of the A2 Silver league. Hawkins recently joined Jazz-Diremta Kaunas, where he's averaging 23.3 points and 4.8 rebounds in four games.