Box Score NORFOLK, Va. – UMES was primed to pull off the upset on Monday night in the first round of the MEAC tournament at Scope Arena thanks to a big second half rally. Fortunately for the Norfolk State men's basketball team, history did not repeat itself.

Facing a tied ballgame late in the contest after they had been up by as much as 23 just 10 minutes earlier, the Spartans did just enough at the end to survive UMES' comeback in a 78-74 victory.

NSU (18-13) advanced to the quarterfinal round to face Savannah State. That game will be held on Thursday at 8 p.m.

Norfolk State was primed for an easy win, going up by double digits midway through the first half and turning it into a lead of 20-plus five minutes into the second stanza.

UMES (6-24), though, had other ideas.

The Spartans had extended their lead to 49-30 early in the second half on a putback layup by sophomore RaShid Gaston, and senior Malcolm Hawkins drove around his defender with 15:14 to go to get that lead to 20. Senior Pendarvis Williams scored five straight to give NSU a 60-37 edge at the 12:36 mark.

Hakeem Baxter tallied 14 points for UMES during a 22-5, five-minute run to make it 65-59 with a little more than seven minutes to go.

Mark Blackmon, a freshman guard who scored just 31 points all year, then drained a pair of treys from the right wing to cut the NSU lead to two, 69-67, with 4:55 on the clock. Blackmon finished with 13 points on the night.

The Hawks tied it up twice after hitting a pair from the line both times, the first time from Baxter and the second thanks to the touch of Troy Snyder. The latter made it 74-74 with just 1:49 left, reminiscent of last year's game against Bethune-Cookman in the quarterfinals when No. 1 seed NSU let a 13-point second-half lead slip away.

Gaston, though, gave NSU the lead back against the Hawks after going 1-of-2 from the line. Senior Marese Phelps got his hand on the ball for the steal on the next possession, and Williams sank a pair of free throws with 6.6 seconds left.

The Hawks turned it over again trying to go up the court, and Phelps hit one more free throw for the final margin of victory.

Williams finished with a game-high 22 points on 6-of-10 shooting, including a 9-of-12 mark from the free throw line. He also added seven rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Gaston and Hawkins each scored 17. Gaston broke out of a slump by shooting 6-of-7 from the floor with eight boards as well, helping NSU finish with a 26-20 edge on the glass. Goode added 12 points to the scoring effort.

Baxter, meanwhile, was one of four UMES players in double figures with 21. Devon Walker added 16, while Snyder totaled 11.

Gaston's big slam finished off a 9-0 run for the Spartans to start the game, and NSU quickly went up by 10 on a trey from Hawkins in the left corner. Gaston's three-point play made it 17-9 as the 12-minute mark neared, and treys from junior Kievyn Lila-St. Rose and Hawkins allowed the Spartans to maintain a nine-point lead.

That advantage grew to 12, 27-15, as UMES did not convert a field goal for more than three and a half minutes until a layin from Baxter. Hawkins hit another 3-pointer to cap a 14-3 run and give the Spartans their largest lead of the half, 34-17, at the 4:27 mark.

The Hawks got as close as 11, 36-25, on a three-point play by Blackmon with 1:17 left, but the Spartans closed out the half on a 7-1 run for a 17-point lead at the break.

NSU hit better than 60 percent in the first half on 16-of-26 shooting.

Both teams shot nearly identical for the game, including 24-of-44 (54.5 percent) for NSU and 22-of-44 (50 percent) for UMES. The Hawks, though, hit 10-of-23 from 3-point range, including 7-of-10 in the second half that was also part of a 12-of-19 overall effort after the intermission.

The Hawks also hit 20-of-25 from the free throw line, while the Spartans connected on 25-of-34. The two teams combined for 44 attempts in the second half after just 15 combined shots in the first.