NSU Women at Loyola (Md.)
Saturday, Nov. 21 * 4 p.m. * Reitz Arena
Game Notes  |  Live Stats  |  Live Video

NORFOLK, Va. – The Norfolk State women's basketball team (0-2) looks for its first win of the season on Saturday when the Spartans face the Greyhounds of Loyola (1-2) in Maryland. The game tips off at 4 p.m. at Reitz Arena. The game is the second straight road contest for NSU.

Scouting NSU: The Spartans dropped to 0-2 on the season with an 86-50 loss at the University of Virginia on Monday. The Spartans trailed 26-9 after one period and couldn't catch up. NSU was held to 27 percent shooting from the floor, 12 percent (2-of-17) from 3-point range in the loss while the Cavaliers shot 52 percent from the floor. NSU did outrebound U.Va. 46-44.

Kayla Roberts scored a team-high 14 points for NSU, while fellow forward Siobhan Beslow tallied 11 points and 15 rebounds (14 offensive) for her first double-double of the season. Those two lead NSU in points and rebounds, with Roberts averaging 12.5 points and 8.0 rebounds, and Beslow contributing 9.5 points and a team-high 9.5 rebounds per game.

Scouting Loyola: Loyola lost its second straight game to drop to 1-2 on the year after a 71-45 home loss to Fairfield on Wednesday night. Diana Logan led LU with 11 points and Colleen Marshall had nine points and six assists, but the Greyhounds shot just 25 percent from the floor. The Greyhounds were picked to finish eighth in the 10-team Patriot League preseason poll. Loyola went 7-23 last season, 5-13 in conference play, and is led by preseason All-Patriot League guard Marshall, who averaged 13.4 points per game last season. Bri Betz-White leads Loyola with 14.7 points per game this year, Marshall averages 10.3 and Logan checks in at 10.0.

All-Time Series vs. Loyola: This will be the first-ever meeting between NSU and Loyola. In fact, the Spartans have played just four prior games against teams currently in the Patriot League. NSU is 3-0 against American University and 0-1 against Colgate.

Getting Offensive: The Spartans were very productive on Monday night on the offensive glass, grabbing 27 of their 46 rebounds on the offensive end of the floor. Senior forward Siobhan Beslow did much of that damage, grabbing an astounding 14 offensive rebounds. Offensive rebounding has long been a strength of Beslow's: she finished her career at La Salle (2012-15) ranked 10th in program history with 192 offensive rebounds, and ranked fifth last season alone in the Atlantic 10 in that category (2.7 offensive rebounds per game).

Block Party: NSU ranked 12th out of 13 teams in the MEAC and 300th out of 343 teams nationally in blocks last year, with 2.2 per game. But the Spartans are off to a better start this year, with five in each of their first two games. 5-6 guard Koryn Lawrence leads with four blocks thus far.