Box Score FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – The Norfolk State men's basketball team used a big run at the midway point of the second half and then held off a late rally by Northern Arizona in a 70-66 victory over the Lumberjacks on Monday evening at the Walkup Skydome.
 
Senior D'Shon Taylor played a big part in the victory, going for a career-high 31 points on 9-of-14 shooting. He sank 5-of-8 from the 3-point line, the second straight game he converted five buckets from long range. He topped his previous career high of 25 set last season at Bethune-Cookman.
 
Senior Jeff Short had 19 points on 7-of-17 shooting, as he and Taylor combined for 50 of the team's 70 points on the evening. No other player had more than six points for NSU.
 
Up by as much as 14, the Spartans (2-4) had to hold off a late Lumberjack rally after NSU had built the lead to the largest of the game.
 
The Spartans trailed at the break by one, but Taylor sank a trey five minutes into the second half for a one-point advantage. He hit a jumper at 14:05 from the right elbow as NSU scored 11 straight points for a double-digit edge. Junior Jonathan Wade sank a pair of layups, and junior Preston Bungei's emphatic putback dunk at 10:12 completed that scoring spurt for a 52-42 lead.
 
The lead stretched to as much as 14 at 59-45, as Short's transition dunk at 7:29 finished what ended up being a larger 21-5 run. It lasted seven and a half minutes and began with Taylor's aforementioned 3-pointer at the 14:52 mark.
 
The Lumberjacks (2-4) scored six of the game's next eight points, but NSU was still up by 12 at 63-51 with less than four minutes to go on sophomore Zaynah Robinson's layup.
 
Jaleni Neely sank a trey for NAU at 3:01 and also made 4-of-5 from the line with a little less than a minute to go. NSU, which failed to convert a field goal for the rest of the game after Robinson's bucket, saw its lead shrink to 66-61 with 43.8 seconds left. NAU still had the ball, and Marcus DeBerry drained a clutch 3-pointer from the right wing with 34.9 on the clock. After two free throws by Taylor, DeBerry hit another shot from just inside the arc from the right corner.
 
Now up by just two, 68-66 with 11.4 seconds on the clock, NSU threw the ball away on the inbounds pass to give the Lumberjacks a shot to win. But with 4.7 left, DeBerry's pass toward the left wing found nothing but air and then the courtside seats as his teammate went toward the hoop. Short then hit two free throws to ice the victory.
 
NSU continued its season-long theme by shooting better from 3-point range (8-of-19, 42.1 percent) than overall (24-of-60, 40.0 percent). The Spartans had single-digit turnovers (nine) for the second straight game and also held an 11-3 edge in second-chance points.
 
The Lumberjacks made nine 3-pointers for the game but shot just 22-of-58 (37.9 percent) overall.
 
Short and Taylor connected from long range to get the Spartans going to start the game. But after junior Brian Kelley found senior Charles Oliver in the left corner for a trey for a 2-point edge, the Lumberjacks scored eight in a row to force an NSU timeout down 26-20 at the 8:39 mark. It marked the first lead by more than three points for either team.
 
NSU got to within two when NAU went three minutes without a score, but back-to-back layups by the Lumberjacks with less than six minutes to go again gave them a six-point edge, 30-24. Taylor hit a 3-pointer with the shot clock winding down, and Short's fastbreak layup tied it up at 34-34 with 1:32 left.
 
Taylor had 16 at the half, and Short added 11 for the Spartans, who trailed by one at the break, 35-34.
 
Neely led NAU for the game with 14 points, with Torry Johnson (13) and Kris Yanku (10) also reaching double figures.
 
Wade led the Spartans with six rebounds and also added six points. The Spartans shot 14-of-17 from the charity stripe, including 11-of-12 in the second half.
 
After flying home on Tuesday, NSU will turn right around and host Mercy College at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at Joseph Echols Hall.