Box Score NORFOLK, Va. – The Norfolk State men's basketball team eased past a hard-nosed Mercy College squad on Wednesday night, pulling out a 71-65 non-conference victory at Joseph Echols Hall.
 
The Spartans got a big game out of senior Jeff Short, who finished with 28 points on 10-of-12 shooting to go with a game-high seven rebounds. In front of a crowd of 1,576, he finished as the only NSU player in double figures as the Spartans improved to 3-4 overall on the season. Short tied for the third-most points in his career and finished three points away from tying his career high.
 
The Mavericks, though, went up by as much as 11 in the first half and even held a short-lived one-point lead with less than 12 minutes to go in the second half. Mercy College took 24 more shots on the night than NSU but made just 23-of-70 overall (32.9 percent).
 
The Spartans also made 23 field goals, hitting 23-of-46 (50.0 percent). But they committed 20 turnovers to allow the Mavericks to outscore them 22-11 in points off turnovers. Eight of those NSU turnovers came via offensive fouls.
 
Mercy College led for more than 15 minutes to start the game, using an aggressive, in-your-face defense to at times fluster the Spartans. The Mavericks committed 17 fouls in the first stanza alone, however, allowing NSU to hit 15-of-26 from the free throw line and just 8-of-16 from the floor.
 
The Spartans shot just six times from the charity stripe in the second half.
 
NSU did not get its first bucket until the 14:46 mark of the first stanza on a layup by Short. Mercy College began a 12-2 run a minute later to jump ahead by 11, 19-8, nine and a half minutes into the contest. The Spartans then scored the next 10 points, capped off by a fastbreak bunny from junior Brian Kelley.
 
The Mavericks were still by one at that point, 19-18, and still led until a pair of free throws by Short tied it up at 23-23 at the 4:21 mark. Junior Jonathan Wade sank two more from the line to put NSU into the lead, although Mercy College was able to tie it up three more times before the end of the half. Gerald McClease hit a layup with one second left on the clock to tie the score at 31-31 going into the break.
 
Mercy College had 19 more field goal attempts in the first half, but NSU had 21 more attempts from the foul line.
 
After the teams traded 3-pointers to open the second half, NSU grabbed the lead back and did not let go for more than six minutes. Senior D'Shon Taylor hit a shot in the lane, and a minute later Short got a tip-in off a miss, both times allowing the Spartans to go up by five.
 
The Mavericks scored six in a row to take the lead back and held the Spartans scoreless for the next two and a half minutes before senior Charles Oliver hit a trey with 11:34 left. The Mavericks got as close as one after that when Shaquille Stokes got a layup in transition at 7:22, but 3-pointers by Short on back-to-back possessions gave NSU a 57-50 lead.
 
Mercy College got to within three at 59-56 on another McClease layup, this time with 4:24 to go, but the Spartans outscored the Mavericks 10-4 to go up by as much as nine the rest of the game.
 
Stokes finished with 20 points for Mercy College on 7-of-20 shooting. Tyseem Lyles was the only other player in double figures with 13 to go with a team-high six boards. Mercy College got outrebounded by three but held a 17-11 edge in offensive boards.
 
The Spartans finished the game 21-of-32 (65.6 percent) from the foul line. Sophomore Zaynah Robinson scored nine points with five assists, while junior Preston Bungei added eight points.
 
NSU will play its first MEAC game on Monday night at Coppin State at 7:30 p.m.