Box Score Postgame Press Conference | Coach Clark Postgame Radio

NORFOLK, Va. – A Norfolk State women's basketball team that showed resiliency all season fell one comeback short of reaching the program's first MEAC tournament championship game appearance in 13 years, falling to No. 8 seeded Maryland Eastern Shore 69-64 in overtime on Friday afternoon in the tournament semifinals at the Scope Arena.

The No. 4 seeded Spartans (14-16) rallied from a 12-point second-half deficit to force overtime thanks to a Kayla Roberts free throw with 2.1 seconds left in regulation. But the Hawks (14-16), who upset No. 1 seed Hampton in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, were too strong in the overtime and put an end to the Spartans' best season since 2001-02.

UMES, which led by just two at the half, outscored the Spartans 13-3 over the first six minutes of the second half. A 3-pointer by Moengaroa Subritzky, who scored a game-high 21 points, gave the Hawks a 43-31 lead with 14:17 left in regulation. But an NSU team that showed the penchant for rallying all season kept fighting. Jazamine Gray hit jumpers on back-to-back NSU possessions to cap a 9-2 NSU spurt that brought the Spartans within 45-40 with 9:03 left.

The Hawks stretched their lead back to nine and still held a five-point edge after two Subritzky free throws made it 54-49 with 1:26 left in the second half. But Rae Corbo answered with a jumper to cut the deficit to three, and after a UMES miss, Gray hit two more foul shots to bring NSU within 54-53 with 39 seconds remaining.

Subritzky then hit two free throws and Corbo responded in kind to again cut it to one. The Spartans' full-court press than forced a Subritzky turnover, giving NSU the ball with 22 seconds left with a chance to win. With the game clock winding down, Corbo's driving shot off the glass rimmed out, but Roberts was fouled as she grabbed the offensive rebound. After missing the first foul shot, Roberts calmly sank the second with 2.1 seconds left in regulation to knot the score at 56, and UMES couldn't attempt another shot before the buzzer.

But the overtime belonged to the Hawks. Jessica Long and Roberts traded baskets early, but Hawks' guard Alexus Hicks hit a 3-pointer with 3:25 left in the OT to give her team the lead for good. The Spartans missed their next three shots from the floor after Hicks' basket, and Subritzky pushed the lead to five, 63-58, with a driving layup.

A jumper by Spartan forward Nia Roberts cut the deficit to three, 63-60, with 1:58 left, but that was as close as the Spartans would get. UMES hit 4-of-6 from the line to close out the win and advance to Saturday's 3:30 p.m. championship against the winner of Friday's semifinal between Savannah State and North Carolina A&T.

UMES' 3-point shooting was the story of the first half. The Hawks, who shot 28 percent from long distance for the year, made 5-of-10 in the first half. NSU held its only lead of the game at 17-16 on a 3-pointer by Corbo midway through the first stanza. 

But Subritzky and TeAmber Burke both hit 3-pointers to help UMES surge to its largest lead of the half, 28-21, with 2:31 left before halftime. But two jumpers by Aivah Parham started a 7-2 NSU run to close the half. The run ended with Gray's running 3-point bank shot just before the half that cut UMES' lead to 30-28 going into the intermission.

In a game featuring the MEAC's top two rebounding teams, the shorter Spartans held a 40-34 edge on the glass, led by a game-high 11 boards from Kayla Roberts. But the Spartans shot just 35.9 percent from the floor, and 18.8 percent (3-of-16) from 3-point range. UMES, by contrast, shot 41.5 percent from the floor and 42.1 percent (8-of-19) from long distance.

The Spartans were led by their three seniors on the floor Friday. Corbo capped her collegiate career by scoring a team-high 18 points, but was harassed into 5-of-21 shooting. She added a game-high seven assists, six rebounds and one steal. Corbo finished her career with 1,631 points, the most of any Division I player in school history and good for sixth on the Spartans' all-time scoring list. She broke her own single-season free-throw percentage school record this year, hitting 88.4 percent. She finishes her career as the Spartans' all-time leader in that category, as well, at 82.6 percent.

Her backcourt mate and fellow senior Gray scored a career-high 15 points, her first career game in double figures, on 6-of-8 shooting. Gray also had seven rebounds and three assists. Parham, another senior, scored 11 points off the bench. 

Kayla Roberts chipped in with nine points (3-of-17 shooting) and 11 rebounds.

For UMES, Subritzky was 5-of-8 from the floor and 4-of-6 from 3-point range en route to her 21 points. Long added 16 points and Alexis Udoji had eight.

NSU capped the season with 14 wins, its most since the MEAC championship team went 22-9 in 2001-02.