Norfolk State Women's Basketball

Norfolk State at Delaware State	Monday, Jan. 16	5:30 p.m.	Memorial Hall
Radio: Hot 91.1 FM WNSB	Live Video	Live Stats	Game Notes

DOVER, Del. - The Norfolk State women's basketball will look to remain undefeated in conference play and open conference play 4-0 when it travels to Dover, Del., to take on Delaware State at Memorial Hall on Monday afternoon. Tip off is at 5:30 p.m.
 
About NSU: The Norfolk State women's basketball team improved to 3-0 in MEAC play for the first time since 2001-02 with a 71-40 win over North Carolina Central on Saturday evening at Echols Hall.
     
Senior forward Khalilah Ali narrowly missed a triple-double, registering career highs of 19 points, nine blocks and eight rebounds as the Norfolk State women's basketball team remained undefeated in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
     
Dominique Harper, Kayla Roberts and Kiara Phillips joined Ali in double-digit scoring. Harper registered her seventh consecutive double-digit scoring game, with 10 points, while Roberts added 11 points and nine rebounds. Phillips chipped in with 13 points. Jordan Strode led the team with 10 rebounds while dropping in nine points.

About DSU: Delaware State is 1-15 on the season, which includes a 12 game losing streak, after an 83-52 loss aagainst Hampton on Saturday afternoon.
    
After a slow start, Hampton outscored Delaware State 26-4 in the second quarter to carry a comfortable lead into halftime.

Neither team could score in the first three minutes of the game as a Chanel Green layup broke the drought with 6:35 left in the first. Delaware State worked into the contest with a Mikah Aldridge free throw with 1:37 left to trail 15-13. A 3-pointer from Monnazjea Finney-Smith 20 seconds later put Hampton ahead 18-13 to close the quarter.
    
In the second, Hampton's defense went wild holding the Hornets scoreless for almost the first five minutes of the quarter as the Lady Pirates scored the first 12 points of the quarter with Malia Tate-DeFreitas layup putting them up 30-13 with 5:12 left in the half.

All-Time Series vs. Delaware State: Norfolk State is 18-23 in the all-time series with Delaware State. Delaware State survived a late rally by Norfolk State to claim a 64-61 victory last season in Dover, on Feb. 20.      
  
NSU shook off a sluggish start to take a five-point lead in the third quarter. The Spartans, who trailed by five at the half, outscored DSU 15-6 over the first six minutes of the third period. A jumper by Kiara Phillips gave NSU its first advantage of the game at 37-35, and Kayla Roberts added two free throws less than a minute later to push the edge to 39-35 at the 4:20 mark.
    
Trailing 41-37, the Hornets closed the period on an 11-1 run and held NSU without a field goal for the final 3:52. Aldridge hit one of her four 3-pointers in the spurt and capped it by assisting on Aliah Stinnett's jumper with 23 seconds remaining in the quarter, helping the Hornets take a 48-42 lead into the fourth.
    
DSU led by as many as seven points in a wild final stanza, that saw a double-technical assessed and the disqualifation of the Hornets NaJai Pollard.

NSU had changes to take the lead, but they came up short and DSU sealed the game at the charity  stripe.

Brehanna Daniels led the Spartans with 16 points and eight rebounds. Phillips added 12 points, while Siobhan Beslow dropped in 10.

Ali KO'd North Carolina Central: Khalilah Ali had a career night against the Lady Eagles on Saturday, Jan. 14 at Echols Hall. She registered career-highs in points (19), field-goals made (9), fieldgoal attempts (15), blocks (9). Ali matched her career-high assists (2).

Roberts Earns MEAC Honor: Norfolk State junior forward Kayla Roberts was named the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Week for the week of Jan. 2-8, which was her third such honor of the season.
    
She recorded 10 rebounds, three blocks and one steal in a 56-47 victory at Morgan State on Jan. 4. Offensively, she tallied a team-high 12 points. Seven of her 10 boards came on the defensive glass. Roberts moved into 13th all-time in school history with 617 rebounds and 15th all-time in school history in blocks, with 68 after her performance against the Bears.
    
Roberts was also named MEAC Defensive Player of the Week for the week of Dec. 12-18 and Nov. 28 - Dec. 4.
    
She recorded 21 rebounds, five steals and two block against William & Mary (Dec. 15) and Lincoln (Pa.) (Dec. 18). Offensively, she averaged 11.0 points and 2.5 assists. Fifteen of her 21 boards came on the defensive glass.

Shooting and Dropping Dimes: Two of Norfolk State's keys to success depend on field-goal percentage and assisting on more buckets than its opponents. The Spartans are 8-0 when they outshoot their opponent. However, they are 0-7 when their opponents shoot a higher percentage from the floor. Norfolk State is 5-2 when it shoots better from the free-throw line and just 2-5 when the opponent shoots a higher percentage. They are 1-1 when the two teams are even at the charity stripe. The Spartans are 7-1 when they have more assists, but 0-6 when their opponents have more assists.

Block Party: Norfolk State has blocked 94 shots in the first 15 games and leads the MEAC at 5.3 blocks per game. The 94 blocks is the 3rd-highest for a season during the school's Division I era (since 1997-98). NSU is on pace to break the school's single-season D-I mark of 136, which was set during the 2006-07 campaign. The most blocks in a season is 211 during the 1991-92 season.

Roberts Leading the Way: Junior forward Kayla Roberts has recorded six double-double performances.
• Her six double-doubles are good enough for second in the MEAC.
• She registered three in a row at against Lehigh, Hartford and Longwood in late November.
• She is second on the team in scoring (12.0 ppg), rebounding (9.4 rpg), steals (1.5 spg) and third on the team with 2.0 assists per game.

Double-Digit Scoring: Senior guard Jordan Strode has scored in double figures in nine of the 13
games she has played in, including a career-high 23 points against Longwood on Dec. 3.
• Leads team in scoring (12.1 ppg), assists per game (3.1), free-throws (42) and free-throw attempts (58) and free-throw percentage (72.4 percent).
• She is second on the team in 3-point field goals (13), 3-point field-goal attempts (53) and minutes per game (28.8).
• Her 5.67rebounds per game ranks third on the team.

Super Sub: Senior guard Dominique Harper had been the best and most consistent player coming off the bench for the Spartans this season, before being pressed into the starting lineup. Prior to this season she had appeared in 73 games for the green and gold and averaged 3.8 points and 1.3 rebounds per game. Here are some notes on her 2016-17 season to date:
• Averaging 10.5 points and 4.7 rebounds in 27.3 minutes per game.
• She leads the team in field goal percentage at 46.7 percent.
• Her 1.6 steals per game leads the team.
• She is second on the team in field-goal percentage at 46.7 percent and assists with 2.3 per game.
• Harper ranks third on the team and 19th in the MEAC in points per game, while playing the
fourth-most minutes per game on the team. She is fourth on the team with 4.9 rebounds per game.

Defense Leading the Way: Head coach Larry Vickers has put an emphasis on an aggressive style of defense this season and the early returns have been promising.
• The Spartans allow 55.8 points per game, which is the fewest allowed per game in the conference.
• Norfolk State has not allowed an opponent to score more than 65 points in any game this season.
• In six wins, the Spartans are allowing just 50.4 points per game, as opposed to 62.1 in their
seven losses.
• As a team, the Norfolk State leads the MEAC in field-goal percentage defense, at 32.6 percent shooting allowed thus far.