Norfolk State Women's Basketball
NORFOLK, Va. - The Norfolk State women's basketball team will look for its seventh win in its last 10 games when Bethune-Cookman visits Echols Hall on Saturday at 4 p.m.
Scouting NSU: On a night when the Norfolk State women's basketball struggled mightily on the offensive end, senior guard
Jordan Strode's 21 points helped the Spartans awake just in time to escape with a 49-45 win over Coppin State last Monday night at the Physical Education Complex.
The win was just the third for the Spartans in their last five 25 tries against Coppin State. It came on a night when the Spartans shot just 32.7 percent from the floor, yet held the Lady Eagles to a 24.2 percent clip.
With the score tied at just 18 apiece at the half, Coppin State started the second half on a 14-4 run. CSU guard Keena Samuels capped the run with a layup with 6:18 left in the third quarter to give the Lady Eagles their largest lead of the night, 32-22.
But the Spartans went on a run of their own, outscoring Coppin State 15-4 the rest of the quarter.
Alexys Long had eight of her nine points in the run and Strode connected on a 12-foot jumper with 20 seconds left in the period to give the Spartans their first lead of the half, at 37-36.
The Spartans would not relinquish the lead the rest of the way. Strode scored nine of her points in the fourth quarter alone, including a pair of big 3-pointers. Her triple from the left corner with 2:25 remaining in regulation gave NSU a 47-41 advantage. She was 8-of-17 from the floor, including 3-of-7 from 3-point range.
Scouting Bethune-Cookman: Bethune-Cookman opened MEAC play with five consecutive victories, before a 3-pointer by Maryland Eastern Shore's Mariah McCoy with three seconds remaining lifted the Lady Hawks past the Lady Wildcats 59-56, last Saturday.
Armani Walker scored 14 points off the bench, but the Lady Wildcats (9-9, 5-1) had a five-game winning streak snapped.
Walker tied it with 16 seconds remaining on a layup that made it 56-56, but McCoy hit her third 3-pointer of the game for the win.
Kendra Cooper scored 12 points, Ashanti Hunt 11 and Angel Golden 10 as Bethune-Cookman worked its way back from a 14-point second period deficit.
Kailyn Williams, who had 10 rebounds and three blocks, gave Bethune-Cookman a 30-29 lead with 8:13 remaining in the third quarter.
Bethune-Cookman led 47-42 when Hunt hit two free throws with 8:13 left, but the Hawks went on a 11-2 run to take a 53-49 lead with 3:43 to play.
All-Time Series vs. Bethune-Cookman: Norfolk State leads the all-time series 15-14, with the Spartans winning four of the last five meetings. However, Norfolk State sprinted out to a big early lead in last season's only matchup, but visiting Bethune-Cookman gradually rallied and eventually pulled out a 53-45 victory over the Spartans on Jan. 11, 2016 at Echols Hall.
NSU played perhaps its finest quarter of the season in the opening period, jumping out to an 18-2 lead. The Spartans scored the first 10 points of the game, four by forward
Siobhan Beslow. B-CU didn't record its first basket until Ashanti Hunt's layup with 4:23 left cut NSU's lead to 10-2. But the Spartans held B-CU scoreless the rest of the period, closing with an 8-0 spurt. NSU limited B-CU to 1-of-13 shooting and forced 10 Wildcat turnovers in the period, scoring 12 points off those miscues.
The second quarter was a different story, with B-CU outscoring NSU 24-8. A 3-pointer by Alea Godfrey capped a 7-0 B-CU run to end the half and tied the game at 26-all heading into the intermission.
Wildcats center Kailyn Williams scored on a put-back 48 seconds into the third period to give B-CU its first lead of the game, at 28-26. There were five ties and three lead-changes in the period. NSU forward
Kayla Roberts scored on a reverse layup to knot the score at 36-all heading into the fourth quarter.
There were six more lead-changes in the final stanza.
NSU wing
Alexys Long canned a 3-pointer with 4:28 left to give the Spartans their final lead of the night, at 45-43. But those proved to be NSU's final points. Kendra Cooper hit a trey less than a minute later to give B-CU the lead for good as the Wildcats outscored NSU 10-0 over the final 3:31.
Changing the Culture: Larry Vickers was named the interim head coach of the Norfolk State women's basketball team on Jan. 20, 2016, with the tag being lifted on Mar. 8, 2016, making him the six head coach in the program's history. His coaching career got off to a rocky start, winning just three of his first 11 games (27.3 percent). However, he has changed the culture of the program in just one calendar year. His career record is now 13-16 (44.8 percent) overall and 8-8 (50.0 percent) in the MEAC.
Starting Blocks: Norfolk State was forced to make a lineup change at the end of its non-conference schedule.
Dominique Harper was inserted into the starting lineup for the Jan. 4 game against Morgan State. Her insertion into the starting role, with
Khalilah Ali,
Kiara Phillips,
Kayla Roberts and
Jordan Strode has brought consistency to the rotation and the team has thrived. Below are some of the team's improvements:
• Scoring has increased from 62.1 points to 62.7 points per game, while the opponents has decreased from 57.9 points to 53.2 points per game.
• The shooting has improved from 37.5 percent to 39.9 percent and from behind the arc the Spartans are shooting 30.5 percent, which is up from just over 25 percent.
• Norfolk State has increased its blocks per game from 5.4 to 8.8 per game.
• As a team, the Spartans are dishing out more assists, which has risen from 13.42 to 14.5 per game.
Block Party: Norfolk State has blocked 118 shots in the first 18 games, including 53 in the last six games and leads the MEAC at 6.6 blocks per game. The 118 blocks is the third-highest for a season during the school's Division I era (since 1997-98) and five blocks away from being the fourth most in a season in the program's history. 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.
Shooting and Sharing the Rock: Two of Norfolk State's keys to success depend on field-goal percentage and assisting on more buckets than its opponents. The Spartans are 9-1 when they outshoot their opponent. However, they are 1-7 when their opponents shoot a higher percentage from the floor. Norfolk State is 6-2 when it shoots a better percentage 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 8-1 when they have more assists, but 0-6 when their opponents have more assists and 0-1 when both teams register the same amount of assists.
Roberts Leading the Way: Junior forward
Kayla Roberts has recorded nine double-double performances on the season and has 23 in her career. Roberts has led the team in scoring eight times this season, while leading the team in rebounds 13 times and blocks in nine games.
• Her nine double-doubles are good enough for second in the MEAC and the eighth-most in the country this season.
• She registered three in a row against Lehigh, Hartford and Longwood in late November.
• She leads the team rebounding (9.5 rpg) and blocks (33), while she her 12.7 points per game are second on the team.
• Her 23 steals are good for third on the team, while her 1.9 assists per game is the fourth-most.
Double-Digit Scoring: Senior guard
Jordan Strode has scored in double figures in 11 of the 15 games she has played in, including a career-high 23 points against Longwood on Dec. 3. She registered her second 20-point game on Jan. 23 at Coppin State, with 21.
• Leads team in scoring (12.6 points per game), assists per game (3.1), free throws (51) and free-throw percentage (71.8 percent).
• She is second on the team in 3-point field goals (21), 3-point field-goal attempts (76) and minutes per game (30.0).
• Her 5.8 rebounds 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 10.0 points and 4.4 rebounds in 28.2 minutes per game.
• Her 1.6 steals per game leads the team.
• She is second on the team in field-goal percentage at 43.4 percent and assists with 2.6 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 56.3 points per game, which is the fewest allowed per game in the conference.
• Norfolk State has allowed one opponent to score more than 65 points in any game this season.
• In 10 wins, the Spartans are allowing just 52.1 points per game, as opposed to 61.6 in their eight losses.
• As a team, the Norfolk State leads the MEAC in field-goal percentage defense, at 32.6 percent shooting allowed, which is the third-best in the country.
Dropping Dimes: Kiara Phillips has handed out 16 assists in the last four games, including a career-high eight assists at Delaware State on Jan. 16. She had dished out 60 assists in 34 games, with a high of five on two seperate occasions prior game to the game against North Carolina Central on Jan. 14, which she matched her previous high.
Ali Dominates: Khalilah Ali had a career night against the Lady Eagles on Jan. 14 at Echols Hall. She registered career highs in points (19), field goals made (9), field goal attempts (15), blocks (9). Her nine blocks are the second-most in a game in NSU history. She was just two rejections shy of the school record of 11, set by Tiffany Gadsden in 2006-07. In addition, the nine blocks are the second-most in the country this season and the most in the conference. She followed that performance up with a new career-high 20 points, 11 rebounds, two blocks and one steal at Delaware State on Jan. 16. She was named MEAC Co-Defensive Player of the Week for the week of Jan. 9-15, after her effort against North Carolina Central.
Fast MEAC Starts: Entering its 20th Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference season, Norfolk State has begun MEAC play 5-1, just two prior times. Norfolk State began 5-1 in the MEAC in 1999-2000 and 2009-10.
Uncharted Waters: The Spartans won five non-conference games. The program has not experienced that kind of early-season success since the 2011-12 season. That season, Norfolk State won four of its first five games to open the season and tallied five non-conference wins. The last time a Spartans team won more than three non-conference games away from Joseph Echols Hall was during the 2010-11 season.
