Norfolk State Women's Basketball
NORFOLK, Va. - The Norfolk State women's basketball team (13-10, 8-3) will look for its second win over South Carolina State in 12 days when it hosts the Lady Bulldogs on Wednesday night at 5:30 p.m. at Echols Hall. The Spartans are tied with Hampton for second place in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Standings.
Scouting NSU: The Spartans have won seven of their last 10 games after their 74-43 victory over Maryland Eastern Shore on Saturday afternoon at Echols Hall.
Norfolk State hit seven of its first eight shot attempts, while the Hawks made just one of their first 20 as NSU jumped out to a 20-2 lead. The Spartans, who shot 49.2 percent from the floor and committed a season-low six turnovers, led by at least nine points the rest of the way and held the Hawks to 20.9 percent accuracy from the field.
Kayla Roberts led the Spartans by registering her 11th double-double of the season, with game highs 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Kiara Phillips netted 13 points, while
Dominique Harper and
Gabrielle Swinson tallied 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Scouting South Carolina State: The Lady Bulldogs are 2-10 in MEAC play, including five straight losses and eight of their last 10.
Last time out, Bryeasha Blair led South Carolina State with a game-high 21 points in a 66-54 loss to North Carolina A&T State Monday at the Corbett Sports Center.
After at tightly-contested first three quarters, the Lady Bulldogs were outscored 25-12 in the final period.
South Carolina State ranks ninth in the conference in both scoring (55.9 ppg) and scoring defense (63.3 ppg).
Blair leads South Carolina State in scoring at 17 points per game, while Brittan Drumgoole is the only other Lady Bulldog to average in double-digit scoring, with 10.9 points per game.
Jahmia Bradley grabs 6.5 rebounds to lead the team, while JaQuanna Murray adds 5.5 boards per game.
All-Time Series vs. South Carolina State: The two programs have met 37 times on the hardwood, with Norfolk State holding a 19-18 advantage. The Spartans won eight of the first 10 matchups in the series, but South Carolina State has won seven of the last 10 and three of the last five. However, Norfolk State defeated the Lady Bulldogs 68-53 just 12 days ago (Feb. 4) at the S-H-M Memorial Center in Orangeburg, S.C.
Last Meeting vs. South Carolina State: Jordan Strode tallied a game-high 18 points, while Roberts tallied 12 points and seven rebounds in the 68-53 victory on Feb. 4.
The Spartans had nine of their 11 players record at least two points, while 10-of-11 grabbed at least two rebounds and seven had at least one assist.
Norfolk State outscored the Lady Bulldogs 25-14 in the second period, taking a 34-22 lead to the locker room at the intermission. South Carolina State was able to cut the deficit to nine points on two separate occasions. Blair made a layup at the 5:36 mark, closing the Spartans lead to 53-44. However, Norfolk State held a double-digit lead the rest of the game.
Kayla Roberts completed the scoring when she converted two free throws with 38 seconds remaining.
Uncharted Waters: Norfolk State is having one of its best seasons in the Division I era. Below are some of the milestones:
• The Spartans won five non-conference games. The program has not experienced that kind of ear ly-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 Norfolk State won more than three non-conference games away from Joseph Echols Hall was during the 2010-11 season.
• The Spartans have matched their second-best start in 20 MEAC seasons with eight wins through 11 conference games. Norfolk State's best start came during the 1999-2000 campaign, when it began 9-2. The Spartans started conference play with eight wins in 11 tries on one other occassion. They accomplished the feat in the championship season of 2001-02.
Moving up the Record Books: Kayla Roberts and
Kiara Phillips are moving up the record books. Listed below are some of their records heading into the South Carolina State game:
Roberts:
• She is 70 points from becoming the 22nd player to join the 1,000 point career club.
• Roberts ranks seventh all-time in blocks (100), 10th in rebounds per game (8.9), 10th in 3-point attempts (214), 11th in rebounds (711) and 15th all-time in made 3-pointers (50).
Phillips:
• She is 13th in 3-pointers made (55) and she is14th all-time in 3-point field-goal attempts (196), while ranking 15th all-time in 3-point field-goal percentage (28.1 percent).
