NORFOLK, Va. – Norfolk State women's basketball could not complete the regular-season sweep of arch-rival Hampton, falling to the Lady Pirates 70-56 on senior night.
 
The final buzzer sealed NSU's postseason seeding, as the Spartans (18-10, 11-5 MEAC) slipped to fourth in the conference standings. Norfolk State missed out on one of three byes in next week's MEAC Tournament and will play Savannah State in the first round on Monday at 11 a.m.
 
HU (16-13, 12-4) receives the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament and a bye into Thursday's quarterfinals.
 
Hampton registered 25 more shots that Norfolk State in the game, thanks to 14 offensive boards and 23 turnovers by the Spartans. The Lady Pirates scored 15 second-chance points and 25 off NSU giveaways.
 
Monnazjea Finney-Smith led all scorers with 23 points with a team-high nine rebounds. The Lady Pirates assisted on 19 of their 28 made baskets – the third-most assists by a NSU opponent this season. Dejane' James accounted for 10 assists, becoming the first Spartan opponent to tally 10 or more assists since Hampton's Jericka Jenkins had 11 on Feb. 11, 2012.
 
Norfolk State received double-digit scoring outings from Raven Russell (19) and Kayla Roberts (17). Roberts recorded her 31st-career double-double in her final game at Echols Hall with 14 rebounds and contributed a pair of blocks and steals apiece.
 
Roberts was one of three Spartans to block multiple shots on Thursday, as NSU turned away 10 shots – its seventh game with at least 10 blocks this season. Khadedra Croker led the way with a game-high six blocked shots for her 23rd outing this season with multiple blocks, including eight games with five or more rejections. Long also matched a season high with two blocks.
 
Norfolk State led by as many as four in the first quarter and was on top 15-13 at the end of the period behind an early eight from Russell.
 
Russell made two of her three attempts in the first and was 4-of-6 from the foul line with six rebounds.
 
Jephany Brown put HU ahead by two with 5:52 to play in the quarter, but the Spartans responded with a 6-0 run to build its largest lead of the half. Russell tied the game at 6-6 on a layup then made a foul shot 25 seconds later. Roberts knocked down NSU's only trey of the quarter to make the score 10-6.
 
Hampton knotted the score at 13 with less than 90 seconds left in the quarter. Finney-Smith scored on a second-chance layup to pull the Lady Pirates to within one. Following a Russell score, K'Lynn Willis connected on a layup, was fouled and made the ensuing free throw to tie the game.
 
Armani Franklin sent NSU to the second quarter with the lead on a jumper from the left baseline.
 
Hampton started the second quarter on an 11-0 run to take a 24-15 lead and never looked back. The Lady Pirates led for the final 29 minutes and seven seconds and were up by as many as 16 midway through the fourth quarter.
 
Mikayla Sayle was the engine to HU's run, accounting for six of the 11 points.  Finney-Smith's trey 67 seconds into the period put the Lady Pirates ahead 18-15. Exactly two minutes later, Sayle closed out the spurt on a layup.
 
NSU then cut the lead to two points at 24-22 with 5:37 to play. Alexys Long hit from long range to pull the Spartans to within two. The junior guard/forward was immaculate from behind the 3-point arc on Thursday, going 3-of-3 from deep and scoring all of her points on treys.
 
Finney-Smith's second trey of the quarter put Hampton ahead by eight, 30-22, with less than five minutes to play in the half. After trading baskets with Norfolk State, the Lady Pirates scored the final basket of the half to lead 34-24 at the break.
 
Norfolk State was out-scored 21-9 in the second quarter after shooting 36.4 percent and giving the ball away eight times. HU shot 45 percent in the period and netted 10 points off of turnovers.
 
The Spartans trimmed the deficit to five inside the first four minutes of the third quarter but ultimately trailed by 12, 54-42 at the end of the period. NSU scored five-straight points over 2:17 of game time to slice Hampton's lead in half.
 
Sayle put a halt to the potential Spartan run with a layup at the 5:48 as Hampton scored nine-straight to take a 45-34 lead with 3:11 to play. The Spartans worked the lead down to eight twice inside of two minutes, but HU netted five of the final six points of the quarter to lead 54-42.
 
Entering the fourth trailing by 12, the Spartans never cut the deficit to single digits as Hampton sprinted to the finish line. An 8-2 run gave HU a 62-46 advantage with 6:29 to play, but Roberts went on a personal 6-0 run, scoring on layups on three-straight possessions, to cut the lead to 62-52 with 3:29 to play.
 
As was the case all night, Hampton had an answer for the Spartans, going on a 6-0 run of its own. Finney-Smith scored four straight to close out the run, punctuating the game on a big trey inside of 60 seconds remaining.
 
NSU begins its search for its second MEAC Tournament championship on Monday. The Spartans face the daunting task of winning four games in six days to claim the title. The conference office will release the full bracket later tonight.