Norfolk State University Athletics

The 2015-16 season will mark Lashondra Dixon-Gordon’s seventh year as an assistant coach with the Norfolk State women’s basketball program. She holds responsibilities of guard development and game scheduling, and also serves as the recruiting coordinator for the program.

Dixon-Gordon arrived at NSU after Debra Clark took over as head coach of the program prior to the 2009-10 season. The Spartans won just one game the year before Clark’s tenure began, but Dixon-Gordon and the entire basketball staff have begun to put those days in the rearview mirror. NSU won nine games in 2010-11 and 12 games in both 2011-12 and 2013-14. 

Then came another huge step forward in 2014-15, with NSU finishing 14-16 overall and 11-5 in MEAC games. The Spartans posted their most overall wins and first winning MEAC record since 2001-02 last season. NSU also advanced to the MEAC tournament semifinals for the first time in 10 years.

NSU’s guards, whom Dixon-Gordon works closely with on a day-to-day basis, have been a big part of that success. Last year, Rae Corbo became the school’s all-time leading Division I-era scorer with a sensational senior season. Corbo averaged 20.8 points per game – the most by a Spartan since 1995-96 – en route to All-MEAC second-team honors. She finished her career as the school’s career and single-season leader in free-throw percentage, and also scored the sixth-most points of any player in school history. Corbo led the MEAC in free-throw percentage each of the last two seasons, including her school-record mark of 88.4 percent in 2014-15.

Corbo was the leader of a strong backcourt for the Spartans last season. Fellow senior Jazamine Gray led the MEAC in assists (4.2 per game). As a team, NSU led the MEAC in scoring offense, field-goal percentage defense and free-throw shooting, among other categories.

During the 2012-13 season, point guard Recca Trice put the finishing touches on a successful career under Dixon-Gordon’s tutelage. Trice led the MEAC in assists (6.0) and was second in assist/turnover ratio. Trice is second all-time in program history in career assists and still holds the school’s single-game Division I-era assists record.

Other standout guards whom Dixon-Gordon has coached at NSU include Whitney Long (2008-12), who is third in the school record books in 3-pointers made, fourth in 3-point and free-throw percentage, and 15th in scoring. The 2010-11 season saw Long lead the MEAC in 3-point shooting at 41.6 percent, the best shooting percentage by a Spartan in the Division I era (1997-present) and the third-best all-time for the program. Also that year, Corbo earned a spot on the MEAC All-Rookie Team as she led NSU in scoring and finished as the league’s leading rookie scorer with 10.4 points per game. 

The 2009-10 campaign saw Trice lead the league in assists in her very first season with 4.8 per game and finish sixth in steals (2.0). 

Prior to coming to NSU, Dixon-Gordon spent five years as an assistant coach at her alma mater, Hampton University.

Dixon-Gordon finished an outstanding four-year basketball career at Hampton in 2003, leading a pair of Lady Pirate teams to NCAA Tournament first-round appearances in 2000 and 2003. Hampton captured the MEAC tournament titles those years and finished as the runner-up to NSU in 2002.

She was named to the MEAC All-Tournament Team in each of her four years as a Lady Pirate and earned the Most Outstanding Performer award at the 2003 MEAC tournament.

Dixon-Gordon left Hampton as the school's second-leading all-time scorer with 1,967 points. She led the conference in scoring in each of her last two years and was a two-time Black College Sports Information Directors of America (BCSIDA) All-American. She earned All-MEAC second-team honors as sophomore and first-team honors her junior and senior years.

Dixon-Gordon, a native of Sparta, Ga., graduated with a bachelor’s degree in accounting in 2003.