Of their house finale, the Norfolk State Spartans ladies’s basketball workforce went out on a excessive be aware, avenging their solely convention lack of the 12 months.
The Spartans finish the common season on a 12-game win streak following a 59-53 win over the Howard Bison.
Norfolk State heads into the MEAC event because the common season champions with a 24-5 general report and a 13-1 report within the convention.
In the meantime, Howard had a five-game win streak snapped, ending its common season with a 13-15 general report and a 10-4 convention report.
Kierra Wheeler led all scorers with 14 factors, three blocks, and two steals. Anjanae Richardson and Danaijah Williams got here off the bench to attain 11 and 10 factors respectively.
For the primary time this season, Diamond Johnson failed to attain in double figures, scoring simply 9 factors. Nonetheless, she impacted different areas by recording 4 assists and three steals.
Vanessa Blake led the best way for Howard, posting 13 factors on 5-of-9 capturing together with 9 rebounds, together with 5 offensive boards.
Iyanna Warren had a tough capturing evening, scoring eight factors on simply 2-of-11, however added six assists and 5 rebounds.
Revenge hits completely different from house 😼#GoldStandard🔰 pic.twitter.com/h5ioGSXkkU
— Norfolk State Girls’s Basketball (@NorfolkStateWBB) March 7, 2024
After trailing 14-13 on the finish of the primary quarter, Norfolk State went on their first massive run to start the second, outscoring Howard 17-2 to take a 14-point lead with 1:57 remaining within the half. They’d finish the primary half with a 30-19 lead.
The Bison went on a run of their very own, coinciding with Johnson being subbed out after committing her third foul at 7:43 within the quarter.
They went on a 10-0 run, together with two three-pointers by Kaiya Creek to trim their deficit to 1 level.
The Spartans stored their poise occurring an 11-4 run to construct their lead again up and wouldn’t give up for the rest of the sport.
These groups will now await the beginning of the MEAC event on March 13, once they would be the high two seeds.
Norfolk State is trying to grow to be the primary workforce to win consecutive convention event championships since Hampton received the MEAC tourney 5 straight instances from 2010-2014.
