NORFOLK, VA (WTKR)- For the second straight year, Howard has denied Norfolk State the MEAC Tournament championship.
The Bison used a late 13-3 run to pull away and hand the Spartans an 80-74 loss in the MEAC semifinals at the Scope on Friday night. This comes one year after Howard nipped NSU in the conference championship game, 65-64.
"We led the game for 27 minutes, but the last few minutes didn't bounce our way," NSU head coach Robert Jones said. "Credit to Howard."
It was a nail-biting, back-and-forth contest for most of the night, with neither team taking a double-digit lead until the Bison swelled the advantage to 10 points with 1:18 remaining in the game. The bout featured 14 lead changes in a March-worthy clash.
"When it rains it pours. When it starts rolling, guys who usually don't make shots make shots and you get into a situation where you're down 10 with 1:18 on the clock," Jones said. "We cut it a little bit but obviously there wasn't enough time left on the clock."
"We just wanted to win. It wasn't pressure, just the urge to win," said Allen Betrand, who led Norfolk State with 16 points in the game. "Sometimes when we were out there, it felt like we were trying to do too much to win."
After Jamarii Thomas tied the game at 16-16 with a three pointer at the 13:19 mark of the opening frame, the green and gold held the advantage for the remainder of the half and grew their lead to as many as seven points. Robert Jones and company went into the locker room on top, 37-31.
Howard would chip away and keep things close, then take the lead back on Marcus Dockery's triple with 8:38 remaining, inching the Bison in front, 53-52. The two rivals would trade the lead throughout the next 4:30 until the score was knotted at 61-61 with 4:00 remaining.
That's when Howard took control. With the Bison up one, Dockery and Elijah Williams connected on back-to-back three-pointers to give the underdogs a 69-62 cushion. Isaiah Warfield's triple with 1:18 remaining gave Howard its biggest lead of the night at 74-64. From there, the Bison were able to keep the Spartans at arm's length and went on to punch their ticket to Saturday's MEAC championship game.
"It's tough to be the best team for three months," Jones said. "It's tough to be the best team for three games, but I think it's harder to be the best team for three months."
"It really wasn't a lot of pressure. We knew there was a bullseye on our back because we've been the best team all year," Spartan guard Jamarii Thomas said. "It was just coming in every day knowing we were hunted and we were trying to hunt as well and not be hunted."
Howard got hot when it needed to, shooting 63 percent in the second half and out-rebounding NSU, 30-19, on the night. The green and gold connected on 17 of their 25 free throw attempts, a tough pill to swallow in a six point loss.
Along with Betrand's 16 points, Thomas added 14 points, while Christian Ings chipped in 11 points. Dockery scored a game-high 19 points for Howard.
Norfolk State fell to 22-11. Jones said during his postgame press conference that his squad will accept a bid to play in the Basketball Classic, formerly the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT). A school spokesperson said that nothing is official at this time and that the program is looking at a potential postseason appearance.
"We're going to sulk in this a little bit today, we're going to sulk tomorrow, have a team dinner on Sunday, and then we're going to get back to work," Jones said. "When you fail, it's really part of success it's not the opposite of success."
"Yesterday was a failure, but will that failure lead to some success in the future for this team? Potentially."
