NORFOLK, VA – Norfolk State hadn’t lost at home all season and it wasn’t about to start on Thursday night.
NSU bounced back from a slow start to come up with a resounding 77-58 win over Howard, claiming the outright MEAC title in the season finale at Echols Hall.
NSU head coach Robert Jones admitted there was some satisfaction for his program after his team missed the chance to win the MEAC regular season last year to Howard, in addition to losing to it in the MEAC Tournament finals.
“I can’t say tournament get-back yet, but regular season to get-back, because last year they beat us on their home floor by 20 to win the regular season,” Jones said after the game. “This year we beat them by 19 to finish clinching the regular season. So no tie-breaker.”
Jamarii Thomas scored 16 points, including 12 in the first half as NSU bounced back from an early 14-4 deficit to take a 29-26 halftime lead.
“We started off awful and I know we started a lineup that we don’t traditionally start, by any means. But, you know, senior night. So you got to do the right thing for your seniors and everything like that. But it wasn’t a good one – clearly one of the good a lineup, because they ran up on us. But then once we kinda settled in, got back to our normal rotation, and things like that we were able to get control of the game, and then we just held on for the rest of the rest of the game.”
The Spartans shot 66 percent from the field in the second half, and 52.2 percent overall for the game. They also hit half of their 14 3-point attempts in the win.
Joining Thomas in double-figures was Allen Bertrand and Chris Fields Jr. with 13 points each as well as Christian Ings with 10 points. Bertrand revealed the team got some extra motivation just before the game to make sure it not only one, but made a statement.
“It was very important because they was walking down the hall screaming ‘the champs are here,” Betrand said. He motioned over to Jones “He told us that. We didn’t even know that, so he told us that in the locker room that just fired us up. So we just wanted to be the only champion.”