BALTIMORE, Md. (Feb. 23, 2019)-Norfolk State scored the game's first 10 points and never looked back, as the visiting Spartans cruised to a 64-49 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) victory over Morgan State on Saturday afternoon at Hill Field House. It was Morgan State's first home game in nearly four weeks (26 days).
 
Raven Russell scored a team-high 14 points and grabbed a team-best six rebounds, while Zairya West came off the bench to score 13 points on 4-of-4 shooting, including 3-for-3 from three-point range to lead the visiting Spartans, who improved to 14-12 and 9-4 in the MEAC.
 
Morgan State (8-18, 6-6 MEAC) was led by Adre'onia Coleman, who scored 18 of her game-high 20 points in the second half, including 11 points in the fourth quarter. Coleman would also add a game-high seven rebounds and had three steals. Kayla Horn finished with 11 points, two assists and a steal, while Jihayah Chavis tallied 10 points, a team-high three assists and recorded a game-high six steals.
 
Norfolk State limited the Lady Bears to four points in the first quarter, as it jumped out to an 18-4 advantage, while shooting 7-of-11 from the field for 63.6 percent in the opening period. The Spartans held their largest lead of the game (27 points) at 35-9, following a free throw by Kendrea Dawkins with 1:50 left in the second quarter and took a 36-11 lead into the locker room at the intermission.
 
After shooting a combined 5-of-28 from the floor in the first half for 17.9 percent, the Lady Bears were a completely different team in the second half. The Lady Bears' offense woke up in the third quarter and shot 53.3 percent (8-of-15) in the period.
 
A layup by Chavis capped off an 11-0 spurt by Morgan State to start the third period and cut the Norfolk State lead to 36-22 with 4:18 remaining. A layup by the Spartans' Croker ended Norfolk State's drought at the 4:08 mark and a jumper by Dana Echols upped the guests cushion to 18 points (44-26) with 2:08 left in the third. Coleman would begin to heat up, as she hit a jumper to end the third quarter scoring and cut the deficit to 46-30.
 
Coleman's jumper would be the start of 11 straight points from the senior forward, as she would then score Morgan State's first nine points of the fourth quarter. Coleman capped off her scoring run by hitting a free throw to complete a three-point play and bring the Lady Bears within 51-39 with 6:57 to play in the game.
 
Morgan State could not get any closer than 12 points, until Horn knocked down four straight free throws to bring the Lady Bears within 10 points at 59-49 with 2:13 remaining. However, that would be as close as the hosts would get, as Norfolk State closed out the game and Morgan State's comeback bid by scoring the final five points for the victory.  
 
Norfolk State would hold a 36-26 rebounding advantage over the Lady Bears and outscored Morgan State, 32-20 in the paint. The Spartans' bench outscored Morgan State, 24-4.
 
Morgan State forced Norfolk State into 24 turnovers, 11 of which were steals and scored 23 points off of those turnovers. The Spartans recorded six steals and forced 18 Morgan State turnovers, converting those into 20 points.
 
Norfolk State finished the game shooting 51 percent (24-of-47) and was 4-for-11 (36.4 percent) from the three-point line. After a dismal first half, the Lady Bears upped their shooting percentage to 35 percent (20-of-57) for the game and misfired on all nine of their three-point attempts.
 
The Lady Bears will welcome Beltway rival Howard to Hill Field House on Monday, Feb. 25 for a MEAC contest at 5:30 p.m. The contest will broadcast live on FloHoops.com. The Lady Bison defeated Morgan State earlier this season, 79-56 in Washington, D.C. (1/15).
 
Howard (15-11, 8-5 MEAC) enters Monday's game coming off an 88-81 victory on Saturday at Coppin State, thus spoiling the Eagles' Homecoming festivities.