Complete Women's Game Notes
Complete Men's Game Notes

Women's Game

Game 20
Howard (2-17, 2-5 MEAC) vs.
Norfolk State (3-14, 0-7 MEAC)

Date: Monday, Feb. 4
Time: 6 p.m. EST
Place: Joseph Echols Hall, Norfolk, Va.
Series: Howard leads 15-7

The Game
Howard is on a five-game losing streak, dropping its last five decisions by an average of 32 points per game. The Bison fell to conference leaders North Carolina A&T 93-58 on Saturday and dropped to 2-5 in league play with the loss. Asha Santee paced the Lady Bison with 21 points and eight rebounds. Tamaya Daniels added 19 points and 14 rebounds, her sixth double-double of the year.  Reyna Gross and Shannon Carlisle dished out five assists each.  Ta'Wauna Cook scored 22 points to help the Aggies remain undefeated in conference play.

NSU is 3-14 and has yet to pick up a win in MEAC play. The Spartans were downed by Hampton 68-51 in its last time out on Feb. 2 and Raychele Payne led three players in double figure with 18 points.

Norfolk State
Probable Starters

Howard
Probable Starters

Scouting Norfolk State
Norfolk State is averaging 53.3 points per game in its 17 contests this season. Opponents are shooting 41% against the Spartans while opponents hold a 5.3 rebound advantage over NSU.

The Spartans are coached by Tara Owens, who is in her first season at Norfolk State. She has a 95-152 record in her career as a head coach.

Daniels Earns MEAC Honor
Howard junior center Tamaya Daniels (Syracuse, N.Y./Nottingham H.S.) was named the MEAC Player of the Week on January 14. Daniels helped Howard to a 2-0 record that week and scored the game winning basket against Florida A&M to give the Bison its first win of the year.

Sharing is Caring
Reyna Gross dished out a season high eight assists in a 79-70 win over Bethune-Cookman on Jan. 14, falling one assist shy of her career-high.

Seeing Double
Howard had two players pull down double-doubles in the win over Bethune-Cookman. Terease Thornton scored 14 points to go along with 10 rebounds and Tamaya Daniels finished with 12 points and 10 boards.

Starters, Seniors Leading the Way
Howard's starters have been a strong point early on and if head coach Cathy Parson can get strong production from her reserves, it will keep the starters' legs fresh as the season wears on.

So far this year, the starters have scored 762 points and account for 73% of the offense, while the senior class has scored 632 points (61% of the offense).

Howard Scoring Distribution (2007-08)
(includes nineteen games)

                                    Pts.      Avg.     Pct. of Total

Frontcourt                   311       16.7      30%
Backcourt                    726       38.2      70%
*********************************
Starters                      762       40.1      73%
Bench                          275       14.5      27%
*********************************
Freshmen                    159       15.3      15%
Sophomores                34         1.8        3%
Juniors                        212       11.2      20%
Seniors                        632       33.3      61%

Santee, Carlisle Named to All-Tournament Teams
Asha Santee and Shannon Carlisle have received All-Tournament recognition this season. Santee was named to the Basketball Travelers All-Tournament team on Nov. 11 following a strong weekend at the Baylor hosted tournament while Carlisle garnered All-Tournament honors at the Brown Bear Basketball Classic.

Bison Outscored at the Stripe
A problem Howard has had this year is getting to the free-throw line. The Bison have committed 446 fouls already this year (compared to 339 by opponents), resulting in 547 free throw attempts for Howard's opponents. Opponents are currently 342-547 (.625) from the stripe. Meanwhile, Howard has been to the line just 335 times, converting 203 of them (.606).

However, HU seems to be turning the tide as of late. The Bison connected on 13 of 14 from the line (92.9%) against FAMU and went 12 for 12 in the first half against Hampton on Jan. 5.

Woman of Steal
Shannon Carlisle (3.5 spg) is 3^rd in the MEAC and 8^th in the NCAA in steals per game.

Men's Game

Game 22
Howard (5-16, 2-5 MEAC) vs.
Norfolk State (9-10, 5-2 MEAC)

Date: Sunday, Feb. 4
Time: 8 p.m. EST
Place: Joseph Echols Hall, Norfolk, Va.
Series: Norfolk State leads 13-7

The Game
This is a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference game between the Bison of Howard University and the Spartans of Norfolk State University.  The Bison (5-16 overall, 2-5 in the MEAC) are coming off a 72-56 road loss to North Carolina A&T State University on Saturday while the Spartans (9-10 overall, 5-2 in the MEAC) fell, 62-58 to their rival, Hampton University, on Saturday.

Howard
Probable Starters

Reserves

Norfolk State
Probable Starters

Reserves

The Coaches
Howard is coached by Gil Jackson (Elizabethtown College, '69), who is in his third season and has a 19-57 career record to date.  Prior to coming to the Hilltop, Jackson served as assistant coach at the University of Pennsylvania for 16 years.  Norfolk State is coached by Anthony Evans (Louisville, ‘86), who is in his first season as head coach there.

Spartan Notes
Norfolk State leads the MEAC in field goal percentage (45 percent)...the Spartans are 2^nd in scoring (70.7 ppg) and in free throw shooting (71 percent)...NSU is 3^rd in steals (7.67, in blocked shots (3.94) and in assists/turnover ratio...Tony Murphy, a strong candidate for MEAC Player of the Year, is 4^th in the conference in scoring, 3^rd in free throw shooting (87 percent), tied for 4^th in steals and 6^th in three pointers made per game (2.2 per game)...Corey Lyons is 7^th in free thow shooting (79 percent) and 8^th in scoring (15.1 ppg)...Larry Vickers is 3^rd in rebounding (6.5 rpg) and in blocked shots (1.83)...Michael DeLoach is 2^nd in field goal percentage (55 percent).three pointers made per game (6.58)...Murphy was held to 13 points in the loss to Hampton...he was limited to 4 of 15 shooting from the field and only 2 of 10 from three-point range...DeLoach led the team with 17 points off the bench...Hampton attempted 40 free throws to only 13 for Norfolk State.

Bison Hooves
The Bison have had 11 different starting lineups due to injuries...the team lost projected starting point guard and Chicago native Julius Hearn before the season started to a knee injury that required surgery...then both freshman forward Adam Walker and freshman guard Kyle Riley went down with injuries just before the season opener...they both returned in the third game only to have starting forward Randy Hampton suffer a concussion in the game against Hampton that caused him to miss seven games...and if that was not enough, starting point guard Jeron Smith suffered a knee injury following a dunk in the game against American University and leading scorer Eugene Myatt suffered a knee contusion in that same game, forcing them to miss. two games...the recent victim of the injury epidemic is freshman guard Kyle Riley, who injured his back and could miss up to a month and Smith, who has the flu and will miss his second straight game...at one point, the Bison suited up only eight players...Myatt is 9^th in the conference in scoring and 10^th in field goal percentage (47 percent)..he leads the team in scoring, in three-point shooting, in assists and in minutes played...as a team, Howard is shooting only 26 percent from three-point range...Howard is on a pace to have one of its best seasons in recent years in blocked shots...the Bison, who rank second in the conference in blocked shots,  currently average 4.3 per game...Walker, who is a strong candidate for the All-Rookie team, ranks 5^th in blocked shots, 6^th in offensive rebounding and 10^th in overall rebounding...Kirkpatrick ranks 7^th in blocked shots and Kandi Mukole 11^h...Smith ranks 6^th in the conference in steals

Next Up
The Bison travel to Princess Anne, MD on Feb. 9 to take on UMES while the Spartans take on the Wildcats of Bethune-Cookman on Saturday at 4 pm.