The Norfolk State Lady Spartans (23-5, 12-1) get past The University of Maryland Eastern Shore Lady Hawks (14-14,7-6) 52-40. This win clinched the Regular Season MEAC Championship for the Lady Spartans their third year in a row receiving this honor.
“We kind of knew going into the game today how important it was.” Head Coach Vickers said. “We didn’t want to get any funny or sticky situations on Thursday. You know going into this year being solo champs was our goal. We had opportunity to be co-champs three years ago and that was amazing because that was our first regular season championship ever. But it’s great back to back years to be solo champs for us. We have a standard that we try and live by. And for two months, he’d been pretty much unblemished and really good. And even though the game wasn’t the style, we wanted it to be today. We had two terrific defensive quarters and ended up with the W.”
The Lady Spartans struggled early offensively finishing the first quarter shooting 13% from the field.
The Lady Hawks were feisty defensively and were dominating the Spartans early. The second-highest scorer for the Lady Spartans Kierra Wheeler finished with only 3 points shooting 1-13 in the game alone.
“Every game means something different.” Coach Vickers said. “So you know, we talked about playoff atmosphere we knew coming into this game was gonna be a playoff atmosphere, they’re coming off a loss they’re playing for seeding as well. So this game had a playoff atmosphere and the refs let us play which I didn’t mind. So we just kind of got to adjust and know what that looks like. If its gonna be a slugfest we got to figure out a way to win the slugfest.”
The second half served differently for the Spartans, shooting the ball at a 41% clip.
Diamond Johnson led the way for the Spartans. Notching 13 points in the second half, and 21 in the game.
“It feels good. Like you said I’m new to the program.” Diamond Johnson said. “When I decided to come here, I trusted coach LV and coach Fox and them, to put me in a position to be better and to be better for the team. Then the girls obviously getting to know them we like family now and I feel super comfortable playing with them. I think they feel comfortable playing with me. So I think we had a good group before me and I think we got a great group with me.”
The Lady Spartans started the 4th quarter in the lead 39-34. They came out with a 5-0 run to extend their lead to 10.
The Lady Hawks came back with a 5-0 run cutting the lead back to 5. The Lady Spartans forced 2 turnovers completely shutting the Lady Eagles down the rest of the 4th quarter, making them victorious in the game 52-40.
The Lady Spartans will be back at home on Thursday, March 7th at 5:30pm against Howard University.
Spartan Echo 