THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 23, 1995 TAG: 9502230463
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ED MILLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
The Norfolk State Spartans watched every minute of archrival Hampton's upset loss to Winston-Salem State in the first round of the CIAA tournament Wednesday afternoon, and the message came through loud and clear:
If you don't play hard, anyone can beat you.
The Spartans came out hard, and basically beat first-round foe Livingstone in the first 10 minutes. They jumped to a 22-4 lead and cruised to an 84-71 victory at Lawrence Joel Coliseum.
Norfolk State (22-4) will face Shaw (19-7) in a quarterfinal game today at 3 p.m.
The game wasn't nearly as close as the final score would indicate. Norfolk State shot 64 percent in the first half to Livingstone's 18 and outrebounded the Bears, 24-13.
NSU guard Carnell Penn outscored Livingstone (3-24) in the first half, 19-17.
Penn finished with a game-high 31 points on 12-of-13 shooting. He hit four of his five 3-point attempts. CIAA player of the year Corey Williams added 15 points and 12 rebounds.
``Our game plan was to get the ball inside, and that opened up things for the guards,'' Penn said.
Penn got Norfolk State moving by scoring 10 of the Spartans' first 22 points, six on 3-pointers. Livingstone hit just two field goals in the game's first 10 minutes.
``Seventeen points, that's a good first half,'' Norfolk State coach Mike Bernard said. ``Defense pretty much dictated what we were able to do.''
The Spartans did about anything they wanted in the first 20 minutes. They led 44-19 at halftime and 66-36 on a soaring slam dunk by Williams with 9:14 to go.
With just 16 hours between the finish of Wednesday's game and today's tip-off, Bernard rested his starters.
Livingstone took advantage and cut deeply into Norfolk State's lead.
``Obviously (our reserves) didn't do a good job,'' Bernard said. ``But we're hoping that by resting some people tonight, that will be advantageous against Shaw.''
Watching Hampton fall seemed to give Norfolk State an advantage. The sight of the upset had a bigger impact than anything a coach could say about avoiding a letdown, Bernard said.
``Our guys recognized you can't lay down,'' Bernard said. ``You can't expect to beat a team that has a (worse) record just because of who you are.'' by CNB