Norfolk State beats Howard, advances to MEAC title game

Mar 10, 2017, 11:27 pm

NORFLOK, Va. -- Jonathan Wade scored 17 points, Zaynah Robinson added 16 and No. 2 seed Norfolk State beat Howard 68-53 in Friday night's Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament semifinal.

The Spartans (17-15) will play in Saturday's championship against top-seeded North Carolina Central (24-8), which beat No. 5 seed Maryland-Eastern Shore (14-20) 79-49 on Friday.

Norfolk State took a 34-33 lead on Jordan Butler's dunk, and pulled away 45-37 on Wade's layup with 11:14 to play. The Spartans stretched it to 56-44 on Alex Long's layup with 7:24 left, and by 18 on Dan Robinson's free throw with 1:32 to go.

Butler scored 10 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Spartans, who outrebounded the Bison 52-35 and held them to 30 percent shooting from the floor.

Howard led 30-28 at halftime and neither team shot better than 39 percent from the floor.

Charles Williams scored 14 points for 11th-seeded Howard (10-24).