THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 24, 1995 TAG: 9501240396
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ED MILLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BOWIE, MD. LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
In the 40 years since they first played Bowie State, the Norfolk State Spartans have had a lot of very good teams, a bunch that were merely good and a couple you could call mediocre.
They all have at least one thing in common: none lost to Bowie.
The tradition continued Monday night as this year's edition - rapidly shaping up as one of the best in school history - easily handled Bowie State, 89-58, for their 11th win in a row and 36th straight over Bowie.
Norfolk State (14-2, 9-1 CIAA) was led by all-CIAA players Carnell Penn and Corey Williams, who scored 20 points each in the conference game in front of 1,876 at A.C. Jordan Gym.
Penn had 15 at the half, as he hit 6 of 7 from the field, and three of three from three-point range.
``Mo (point guard Maurice Whitfield) told me to take my time and look at the basket,'' Penn said. ``He's always telling me to shoot.''
Shoot Penn did, finishing 8 of 11 from the field, 4 of 5 from behind the arc.
Williams was 8- or 16, and had 10 rebounds and four slam dunks.
It was that kind of night for Norfolk State, which shot 59 percent from the field and outrebounded Bowie, 51-28, while holding the Bulldogs to 30 percent shooting.
``Good defense and rebounding; everything flows from that,'' Norfolk State coach Mike Bernard said.
Things started flowing early, as Norfolk State ran off to a 24-9 lead. Bowie cut it to eight, 30-22, but Norfolk State took off on a 10-0 run and Bowie didn't get closer than 15 the rest of the night.
Blitz Wooten added 15 points and 12 rebounds while Derrick Bryant had 14 points and seven rebounds.
Wooten said that despite the lopsided series record, the Spartans didn't have any trouble getting up for Bowie (4-12, 3-7).
``Anything can happen on any given day,'' Wooten said.
``They're a three-point shooting team and tonight they could have been hot.''
Instead, Bowie was 4 of 18 from three-point range. And the Bulldogs got almost nothing inside. Leading scorer Marquis Melton, who was averaging 17 points, finished with six.
``This is a tough place to play and if you let down, you'll have a problem,'' Bernard said.
The Spartans have not had a letdown since Dec. 10, when they lost in overtime at Virginia State.
``This team is learning how to win games,'' Bernard said.
``We've had enough experience this year that regardless of the situation we're learning to adjust and win games.'' by CNB