THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 8, 1996 TAG: 9602080557
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LAWRENCEVILLE LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
The road is becoming an increasingly hostile venue for Norfolk State.
But the Spartans had an answer for such inhospitality Wednesday at St. Paul's: 63 second-half points.
The Spartans, playing in front of an active crowd of 1,467, ended any hopes of a St. Paul's upset early in the second half as they posted a 97-77 victory at steamy Taylor Whitehead Gym.
Carnell Penn scored a game-high 24 points, 20 after the break, as the Spartans improved to 16-3 overall, 11-2 in the CIAA.
The Spartans found themselves in a battle from the start as the Tigers' aggressive defense forced 15 Norfolk State turnovers, seven on clean Tigers steals.
Adding to the Spartans' early woes, Penn picked up his third foul within the first 10 minutes and went to the bench.
The Tigers (7-13, 2-11) closed the half with a 17-6 run, capped by a rebound basket by Greg Johnson at the buzzer, to trail 34-33.
Thoughts of the Spartans' 81-69 loss at Bowie State Saturday were more prevalent than the euphoria of their 77-74 overtime upset of Virginia Union, Division II's top-ranked team, Monday night.
``They were doubling on our guards out front and the rest of us weren't moving to open spots on the floor,'' said Rodney Carmichael, who added 13 second-half points and finished with 21. ``We just didn't have a lot of intensity. Once we started moving without the ball, we got a lot of easy baskets.''
When St. Paul's opened with two quick buckets in the second half to take a 37-34 lead, Norfolk State coach Mike Bernard called a 20-second timeout.
``I told them if we continued to play the way we had to that point, we were going to dig ourselves a helluva hole,'' Bernard said.
The teams traded baskets and St. Paul's took a 44-40 lead on a 3-pointer by Marlon Lancaster.
But Bernard's warning seemed to take root as the Spartans went on a 18-0 run over the next four minutes, highlighted by two Carmichael dunks in transition.
``He'll finish on the wing on a fast break,'' said Norfolk State's Maurice Whitfield, who had 12 points and 10 rebounds, the second time this season the point guard has had double figures in rebounds.
And Derrick Bryant checked in with his season averages of 18 points, including going 3 for 3 from 3-point range, and 10 rebounds.
``We were atrocious that first half,'' Bryant said. ``But when Penn and Carmichael started knocking down those shots we started clicking.''
The Spartans held the Tigers to 37.3 percent accuracy from the field, the sixth time in seven games that Norfolk State's defense has kept an opponent under 40 percent.
Antwain Smith, the CIAA's leading contender for rookie of the year honors, was held to eight points on 2-for-11 shooting from the field and eight rebounds.
Smith missed two dunks and another in the first half was waved off due to a teammate's offensive foul. That call drew a rain of ice onto the court from the St. Paul's fans.
``This is a very difficult place to play and you can cause yourself some serious problems if you get down,'' said Bernard, who earned a technical foul in the second half for arguing a call. ``Most of our problems were of our own making. Fortunately we snapped out of it in the second half.'' by CNB