Norfolk State blew a big lead, but rallied past Appalachian State in First Four,
Hawkins scores a career-high 24 points off bench
It almost wasn’t the kind of NCAA tournament performance Norfolk State wanted to be remembered for.
But the Spartans will sure never forget it.
Jalen Hawkins came off the bench to score a career-high 24 points, and NSU avoided a monumental collapse Thursday in a 54-53 First Four win over Appalachian State at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana.
That’s the good news for the Spartans (17-4). The bad, some might argue, is that their next opponent is the No. 1 team in the country.
No. 16 seed NSU faces top overall seed Gonzaga at 9:20 tonight, giving the Spartans a chance to break out their sling again.
On Thursday, the Spartans lost what had been a 19-point first-half lead and needed to contest several buzzer-beating shots in the final five seconds to hold on.
“Those guys fought to the end,” NSU coach Robert Jones said of the Mountaineers. “But at the same time, we knew what was on the line. Nobody wants to go home. They told me that the flight was leaving tomorrow at 9:30. I told them I’m not packing.”
Hawkins, a 6-foot-2 guard from the Bronx, New York, had never scored more than 17 points in a game for NSU. He entered averaging 9.4 after transferring from Robert Morris.
Justin Forrest scored 18 points for the Sun Belt champion Mountaineers (17-12), who couldn’t buy an outside shot until the second half. After coming up empty in a baffling first half, they made 6 of 18 from 3-point range in the second to chip away at the deficit.
Spartans guard Devante Carter redeemed himself for a tough night when he hit a pair of free throws with 8.6 seconds left to account for the final margin.
In 2012, 15th-seeded NSU knocked off second-seeded
Missouri in the 2012 tournament, pulling off one of the biggest upsets in college basketball history and vaulting the Spartans into the national consciousness.
Beating the Zags (26-0), who are attempting to complete Division I men’s basketball’s first undefeated season since Indiana in 1976, would make 2012’s Goliath look like an 8-year-old boy.
Buster Douglas. The 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team. N.C. State in ’83. Maryland
Baltimore County in 2018. The Spartans have an opportunity to carve themselves into the Mount Rushmore of sports improbability.
Only once in tournament history, when UMBC knocked off Virginia three years ago, has a No. 16 seed defeated a No. 1 seed.
On Thursday, Hawkins nearly outdid the Mountaineers alone in the first half. He scored 20 points — already a career high — on 4-of-4 long-range shooting as NSU took a 36-20 lead into halftime.
The Spartans used an electrifying 15-0 run, including 10 points by Hawkins, to take a 34-15 lead with just over three minutes left in the half.
Appalachian State missed all 18 of its 3-point tries in the first half.
But the Mountaineers got hot in the second, finally pulling ahead 51-45 on the heels of a dizzying 16-0 run.
“We were kind of panicking a little bit because we weren’t expecting them to come back so fast, how they did,” said Hawkins. “Our coach told us to stay positive and play defense.”
With the ball in its half of the court after a timeout, Appalachian State couldn’t get any of three shots in the final five seconds to fall.
Carter, who entered the game leading the Spartans with 15.5 points per game, was held to four points on 1-of-10 shooting. But he made the two biggest shots of his career.
Jones said he told his players not to say anything to Carter, a 68% free-throw shooter, before he stepped to the line. The strategy worked.
“Kudos to the young man, who didn’t have the greatest game,” Jones said. “But as I told him in the locker room when he was crying, without him we wouldn’t even be in the situation we’re in right now anyway. So stars are allowed to have bad games, too. He’ll have a better game hopefully on Saturday.”
Added Hawkins: “I knew they were good. I didn’t even have to look at them. I trust him.”
NSU reached the tournament by beating Morgan State in the MEAC tournament final. The Spartans, thanks to the COVID-19related withdrawal of No. 1 seed North Carolina A&T before the semifinals, got a shortcut to the title game.
But NSU certainly earned its position, posting an 8-4 MEAC record to win a share of the league’s Northern Division title. It’s the first time in program history the Spartans have won both a regular-season championship and the league tournament.
NSU has won seven straight and nine of its past 10, which Jones said has the team ready for a crack at the improbable tonight as the nation tunes in to see if a program with giant-killing bona fides has another miracle in it.
“So we have a level of confidence,” he said. “We know that Gonzaga’s like the Lakers of college basketball with three All-Americans. We understand the task at hand, and it’s going to be a tough task.”
NSU 54, APPALACHIAN STATE 53 APPALACHIAN STATE (17-12): Duhart 0-2 0-0 0, Almonacy 1-14 4-4 7, Delph 3-16 2-2 9, Forrest 7-19 1-1 18, Gregory 3-6 3-3 9, Brown 0-1 0-0 0, J.Lewis 1-1 5-6 7, Eads 1-3 0-0 3, Parker 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-62 15-16 53.
NORFOLK STATE (17-7): Matthews 3-5 0-0 6, Bryant 4-13 0-0 10, Carter 1-10 2-2 4, Chavis 0-0 0-0 0, Hicks 2-8 0-0 5, Hawkins 8-13 4-5 24, Chambers 2-4 1-2 5, Lawrence 0-4 0-0 0, Anderson 0-0
0-0 0, Jenkins 0-0 0-0 0, Ford 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 20-58 7-9 54.
Half—NSU 36-20. 3-point goals—ASU 6-36 (Forrest 3-11, Eads 1-3, Delph 1-9, Almonacy 1-13), NSU 7-18 (Hawkins 4-5, Bryant 2-6, Hicks 1-5, Lawrence 0-2). Rebounds—ASU 42 (Duhart 11), NSU 29 (Matthews 8). Assists—ASU 7 (Gregory 4), NSU 10 (Carter 4). Fouls— ASU 8, NSU 14.