Spartans fall in finale, but still will be top seed

An excellent regular season ended on a disappointing note for Norfolk State’s women Thursday night as they lost 60-55 to Howard at Burr Gymnasium in Washington.

A six-game winning streak ended for the Spartans (23-6, 11-3). Before the game, they had wrapped up the top seed in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament at Scope. Howard improved to 14-13, 10-4, sharing second place with Morgan State.

Destiny Howell had 23 points for the Bison, hitting all seven of her free throws. Brooklynn

Fort-Davis added 10 points and 12 rebounds for Howard, which survived 24 turnovers.

For NSU, Camille Downs had 22 points, Kierra Wheeler had 10 points and seven rebounds, and Makoye Diawara had seven points and 10 rebounds before fouling out.

NSU went ahead 12-7 but struggled for the rest of the first half.

Howard went ahead 16-14 on an Aziah Hudson 3-pointer with 1 minute, 8 seconds to go in the first quarter, then built on the lead in the second quarter. A 9-2 binge put the Bison ahead 27-19, and they extended the lead to 35-21 by halftime and to 39-21 in the first two minutes of the third quarter.

Downs, who led the Spartans with 22 points, helped bring NSU back into the game. It was 49-40 by the third quarter’s end.

The Spartans pulled to 57-55 on two Downs free throws with 51 seconds to go. The Spartans got the ball back, but Downs missed a shot. Kaniyah Harris got the rebound, was fouled and sank two free throws with 13 seconds to go.

After NSU’s Niya Fields missed a 3-pointer, Nile Miller hit 1 of 2 free throws with four seconds left to close the scoring.

NSU now will prepare for its quarterfinal at noon on Wednesday against South Carolina State.