DOVER, Del. (NSUSpartans.com) – Sophomore Tyrese Jenkins connected on five shots from beyond the arc and tallied a career-high 21 points to lead the Norfolk State men’s basketball team to an 87-76 win over Delaware State on Saturday afternoon at Memorial Hall.
He shot 5-of-6 from deep as NSU finished with a season-high 13 3-pointers. He made four in the second half as Norfolk State put away a pesky Delaware State team that stayed within single digits until the very end.
Junior Joe Bryant Jr. also made four 3-pointers in the second half, part of a 15-point effort as he made 4-of-6 from deep for the contest. As a team, the Spartans shot 13-of-23 from 3-point range. Thanks to those eight second-half treys on just 12 attempts, they finished with 49 points after halftime.
The Spartans improved to 7-4 overall, 2-1 in the MEAC after shooting 57 percent overall for the game.
“It is always good to get a conference road win,” said NSU head coach Robert Jones. “We didn’t play our best at times on defense, but we made up for it by playing a great game offensively. Tyrese Jenkins had an outstanding game to really lead us tonight.”
Delaware State (0-8, 0-3 MEAC) made 12 3-pointers, but NSU controlled the boards to the tune of a 36-23 rebounding edge. The Spartans led the entire second half after going into the locker room up by five.
They got to the glass to help them gain the early lead, including at 11-6 after a 3-pointer from Lawrence. Junior Jalen Hawkins had a pair of makes as NSU stretched its advantage to 20-13 more than halfway through the opening period. His 3-pointer at the 9:24 mark was then countered by a 17-2 run by the Hornets.
Pinky Wiley and Dominik Fragala combined for five 3-pointers during that time as the DSU advantage went to eight, 30-22. The Spartans then responded with a 16-2 run. Senior Devante Carter provided seven points during that time, and Jenkins and sophomore Daryl Anderson each had treys as NSU went into the half up 38-33.
Wiley finished with 14 points in the game, 12 in the first half on four 3-pointers.
Sophomore Nyzaiah Chambers had five points for NSU to start the second half, while DSU’s Zach Kent started knocking down some shots after going scoreless in the first half. Bryant, however, hit three straight 3-pointers to help NSU go up by nine, 52-43.
The Hornets hung around, cutting the Spartan lead to a single possession. But Jenkins had an answer, hitting three treys in a minute and a half to get the lead back up to nine with less than six minutes to go. DSU’s Myles Carter helped keep the game close, but Jenkins and Bryant had late game 3-pointers as NSU took its first double-digit lead of the game in the last minute of play.
Carter totaled 20 points for DSU, 16 of those in the second half. Kent also scored all of his points in the second half with 15. The Hornets shot 45.5 percent for the game.
The Spartans outscored them 32-14 in points in the paint. Carter scored 15 points with eight assists. Jenkins added six rebounds and four assists, and senior Kyonze Chavis grabbed a game-high seven rebounds with five points, four assists and four steals.
The two teams will finish out the weekend series on Sunday at 5 p.m.
