Box Score HOUSTON, Texas – The Norfolk State women's basketball team pulled away in the second half thanks to some cold shooting from Texas Southern in a 80-58 win over the Tigers in the Spartans' season opener at H&PE Arena Friday morning.

In one of the earliest tip-offs of the entire 2011-12 college basketball season, 11 a.m. CST, NSU fell behind by one at the half, 40-39. The Tigers, though, made just one basket in the last 11 minutes of the game and NSU's fast-tempo, scorching offense allowed the Spartans to earn the big win.

Sophomore Rae Corbo tallied a career-high 26 points and was one of four players in double figures as the Spartans posted their highest point total since March 3, 2008 in a 93-84 loss to Howard, a span of 87 games. NSU connected on 56.6 percent from the floor (30-of-53), its best total in the Division I era.

Along with Corbo's big day, senior Whitney Long posted 18 points, while the duo of junior Batavia Owens and sophomore Rachel Gordon each finished with 14 points. Gordon also completed her third career double-double with 10 rebounds. Corbo and junior Recca Trice added five and four assists, respectively, while Corbo and Long each tallied four steals.

NSU also won the rebounding battle, 40-36, and shot 5-of-12 from 3-point range. The Spartans limited TSU to 3-of-22 shooting (13.6 percent) from beyond the arc and dominated the Tigers inside, outscoring them 40-14 in the paint.

Texas Southern was led by Gianne Fleming with 13 points, 11 of which came in the first half. Kayla West added nine for the Tigers, and both she and Fleming each had four steals. Adijatu Disu grabbed a team-high eight rebounds,

TSU hit just five field goals in the second half and shot 15.2 percent in the stanza. The Tigers sank 29.7 percent for the game (19-of-64).

Corbo sank a pair of 3-pointers from almost the exact same spot prior to the first media timeout as NSU boasted a 9-6 lead to start the game. Long later hit one from way outside the top of the arc, close to 26 feet, for a 13-10 advantage at the 14:24 mark. After TSU used a 3-point play to get the lead back, baskets by Gordon off an offensive rebound and a fastbreak by Corbo gave the Spartans the lead back, 17-15, with 10:52 to go.

Fleming then scored the next seven points for the Tigers to give them a 22-19 advantage. Corbo got fouled as she made an off-balance underneath layup and completed the 3-point play at 6:45 to make it 26-22, but TSU came right back with a 10-3 run to take a three-point lead.

Corbo drove the lane and sank a floater to tie it at 34-34. After a quick couple baskets by the Tigers with less than a minute left, Corbo dribbled to the left side of the arc and drained a trey with seven seconds left, giving her 16 points in the half, for a 40-39 Tiger halftime lead. The first half saw seven lead changes between the two teams.

Texas Southern was unable to get things going early in the second half, and NSU finally capitalized when Gordon and Corbo hit baskets 20 seconds apart for a 45-42 lead. Owens converted a layup for a 49-44 lead, and Corbo later made it 54-49 after hitting both free throws as part of a 1-and-1. Long extended it to 57-50 on a trey from the top of the arc, and then a fastbreak by Corbo forced Texas Southern to call timeout down 59-50 with 8:19 to go.

NSU started to pull away from there, as Texas Southern went cold from the floor and NSU started running the court at a very quick pace during an extended 29-4 run. Janelle McQueen's basket with 11:11 to go marked the start of a long scoring drought for TSU.

Texas Southern's inexperience – the Tigers have nine freshmen on the roster – started to show as they failed to convert a basket for 11:07. Long added 10 points during a four-minute run, while both she and Gordon converted a pair of traditional 3-point plays as well as NSU started to pull away.

Texas Southern committed 22 fouls on the day, while NSU totaled 21.

The Spartans used the all-freshmen lineup of Ebony Brown, Jazamine Gray, Ashley Dillard, Breannah Davis-Bloom and Quineshia Leonard over the last few minutes of the game as NSU cruised to its first win of the year. Leonard scored her first career points with 5:36 left as she provided quality minutes on the floor, while Brown got one to fall with 41 seconds left for her first collegiate points.

NSU will play its home opener next Wednesday at Chowan at 6 p.m. at Joseph Echols Hall as part of a doubleheader with the men's team, which plays Randolph College at 8.