Box Score NORFOLK, Va. – After a slow start, the Norfolk State women's basketball pulled away late in the first half and cruised to a 76-58 victory over Virginia Union Saturday evening at Joseph Echols Hall.

The Spartans improved to 4-1 on the season for the second year in a row, using a big 29-3 run over the last 10 minutes of the first half to take control of the game. The Panthers (1-3) did not go quietly, though, trimming a 20-point halftime deficit down to seven early in the second half before NSU again asserted itself for the win.

Senior Whitney Long led the Spartans with 16 points on 7-of-13 shooting, while junior Marian Brooks and freshman Ebony Brown also scored in double figures with 13 and 10 points, respectively. As an offense, NSU hit 47.5 percent for the game while holding Virginia Union to a 31.6 percent clip despite the Panthers attempting 15 more shots on the night, including 20 more 3-point attempts.

Valentina Wheeler and Ashle Freeman provided most of the offense for the Panthers, tallying 18 and 17 points, respectively. Vicki Collier and Danielle Ferguson each posted eight points, as the Panthers had nearly all of their scoring come from the starting five.

Junior Batavia Owens chipped in with seven points and 10 rebounds for NSU, which held a 51-42 advantage on the boards. Sophomore Rachel Gordon added nine points and eight boards, while sophomore Rae Corbo added seven points with four assists.

Virginia Union converted 25 NSU turnovers into 23 points, but the Panthers were done in by 25 fouls. The Spartans shot poorly from the charity stripe but still had the advantage, hitting 16-of-30 (53.3 percent). Virginia Union sank just 5-of-8 from the line. The Panthers also hit five 3-pointers but were just 5-of-25 overall, compared to 2-of-5 for NSU.

NSU had momentum to start the game, with Long's fastbreak pull-up jumper putting the Spartans up by five, 9-4, a little more than four minutes into the game. Virginia Union countered, using a 9-0 run over the next four minutes to take a four-point lead. That advantage reached six at 18-12 with 10:26 to go on a layup from Wheeler.

The Panthers, though, went cold from there, failing to score a basket for the rest of the half. Brooks and Long made back-to-back fastbreak layups after Wheeler's basket for NSU's first buckets in five and a half minutes. Those two conversions by the Spartans also started a 16-0 run that lasted six minutes. Freeman hit a pair of free throws with 4:25 left in the first stanza to finally end that long drought.

With NSU up by eight at that point, 28-20, the Spartans then used a 13-1 run to end the half, sparked by a pair of layups from Owens. NSU went into the break up by 20, 41-21.

An 18-5 run by Virginia Union to start the second half had the Spartans on their toes, as NSU saw its lead get cut back down to seven, 46-39, just four and a half minutes into the half. Long and senior Tyisha Bridges, though, hit a pair of baskets during an 11-2 run for NSU that quickly put to rest any thought of a Panther upset.

Bridges converted on another layup with 7:13 left for a 60-45 lead, and then a short time later Brooks and Brown made a couple of bunnies to get the Spartans back up by 20, 69-49, with just over three minutes left. Freshman Breannah Davis-Bloom sank a free throw with 1:08 to go for her first collegiate points, and Brown made the last three points of the game for her first double-digit scoring effort at NSU.

Collier added a game-high 14 rebounds for Virginia Union to go along with four assists and four steals. Dashia Chandler had a game-high eight assists, and Ferguson added three blocks for the Panthers.

NSU will turn right around and host William & Mary Monday at 6 p.m. at Echols Hall.