Dover, Del. (Feb. 1, 2010) --- Senior center Greg Smith picked up a career
high 10 points and five rebounds to help lead the Delaware State Hornets to
their seventh victory in eight outings with a 54-45 victory over the Howard
Bison Monday evening at Memorial Hall in Dover, Del.
Smith picked up the career peaks in just 18 minutes of play. His fellow reserve post teammate freshman Marques
Oliver continued to emerge as an offensive threat on the block, putting up a
career high 12 points to lead all scorers, including 6-7 from the free throw
line.
“We're not running our offensive sets like I would like to see us run
but the good thing about it is we were able to hold a team to 45 points, so
that's good defense,” said head coach Greg Jackson, who's team stands in second
place in the MEAC halfway through the conference slate. “It's a win, but if we play like this in our
next game, we're going to get beat.”
The Hornets (11-8, 6-2 MEAC) again used their defensive prowess to
smother another MEAC opponent. DSU
forced 16 Bison turnovers while conceding only 10 to extend the nation's 6th
best mark in turnover margin, which was 5.2 entering tonight's contest. The MEAC's #1 overall defense also held
Howard to just 45 points, and DSU continues to pound the offensive glass,
picking up 13 of their own misses to just five for the Bison (6-17, 5-4
MEAC).
In a game the Hornets would lead from wire to wire, Howard would manage
to close the gap late to five on a Mike Phillips layup with 2:49
remaining. But four Oliver free throws
and a Chad Wilson jumper would help to salt away the victory. DSU rebounding prowess showed up in the
scoring column as well, as the Hornets picked up 24 points in the paint, as
well as 13 second chance tallies.
Howard was led by Calvin Thompson, who picked up eight points and five
rebounds.
The Hornets are back in action on Friday when they head to Greensboro, N.C for a
match with the North Carolina A & T Aggies.
Tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m., and radio coverage can be heard on the
Hornet Radio Network, as well as DSUHornets.com
