After producing a program-record scoring output in a victory Tuesday over Virginia-Lynchburg at home, Norfolk State will hit the road for 10 straight games starting with a matchup against No. 2 Arizona at McKale Center on Saturday.
Tipoff is at 2 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPN+ with Daron Sutton and Corey Williams calling the action. Brian Jeffries and Ryan Hansen will comment on the game at Wildcat Radio 1290-AM.
Norfolk State (4-4) defeated Virginia-Lynchburg 136-79, led by forward Melo Baines making all 15 of his shots from the field and finishing with 30 points.
The Spartans will not return to Echols Memorial Hall at Norfolk, Va., until Jan. 12 against Maryland Eastern Shore.
Norfolk State calculated it will travel 15,703 miles in the next 10 games on the road, which includes stops at Arizona and Baylor in addition to holiday tournaments at Atlanta and El Paso.
“Some of these trips aren’t as bad as they seem,” Norfolk State coach Robert Jones said. “It’s just the opponents — like Baylor and Arizona — that are potentially bad for us.”
The CP3 HBCU Challenge in Atlanta includes games against Grambling State on Dec. 18 and Jackson State on Dec. 19 followed by playing at UTEP on Dec. 21 and either North Dakota State or UC Irvine on Dec. 22 in the Sun Bowl Invitational.
“Four games in five days and two time zones — that’s the tricky one,” Jones said.
Norfolk State played at Wyoming last Sunday, losing 75-67, and two days later, the Spartans hosted Virginia-Lynchburg.
Behind Baines’ flawless shooting performance, Norfolk State shot 69 percent (58 of 84) from the field in the rout of Virginia-Lynchburg. The Spartans also made 14 of 17 (82.4 percent) of their shots from the free-throw line.
Anthony McComb III added a career-high 26 points, shooting 9 of 14 from the field and 4 of 7 from 3-point range.
Arizona (6-0) is in the midst of playing three games at home in a span of 12 days.
The Wildcats did not play around Thanksgiving, last playing Monday in a 103-73 win over visiting Denver.
Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd was comfortable with not having his team in the national spotlight around Thanksgiving whereas many other ranked teams played in various events.
“I don’t care if people are talking about us or not, business as usual,” Lloyd said. “Steady, steady the ship, help guys get better. That’s our mindset. Figure out the growth areas you want to attack on the team, and also kind of identify our strengths and reinforce those.”
Arizona is coming off a game against in which its freshmen including Brayden Burries, Ivan Kharchenkov, Koa Peat and Dwayne Aristode combined for 69 points.
Burries and Kharchenkov each scored 20 points. Burries added seven rebounds and Kharchenkov made 9 of 12 shots from the field and produced three steals.
Aristode had 17 points behind a 4-of-8 performance from beyond the arc and Peat finished with 12 points.
“I think our freshmen are really mature,” Lloyd said. “They’ve been highly sought out, sought after, highly-ranked prospects probably for a long time since they played basketball.
“I think being ranked or whatever is fleeting for them. I think it’s just like, ‘Oh, yeah, we’re ranked, whatever. Let’s go play.’”
THREE-DOT DATA
Arizona and Michigan State are the only teams in the country with three wins over Top 25 opponents already this season. … The No. 2 ranking in this week’s Associated Press poll marks the 27th week the Wildcats have been ranked in the Top 5 under Lloyd. … Kharchenkov and Burries both scoring 20 points on Monday against Denver was first time two Arizona freshmen accomplished that feat in the same game since Nico Mannion (23) and Zeke Nnaji (21) against Washington State on March 5, 2020. … The Wildcats are averaging 17.0 3-point attempts per game this season, which ranks 347th out of 361 teams in Division 1. However, Arizona is shooting 39.2 percent, which ranks 27th in the country. … Through games played Nov. 27, Arizona is the only team in the country with three different freshmen that have scored 20 or more points in a game this season (Peat, Burries, Kharchenkov). … Lloyd is in his fifth season as the head coach and has a record of 118-33 (.780). Lloyd is also 8-4 against Top 5 opponents, and the eight wins are the most by an coach in their first five seasons since the AP poll started in 1949. The Wildcats are 24-13 (.649) against AP Top 25 opponents under Lloyd, the best winning percentage in the country. … After his hot start to the season, senior point guard Jaden Bradley has continued his strong play. He leads the team in scoring (15.5), assists (3.7) and steals (2.0) and is 5 of 9 from behind the 3-point line while shooting 59.3% overall from the floor. … Peat was named Big 12 Newcomer of the Week on Monday, marking the second time this season he was received the award. For the season, he is averaging 15.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.7 assists. … Senior forward Tobe Awaka is averaging 22.2 rebounds per 40 minutes of action, the second-best average in the country. He had 12 points, 16 rebounds against Denver. … Junior big man Motiejus Krivas grabbed a career-high 14 rebounds to go with nine points in the win at UConn. He leads the team with 10 blocked shots and is shooting 67.7 percent from the floor. … Arizona is averaging 28.67 points per game from its bench, and the team’s leading scorer has come off the bench four times through the first six games. … Aristode has showed off his shooting ability through the first six games, connecting on 11 of 21 from long range. He went 6 of 9 against Northern Arizona (11/11) and 4 of 8 against Denver. … Senior guard Anthony Dell’Orso recorded a career-high seven assists against Denver. He is also 13 of 13 at the free-throw line this season and has connected on 34 straight free throws dating to last season.
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