The Howard men’s basketball team will play in back-to-back NCAA tournaments for the first time after the Bison held off Delaware State, 70-67, to win the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament Saturday in Norfolk.
The fourth-seeded Bison (18-16) earned their second straight conference title by defeating top-seeded Norfolk State in Friday’s semifinal before knocking off the sixth-seeded Hornets (15-18).
“It’s a little surreal,” Howard Coach Kenny Blakeney said. “There’s a lot that went into this, and honestly, I’m just so in the moment right now.”
Seniors Seth Towns and Jordan Hairston combined for 28 points on 9-for-17 shooting in the opening 20 minutes. The Bison shot 47 percent from three-point range in the first half and led by as many as 10, though the advantage was down to six at intermission.
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The game remained tight throughout the second half, and with 65 seconds left to play, Howard guard Bryce Harris drove to the rim for a reverse layup and was fouled. He made both free throws to put Howard up by four. As the Hornets tried to close the gap in the waning seconds, Towns and Hairston put the game out of reach from the free throw line.
Harris, Howard’s leading scorer this season, tallied eight of his 16 points from the free throw line. Hairston added seven of his team-high 18 points from the stripe, and the Bison made 26 of 31 (83.9 percent) overall.
Delaware State upset second-seeded North Carolina Central in its semifinal, powered by freshman guard Deywilk Tavarez’s 20 points. On Saturday, he made just 2 of 12 shots for eight points. Sophomore guard Jevin Muniz helped carry the offensive load, scoring all of the Hornets’ points during an 8-1 run to open the second half.
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Muniz capped that run with a three-pointer that gave the Hornets their first lead since the opening minute of the game. Minutes later, he contributed to a 10-2 run that put Delaware State up six for its largest lead of the game. He finished with a game-high 24 points on 9-for-21 shooting, including 4 for 8 from three-point range.
Howard got back into the game with free throws, and Harris sank one with just over seven minutes remaining to tie the score. His free throws with 1:05 left to play ended a three-minute scoring drought and helped give Howard enough of a cushion to outlast the Hornets.
Howard was favored to repeat as MEAC champs this season, but injuries contributed to a second-place finish (9-5) in the conference. Blakeney estimates his players missed 79 games, a sum that includes 15 absences because of concussions. The team used limited rotations during the tournament and won Saturday despite foul trouble.
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Before last season, Howard’s previous tournament appearance came in 1992. The Bison enter this year’s competition having won nine of their past 11 games.
“On a campus where so much has been accomplished, I’m grateful to have a chance to be a part of something that hasn’t been done there before,” Blakeney said. “We’re standing on the shoulders of giants, so to say that we contributed a small piece to building the brand, giving the university a little bit more visibility and being able to tell the story of Howard University through a different lens is really cool.”
Howard women fall in final
Howard’s women’s team (14-16) fell short in its upset bid against top-seeded Norfolk State (27-5) in the MEAC women’s final in Norfolk. The second-seeded Bison lost, 51-46.
A jumper by Iyanna Warren gave Howard a five-point lead early in the fourth quarter, but the Spartans evened the score midway through the period. Playing without star guard Destiny Howell, who missed this season with an ACL injury, the Bison trailed by one during the game’s final minute but could not overcome the deficit.
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