NSU women beat UNCW, continue to dominate in non-conference games behind Diamond Johnson and Kierra Wheeler

NORFOLK — The Norfolk State women’s basketball team breezed to another non-conference victory at home Thursday.

Head coach Larry Vickers and the Spartans beat UNC Wilmington 96-55 to improve to 9-4.

The Seahawks were short-handed on Thursday as nine of the 11 players listed on their roster appeared to make the trip to Norfolk, while only seven were available to play. The lack of personnel for UNCW shouldn’t discount the win for NSU, though, which has dominated its non-conference slate thus far.

“Coming off of a long break, we wanted to make sure that we started the game with a lot of energy and intensity,” Vickers said. “Our games after finals, our games after those 5-7-day breaks, they haven’t been really good. So we wanted to make sure that we did a good job in shootaround creating the energy and atmosphere going into the night and I felt like it carried over.”

Thursday’s matchup was Norfolk State’s first home game in over a month and just the second of the season. The last home game the Spartans played was a Nov. 16 win over App State.

“Traveling was a lot,” junior guard Diamond Johnson said. “But it felt good to be in front of our family, friends and supporters. They did get us going, so it was really nice.”

The game was Johnson’s regular-season home debut. The NC State transfer made the most of it, leading the Spartans with 26 points — tying her career-high — and adding eight rebounds, six assists and four steals.

“I just love basketball,” Johnson said. “So whenever I’m playing, I feel happy, I feel safe, feel comfortable. My teammates make me feel good. So I just go out there have fun with them.”

This was just Johnson’s third appearance of the season. A two-time undergraduate transfer, she was not immediately eligible this season and missed the first 12 games of the season awaiting a waiver to allow her to play.

A 14-day temporary restraining order from a judge in West Virginia on Dec. 18 allowed her to finally get on the court this month for what, at first, was going to be a temporary time. Two days after the initial ruling, the NCAA agreed to extend the TRO into a preliminary injunction and allowed players like Johnson to be eligible through the end of the academic year.

Vickers joked after the UNCW game Thursday that he gained a few gray hairs from the process, but that his staff was prepared and ready for Johnson to be added back into the fold.

Johnson has fit in with the Spartans seamlessly in the past three games. She’s already living up to her All-ACC second-team pedigree and is averaging 20.3 points per game.

“We’ve been practicing all summer, so we already had the chemistry,” junior forward Kierra Wheeler said. “She brings a lot of intensity to the floor and we love having her on the floor with us now.”

Johnson has been the perfect fit alongside Wheeler, who has only gotten better after her breakout season a year ago. Wheeler has already tallied three MEAC Player of the Week awards, all of which came consecutively.

Wheeler came into the game Thursday averaging a double-double and leads the MEAC with 17.9 points and 10 rebounds per game. Wheeler had 20 points, six rebounds and four assists against UNC Wilmington after putting up a career-high 33 points and 17 rebounds against High Point.

The Minnesota native averaged 11 points per game last season, when she shared the floor with two first-team all-conference players. This season, Vickers and Wheeler feel she has unlocked another level of her game as the go-to player.

“I think early on, I was just learning how to fit in with my new teammates and also be a leader in certain things,” Wheeler said. “So now I feel a lot more comfortable with my decisions. And my scoring, even with Diamond on the floor, is a lot easier.”

With Wheeler and Johnson emerging as two of, if not the, best players on Norfolk State’s roster, Vickers said it will be important for the Spartans’ supporting cast to make an impact with MEAC play a few games away.

Vickers got just that on Thursday, with three other Spartans finishing with double-digit points. Makoye Robinson had 13 points, Anjanae Richardson had 11 and Skye Robinson 10.

Norfolk State will play again Sunday at Longwood in its second-to-last non-conference game of the season.