DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Even in the midst of this UConn-ish run, Bethune-Cookman coaches and players go back to that non-conference abyss where they were a team that struggled on offense and couldn't finish games.
 
So, with that second straight Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference regular season championship starting to slip out their grasp, the Lady Wildcats applied what they learned in November and December. Yeah, they were struggling on offense, but they finished the game and closed down Norfolk State 53-44 Monday to earn the No. 1 seed at next month's conference tournament.
 
The Lady Wildcats (16-9 overall, 12-1) found themselves trailing for the first time in 137 minutes when Norfolk State (14-14, 9-4) hit eight of their first 10 shots to start the second half to take a four-point lead.
 
Bethune-Cookman responded by just getting enough offense and relying on its vaunted defense, limiting the Lady Spartans to 12 points the final 16 minutes.
 
Would the Lady Wildcats have won this game back in November? Probably not, according to Head Coach Vanessa Blair Lewis.  That's the cool thing.
 
"Non-conference gave us something to grow on," Blair Lewis said. "We had to find a way to pick it up."
 
With Norfolk State and Bethune-Cookman both in the top five nationally in field goal percentage defensive, this was going to be a slobberknockerish, low scoring struggle. The Lady Spartans played good defense – yeah, Kendra Cooper scored 14 and Ashanti Hunti dropped a 12-point, 13-rebound double-double, but neither Lady Wildcat was able to take over like  they did in the teams' first meeting  three weeks ago. Kailyn Williams resigned that her offensive game would be quieted so she focused on her rebounds and defense to the tune of a career-high 17 boards and six blocks that vaulted the senior to eighth on the all-time national list.
 
The Lady Wildcats responded with a defensive effort of their own – take away that little spurt and the Spartans were 11-59 from the field for 35 minutes. Ugly, but effective.
 
"We wanted to hold Norfolk State in the 40s and we did a good that way," Blair Lewis said.  "Offensively, we weren't scoring the way we wanted to and they were able to score in transition off our mistakes."
 
B-CU got points off the bench at key moments: Kanesha Battle had five points in the third quarter, including the three-pointer that put the Lady Wildcats back into the lead. Armani Walker had five points, as did Lyndsey Edwards, who snagged a long rebound and banked it in at the buzzer for a 22-16 halftime lead.
 
"The backbone of the team has been a strong bench," Blair Lewis said. "There's no drop off. They don't come in and hold serve, they advance. That's the beauty of this team."

NOTES: The Lady Wildcats have now won seven straight games, the program's longest winning streak since 1987-88 .. In these wins, the Lady Wildcats have trailed for just 16 of a possible 280 minutes ... The win assured the team of consecutive winning seasons for the first time since 2002-03 and 2003-04 … Williams moved into second place on B-CU's all-time rebounding list; she now has 927.