Delaware State put on a first half shooting display that bordered on surreal, hitting on 18 of its first 20 attempts to build an insurmountable lead en route to an 81-55 win over Howard at Memorial Gymnasium.

The Hornets (10-12 overall, 7-3 in the MEAC), coming off a big home win over Hampton on Saturday, came out of the blocks smoking, hitting on shots mostly from long range. Roy Bright and reserve Donald Johnson each scored 11 as they combined for six of nine from three-point range. But the scoring fever was contagious. Ten different DSU players scored as the Hornets bolted to a 37-3 lead in the first 12-plus minutes of play.

The Bison (5-19 overall, 2-8 in the MEAC) appeared shell shocked in the frenzy created by the offensive explosion and forced head coach Gil Jackson to expend three of his timeouts to help quell the storm and settle down his young team which started a junior, three sophomores and a freshman.

It seemed to work as Howard was able to manage 16 points in the last four minutes. The problem was that the Hornets had scored 52 first half points on an unbelievable 78 percent marksmanship. DSU “cooled” off a bit in the second half and finished the game shooting 60 percent.

The Bison took a lead from their hosts in the second half and got into the act by shooting 63 percent on 15 of 24 from the field. But it was not nearly enough to make a significant dent in the final margin of victory.

Eugene Myatt led Howard with 14 points, Jeron Smith contributed 13 off the bench and freshman Adam Walker tallied 10.

Bright, the pre-season MEAC Player of the Year, led all scorers with 26 in 28 minutes while Johnson added 13.

The Bison have had 12 different starting lineups this season due to a combination of injuries and illness; the latest casualty is junior Randy Hampton, the team’s second leading scorer, who missed his second straight game with the flu. Freshman guard Kyle Riley has been out the past six games with a back injury.