ALTUS – Spending all next week away from home, the Northeastern A&M's Golden Norsemen travel to Altus on Monday for a 7 p.m. Oklahoma Collegiate Athletic Conference rematch with the Pioneers of Western State College.


“Through mutual agreement, we decided to move the starting time up an hour which will be better for us,” Golden Norse head coach Dustin Grover said. “A six-hour bus ride to start the week is a little hard to take.”
Winners of five of their last six games, the Golden Norsemen are 7-4 in the conference and 14-9 on the season. The Norse defeated Northern Oklahoma College-Enid 86-76 last Thursday in the NEO Fieldhouse.
“We played really well as a team against Northern,” Grover said. “We shared the ball, we pushed the ball up the floor and we converted turnovers. 
“I don't know how much better we could play offensively,” Grover said. “We just need to build on that kind of performance.”
Entering Saturday's OCAC game with Carl Albert State College in Poteau, coach Rolando De La Barrera's Pioneer are 2-6 in the conference and 11-8 overall. The Pioneers defeated Redlands 89-71 on Thursday in Altus.
Earlier in the season when the two teams met in Miami, the Norsemen went on a 24 to 13 run in the first 10 minutes of the second half to cruise to a 96-78 victory. Jeff Newberry led the Norsemen with 23 points while Nkosi Ali and Freddie Santos contributed 21 points each. Jedarian Jackson led Western with 22 total points.
“Our team is continuing to grow and mature and I think they can handle starting the longest road trip of the season on a Monday,” Grover said. “The key will be for us to win some of these next five road games.”
Anchoring the backcourt for the Pioneers are freshman Stirling Thomas at point with sophomore Jackson and freshman Dil'Jon Allen-Jordan at shooting guards.
Thomas (5-11 from Elgin) leads the Pioneers with a 20.7 scoring average with 48 assists and 51 steals.
Jackson (6-3 from Kisseemee, Fla.) averages 11.4 points and 3.4 rebounds with a team-leading 67 steals and 44 assists.
Allen-Jordan (6-6 from Plainfield, N.J.) grabs 6.8 rebounds per game while averaging 12.8 points. He has posted 19 blocked shots while creating 38 assists and 43 steals.
Sophomore D'Audrio Patton (6-5 from Ruston, La.) and freshman Jose Santos, Jr. (6-7 from the Virgin Islands) start along the baseline for Western.
Patton averages 12.2 points and 4.3 rebounds while Santos, Jr. has a 4.2 scoring mark and a 2.8 rebounding average.
The Golden Norse remain on the road Thursday with an 8 p.m. rematch against arch rival Connors State College in the Melvin Self Fieldhouse at Warner.