Randy Hampton scored eight of his team-high 15 points in the second half and Curtis White made two key plays down the stretch to help the Howard Bison snap an eight-game losing streak with a 54-53 win against Bethune-Cookman at Burr Gymnasium.
With only eight players in uniform, the Wildcat attempted to slow down the game but found the pace favored the Bison as they took a 27-21 lead at the half.
B-CU’s John Holmes led the way with 16 of his team’s points.
“They [Bethune-Cookman] used this offense against us last year,” said Howard head Coach Gil Jackson. “You just have to adjust. The key is to be patient, protect the ball and make shots.”
Howard came out in the second half and slowly worked its way into the lead with a 19-5 run in the first 11 minutes of the second half to take a 40-32 advantage. Hampton, and reserve forward Kandi Mukole, who scored all five of his points after intermission, and Paul Kirkpatrick helped fuel the rally.
But the undersized Wildcats put together a rally of their own, reeling off a 15-6 run to retake the one point lead, 47-46, on a Jimmy Hudson three-point basket.
Hampton then canned two free throws at the other end to give the lead back to the Bison with 2:06 left on the clock. Senior guard Eugene Myatt made a big block on defense and Curtis White, who earlier hit a key basket with the shot clock winding down, made a nice feed to Mukole for a basket to extend the Bison’s lead to 50-47 with 57-seconds remaining.
Hampton added two more insurance free throws that proved to be the difference as Hudson nailed a three-pointer at the buzzer to close out the scoring.
“Randy played focused tonight,” said Jackson of Hampton, who was playing just his second game since December 1 when he suffered a concussion. “He’s still gutsy and needs to stay out of foul trouble. He definitely gives us a boost.”
He continued, “As for Curtis, he is starting to get healthy again. He’s a coach on the floor. We needed him to make those kinds of plays for us tonight.”
Holmes led all scorers with 21 points while Dewayne Pettus and Hudson added 12 and 11, respectively.