Rachel Butler had 20 points and was one of three Hampton players with 10 rebounds in leading the visitors to a 71-59 win over host South Carolina State Saturday in a nationally televised ESPNU telecast at Smith-Hammond-Middleton Memorial Center.

Artavia Burns added 11 points and Chinyere Ukoh and Quanneisha Perry tied Butler for team rebounding honors with 10 boards each as the Lady Pirates enjoyed a huge 44-30 edge in rebounds.

The victory was the fourth in a row for the Lady Pirates who climbed to 9-6 and 4-0 in the MEAC.

SC State was paced by Sophilia Hipps with17 points and Jenell Moore with 14 and a game-high 11 rebounds. Brittany Baity added 10 points and nine assists in the loss, which dropped the Lady Bulldogs to 4-10 and 1-2 in the league.

The host team trailed 32-24 at the half and fell behind by as many as 20 points in the second half before rallying to within five, 59-54, when Baity made one of two free throws with 5:14 showing.

Approximately 10 minutes earlier, Perry had put Hampton ahead 49-29 with a short jumper. The Lady Pirates were still ahead by 20, at 51-31, when Hipps made the second of her four baskets from behind the arc to ignite a 23-8 run that got the Lady Bulldogs to within five on Baity’s free throw.

But Hampton scored seven of the next 10 points to push its lead to 66-56 on a Butler layup with 1:53 left and the lead never dropped below double digits the rest of the way.

SC State scored the first basket of the game when Moore got inside for a layup just five seconds into the game, but the Lady Pirates got the next seven points to go ahead 7-2 at the 16:10 mark. The visitors led by as many as 13 in the half before the Lady Bulldogs closed the gap to eight at the break.

The Lady Bulldogs return to action Monday when they host Howard in a 4 p.m. MEAC contest that will be followed by a 7 p.m. match-up of the men’s teams that will be televised live by ESPNU.

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