Second-Half Surge Dooms Pirates at SMU
DALLAS, Texas—For nearly 30 minutes, the Hampton University men’s basketball team hung tough with No. 18 SMU, before the Mustangs pulled away late for a 105-72 win at the Moody Coliseum.
The Pirates fell to 4-4 on the season.
Quinton Chievous and Brian Darden each led the Pirates with 18 points, while Reginald Johnson, Jr. added 16 points. Chievous and Johnson each grabbed a team-high six rebounds – while Johnson also dished out a team-high five assists.
Darden, who also hit five 3-pointers, also had three steals.
Chievous went 8-for-11 from the floor.
The Pirates shot 43.8 percent (28-for-64) from the floor and made 12 of their 31 3-pointers (38.7 percent).
A layup from Jervon Pressley early in the second half cut SMU’s lead to 46-43, and the Pirates kept the margin within single digits until the 14:34 mark, when Jarrey Foster sank a layup to give the Mustangs a 63-53 lead.
A Pressley layup cut the lead to 63-55, before SMU went on an 8-0 run to take a 71-55 lead.
A Chievous layup with 9:37 left cut SMU’s lead to 78-64, but the Mustangs ended the game on a 27-8 run – thanks in large part to their proficiency behind the arc and at the free throw line.
The Pirates will be in Boulder, Colo. to take on Colorado at 9 p.m. EST.
For complete story, visit www.hamptonpirates.com
Ballentine Lifts Evansville Past Norfolk State
EVANSVILLE, Ind.—D.J. Ballentine scored 26 points to lead Evansville to an 84-70 victory over the Norfolk State men's basketball on Thursday evening at the Ford Center.
In the last contest of a three-game swing for the Spartans, NSU held a one-point advantage at the break. The Purple Aces, though, took control in the second half, hitting a bucket seven seconds into the stanza and never relinquishing the lead from there.
Senior Jeff Short led the Spartans with 22 points on 8-of-16 shooting, part of a larger 26-of-50 effort from NSU from the floor, a healthy 52.0 percent clip. It also got double-digit efforts from junior Jonathan Wade with a career-best 14 points and from junior Preston Bungei with 10 points while adding four blocks. The duo combined to shoot 9-of-12 as NSU fell to 4-7 overall on the season.
The first double-digit lead of the game came at 11:13 in the second half on Willie Wiley's 3-point play, putting the Purple Aces up 55-45. Then after Short and Wade hit back-to-back buckets to cut the deficit to five, Evansville scored the next six points to push its lead back to double digits.
For the next eight and a half minutes of the game, the Spartans got no closer than nine points.
NSU will fly out to Texas to compete in the Sun Bowl Invitational. The Spartans will face host UTEP on Monday at 9 p.m. EST and then UC Irvine or Sam Houston State on Tuesday.
For complete story, visit www.nsuspartans.com