Box Score

Hampton, Va. – After missing the first meeting of the season against Norfolk State, Hampton forward Matt Pilgrim gave the Spartans all 16 of his points in the first half to lead the Pirates to a 66-52 win Wednesday night in front of 5,086 at the Hampton University Convocation Center. With the win the Pirates evened their record at 13-13, 9-6 in the MEAC to take sole possession of third place in the league standings. The Spartans dropped their fourth consecutive ball game and now sit at 8-17, 8-7 in the conference.

Pilgrim and Rashad West combined to score the Pirates’ first 21 points, including 10 straight from Pilgrim to open the game. It was more than nine minutes into the game before another Pirate scored and that came on a layup by Junior Pehoua that put Hampton in front 23-15.

The Spartans struggled on the offensive end shooting just 37% in the first half and turning the ball over 15 times, leading to 23 points on the other end for the Pirates. Norfolk State also sent Hampton to the line 21 times before the half and the Pirates made 15 to take a 44-22 lead into intermission.

The momentum changed in the second half as the Spartans slowly cut into the Hampton lead. A Larry Vickers’ layup brought Norfolk State to within 14 at 48-34 with 12:20 to go and over the next three minutes the Spartans went on a 7-3 run to cut the deficit to 10 on a free throw by Tynell Dunkley.

Hampton managed just seven points over the first 11 minutes of the second half, but back-to-back baskets from Mike Freeman prevented the Spartans from cutting the lead to single digits.

Norfolk State outscored the Pirates 30-22 in the second half but it wasn’t enough to overcome a rough first 20 minutes.

Corey Lyons led Norfolk State with 15 points and Tony Murphy added 11 for the Spartans who host North Carolina A&T on Saturday.

The MEAC’s leading scorer, West finished with a game-high 21 points thanks to a 14-of-15 effort from the charity stripe.