Box Score

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The Hampton University women's basketball team put up a fight, but fell in overtime 66-62 to Kentucky Saturday night in the first round of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament at The Pit on the campus of the University of New Mexico.

The Lady Pirates, the No. 13 seed in the Spokane Region, had their 13-game winning streak snapped and finished the season at 25-7. Kentucky (25-8), the No. 4 seed, advanced to Monday's second-round game against No. 5 seed North Carolina.

"Tremendous, tremendous basketball game. If you're a basketball fan you saw everything," Lady Pirates head coach David Six said. "You saw two great teams going at each other. And unfortunately, we came out on the short end of that.”

Junior guard Choicetta McMillian (Fairfield, Texas) led the Lady Pirates with 19 points behind the strength of four 3-pointers, while junior guard Jericka Jenkins (Lancaster, Texas) poured in 14 points and senior forward Quanneisha Perry (Decatur, Ga.) added 12 points.

Perry also pulled down 12 rebounds for her 11th double-double of the season.

Kentucky out-scored Hampton 10-6 in the overtime period, scoring the first seven points of the frame. Kastine Evans drained a 3-pointer from the corner with 1:19 left to play to put the Wildcats up 63-56. McMillian hit a triple of her own with 50 seconds left to cut the lead to 63-59.

After Victoria Dunlap hit a pair of free throws with 40 seconds left, McMillian hit another trey with 29 seconds left to pull Hampton within three, 65-62.

A Maegan Conwright free throw with one second remaining iced the game for Kentucky.

Dunlap went 1-for-2 at the free throw line with 7:57 left in regulation to put Kentucky up 51-45, but the Lady Pirates scored seven straight points to take a 52-51 lead, just their second lead of the game, with 6:25 to play on a Jenkins jumper.

Dunlap hit a free throw to tie the game at 52-52, before Conwright hit a jumper at the 3:36 mark to put Kentucky up 54-52. A'dia Mathies added a layup with 2:22 left to put Kentucky up 56-52, before Jenkins hit a floater and Perry sank a pair of free throws with 1:05 to play to force overtime.

"We just wanted it so bad," Jenkins said. "To be the first MEAC team to make it past the first round would have been tremendous for us."

Both teams went back-and-forth at the start of the game, with four ties before Kentucky took a 14-10 lead on a Keyla Snowden trey at the 7:45 mark. Hampton responded with five straight points, taking a 15-14 lead after junior forward Melanie Warner (Tallahassee, Fla.) hit a 3-pointer and sank a pair of free throws.

Snowden sank another trey to give Kentucky the lead right back at 17-15 to spark a 9-0 Kentucky run. The Wildcats went up 23-15 after Sarah Beth Barnette hit a 3-pointer at the 5:19 mark.

Jenkins sank a layup with 29 seconds left in the half to pull Hampton within three, 29-26, but Conwright sank a trey from the top of the key at the buzzer to send Kentucky into the half up 32-26.

The Lady Pirates shot 36.5 percent (23-for-63) from the floor and made six of their 15 3-pointers. Hampton also held a 45-40 edge in rebounding and a 28-24 advantage in points in the paint.

The Wildcats shot 34.4 percent (22-for-64) from the floor and made eight of their 19 3-pointers. Snowden led Kentucky with 19 points, while Dunlap added 13 points.

I'm proud of my kids,” Six said. “We didn't come here to be a bump on someone's schedule. We came here to play at a high level and I thought that we did that today."

For more information on Hampton University basketball, please call the Office of Sports Information at (757) 727-5811, or visit the official Pirates website at www.hamptonpirates.com.