Game Notes

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Hampton University men's basketball team will hold its 2014 CBI opener on Wednesday evening, taking on the Nittany Lions of Penn State in a first-round match-up at 7 p.m. in the Bryce Jordan Center.
 
The Pirates (18-12) fell in the quarterfinals of the MEAC Tournament this past Wednesday, seeing their seven-game winning streak snapped with an 83-77 loss to Coppin State. Hampton, the No. 2 seed and regular-season runner-up in the MEAC, was led by senior forward Du'Vaughn Maxwell (Manhattan, N.Y.), who had 23 points and eight rebounds.
 
Sophomore guard Brian Darden (Hampton, Va.) was the only other Pirate in double figures with 17 points, despite 6-for-19 shooting and a 3-for-13 effort from behind the arc.
 
Penn State (15-17) has lost back-to-back games after falling 63-56 to Minnesota in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament; in fact, each of those two losses have been to the Golden Gophers. The Nittany Lions finished 10th in the conference in the regular season, a season in which Penn State notched a pair of victories over nationally-ranked Ohio State.
 
Redshirt-junior guard D.J. Newbill leads the Nittany Lions in scoring, averaging 17.8 points per game to rank second in the conference, while graduate student guard Tim Frazier is averaging 15.4 points a night to sit 10th in the Big Ten. The team's top rebounder is junior forward Ross Travis, who ranks fourth in the Big Ten and is grabbing 7.1 boards per contest.
 
This will be the first-ever meeting between Hampton and Penn State.
 
This will be just the third time the Pirates have faced a current Big Ten school since Hampton moved up to the Div. I level in 1995. The Pirates, who have never faced Penn State, fell 77-61 at Michigan on Dec. 21, 1998 and lost 70-62 at Ohio State on Dec. 30, 2002.
 
During Edward Joyner Jr.'s career as a head coach, Hampton is 28-40 overall in true road games away from the Convocation Center after beating Saint Peter's 64-59 on Nov. 12, falling 71-68 at Quinnipiac on Nov. 20, falling 81-67 at Missouri State on Nov. 24, falling 69-40 at Virginia on Nov. 26, falling 69-67 at Northern Kentucky on Dec. 18, falling 74-61 at North Carolina Central on Jan. 7, defeating Delaware State 73-60 on Jan. 11, beating Savannah State 80-71 on Jan. 25, beating South Carolina State 67-56 on Jan. 27, beating Coppin State 79-76 in overtime on Feb. 1, falling 94-92 to Morgan State in double overtime on Feb. 3, beating Norfolk State 79-73 in overtime on Feb. 15, beating Howard 81-78 on Feb. 22, and beating UMES 104-89 on Feb. 24.
 
The Pirates are 8-6 on the road this season, including a 6-1 mark in conference play.
 
Learn more about this year's CBI by visiting www.cbi2014.com. Among the teams competing in this year's tournament, along with the Pirates, are Old Dominion, Tulane, Texas A&M, Wyoming, and Radford (which Hampton defeated 87-60 back on Jan. 4).
 
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.