HAMPTON, Va. (Dec. 10, 2024) … It was a tale of two halves. For Coach Ivan Thomas and the Hampton Pirates (5-5), the first half was the worst of times and the second half was the best of times. After trailing Apprentice School (5-3) 42-35 at halftime, the Pirates regrouped and routed the Builders in the second half, outscoring Apprentice School 51-26 to take an 86-68 decision over the Newport News school.

Kyrese Mullen led the way for the Pirates with 22 points as 10 Pirates entered the scoring column. Daniel Johnson added 15 and Xzavier Long chipped in 10 for the winners. Daniel Banister equaled his career-high with four blocked shots and the Pirates outscored the Builders by 30 points in the 11 minutes Banister was in the game. Apprentice School was led by Adrion Wall who scored 30 points.

Hampton scored the game's first six points only to see the Apprentice School battle back. A Wall three-pointer gave the Builders their first lead of the game, 10-8, with 14:15 left in the half. The Pirates came back to lead 20-15 on a trey by George Beale with 10:02 left. But the Builders reeled off 11 straight points to lead 26-20 with 7:33 left. A 10-3 run by Apprentice School put the Builders ahead 42-25 at intermission.

The Builders made eight three-pointers in the first half led by Wall, who had 17 first-half points including four treys. Kelby Saunders Jr. chipped in nine points for Apprentice School hitting a trio of three-pointers. Apprentice School shot 48.5 percent from the field and made 8-of-14 three-point attempts.

Hampton shot 39 percent from the first in the first half with eight players scoring points for the Pirates. Beale had eight points at halftime while teammates Xzavier Long and Kyrese Mullen added seven points each. Mullen grabbed five boards.

But it was a different story in the second half. A 19-1 run to start the second half put the Pirates up 69-50 with 9:04 left. The lead grew to 24 on several occasions as the Pirates shot 56.3 percent from the field limiting the Builders to 27.3 percent shooting in the second stanza. After clicking on eight three-pointers in the opening half, Apprentice School made just two while shooting 27.3 percent from the field in the second half.

Mullen led the way for the Pirates with 22 points and eight boards while Noah Farrakhan (15) and Long (10) scored double figures.

It marked the first ever regular season meeting between Hampton and the Apprentice School. Two schools are just 6.9 miles apart.

The second game of Hampton's three-game homestand is set for Dec. 18 when the Pirates host Regent at the Hampton Convocation Center.