HAMPTON, Va. (Jan. 30, 2025) … Northeastern (12-10. 4-5) scored the game's first eight points and withstood a furious late rally by the Pirates before posting a 78-69 victory over Hampton (10-12, 3-7) at the Hampton Convocation Center. Northeastern led by as many as 30 points midway through the second half before a frantic Pirate comeback closed the gap. Led by
George Beale Jr., who finished with a game-high 19 points, Hampton cut the margin to single digits by game's end.
"We didn't play with enough energy or effort tonight. We didn't showcase what we are capable of doing," Coach
Ivan Thomas said. "Northeastern played with a lot of fight and punched us in the nose early. We went away from our game plan and could not recover."
Tyler Rice came off the bench to score 11 points for the Pirates as the Pirate bench chipped in 48 of Hampton's 69 points. Hampton outscored the Huskies 44-34 in the final half. Four players scored in double digits for Northeastern including Harold Woods (16), LA Pratt (12), Rashad King (11), and JB Frankel (11). The Huskies shot 53.4 percent from the field in the game and had 21 of their 31 baskets inside the paint. Northeastern also converted 10-of-25 shots from three-point range.
After Northeastern's quick start, Hampton's Wayne Bristol stopped the streak with a basket. But the Huskies scored nine of the next 11 points to lead 17-4 with 14:41 to go. After falling behind by 17, the Pirates rallied to close the gap to 26-18 with 8:50 to go in the first half on a field goal by
Trevor Smith. But Hampton did not score a field goal for the next six minutes and fell behind by 23, 41-18, with 3:49 to go on a bucket by Frankel. The Pirates outscored the Huskies 7-3 in the final minute, making the halftime score 44-25.
The Huskies shot a torrid 58.1 percent from the field with 26 points in the paint and 16 points off Hampton's 10 first half turnovers. Woods and Frankel paced the Huskies scoring 11 points each in the first half. Hampton bench accounted for most of the offense scoring 21 of the team's 25 points led by Beale Jr. who had 10 points.
The second half started much the way the first half unfolded. Northeastern scored the first 10 points to lead 54-25 before Hampton's
Daniel Johnson's turnaround jumper with 16:50 to go stopped the streak.
Ryan Williams put the Huskies up by 30, 73-43, with a jumper with 4:17 left in the contest. But Hampton regrouped and outscored Northeastern 26-5 down the stretch to close to single digits. Hampton closed to within nine in the game's final minute, falling to the Huskies by a final score of 78-69.
"We showed a lot of fight at the end but we need to be a lot more consistent," Thomas said.
Hampton recognized three faculty members as honorary coaches at the game. Jamean Alexander, a member of the Sports Science and Wellness faculty, DeWayne Dixon, math professor, and Isi Ero-Johnson, also on the math faculty, participated in the team's pregame meal, were in the Hampton locker room for the pregame speech by Coach
Ivan Thomas, and were courtside for the singing of the alma mater following the game.
The Pirates embarked on a three-game road trip with stops in Washington, D.C. to take on Howard on Saturday in the final non-conference game of the season. Hampton then travels to New Jersey, and Massachusetts. The Pirates are scheduled for a rematch with Northeastern in Boston on Feb. 8 in Boston's Matthews Arena.
