HAMPTON, Va. (Jan. 22, 2026) … In a game that literally went down to the wire, Hampton (10-10, 4-3) topped Monmouth (9-11, 3-4) 65-63 to extend Hampton's home court winning streak to a league best 11 games.

There were two ties and three lead changes in the final 5:00 before Hampton's Jalyke Gaines-Wyatt broke a 62-62 tie with a pair of free throws with :30 left. A free throw by Monmouth and one by Hampton made it 65-63 with :09 left. A Monmouth shot rattled off the rim but the Hawks retained possession with :01 second left when the ball went out of bounds. The Monmouth throw in was intercepted by the Pirates as the final horn sounded.

Gaines-Wyatt led the Pirates with 16 points including 9-of-10 from the free throw line and Aidan Haskins scored 12 points on four three-pointers off the bench. 

"The crowd brought a lot of energy and created a great atmosphere for us," Coach Ivan Thomas said. "There's a lot of fight in this team. We ramped up our defense and fought to the very last second. Early in the season we lost some close games but we are learning how to finish."

Going into the game, it looked like the two teams were evenly matched. Both sported identical overall and conference records, both averaged 71.3 points per game and shot 42 percent from the field. Hampton was picked to finish fifth in the 13-team Coastal Athletic Association while Monmouth was tabbed for sixth place by the league's coaches.

Trailing 47-43 midway through the second half, The Pirates turned up the defensive heat and battled back to take a 54-49 lead. The Pirates converted 6-of-7 free throws in the final 2:07 to thwart Monmouth's hope for a comeback.

Hampton had struggled with slows starts this season putting them in an early hole. But against Monmouth, the two teams battled on even terms for the first few minutes before Hampton reeled off 15 straight points to go ahead 17-5 with 12:51 left following back-to-back lay-ups by Josh Ogundele.

Then it was Monmouth's turn. The Hawks closed to 25-23 on an 18-8 run before three-pointers by Hampton's Etienne Strothers and Aidan Haskins gave the Pirates a little breathing room 31-23 with 4:05 to go.

Monmouth scored seven of the final 10 points of the half to close to 34-30 at intermission. After a back-and-forth first half, the stats were surprisingly similar. Both teams had 12 field goals with five three-pointers. Hampton had a 3-to-1 edge in free throws. Hampton shot 44.4 percent from the field in the first half while the Hawks shot 42.9 percent. Each team suffered eight turnovers and Hampton outrebounded the Hawks 17-15.

Monmouth took its first lead since early in the contest on a long three-pointer by Andrew Ball to put the Hawks ahead 42-41 with 13:48 left. The basket spurred an 8-2 run by Monmouth to take a 47-43 lead. But the Monmouth lead didn't last long. An 11-2 run spurred by five points from Gaines-Wyatt and a three by Haskins put the Pirates ahead 54-49.

Jack Collins put the Hawks back on top 57-56 with a lay-up with 3:39 left. Xzavier Long tied the game with a free throw before an old fashioned three-pointer by Monmouth's Jason Rivera-Torres gave the Hawks a 60-57 advantage. Long cut the deficit with two free throws with 2:05 left and goal tending call gave Gaines-Wyatt the go-ahead basket and his free throw made it 62-60 at 1:22.

A Monmouth basket knotted the score before Gaines-Wyatt went back to the line and swished two free throws to break the tie and put the Pirates up by two, 64-62, with :30 to go. Fouled with :10 seconds left Monmouth's Cornelius Robinson missed the first and before hitting the second free throw making it 64-63 Hampton. Fouled, Daniel Johnson missed the first free throw before making the second put Hampton up by two. Monmouth had the final possession but was not able to get off a good shot but retained possession after the ball went out of bounds. An inbounds pass under the basket with .01 seconds left was intercepted by the Pirates ending the contest.

The Pirates complete a three-game homestand by hosting UNCW on Saturday, Jan. 24 at noon. The game was originally scheduled for 2:30 pm but moved up due to the impending snowstorm expected to blanket region over the weekend.