Box Score HAMPTON, Va. (Feb. 26, 2026) … Charleston (20-10, 13-4) throttled Hampton (12-17, 6-10) 85-71 before an audience of 1,017 on Kid's Day at the Convocation Center. Charleston built and early lead and withstood a Pirate rally to win its 20thgame of the season. The loss was the fourth straight for the Pirates, who have been decimated by injuries.
"We had a hard time getting into the flow of the game," Coach Ivan Thomas said. "We have a couple of guys coming back from injuries and we didn't get into the rhythm in the first half. We battled and we fought and we were able to get back into the game but we didn't have our usual defensive intensity."
Charleston got off to a quick start and scored the game's first six points. The lead grew to 15, 27-12, midway through the first half as the Cougar defense held the Pirates to three field goals in the game's first 10 minutes. With Charleston controlling the boards, the Cougars lead grew to 35-17 with 4:44 to go forcing a Pirate timeout. A Hampton 7-1 run capped by Daniel Johnson's steal and coast-to-coast lay-up at the buzzer made the halftime score 42-30.
Charleston's Connor Hickman (12 points) and Martin Kalu (11) led the first half scoring parade. Xzavier Long led the Pirates with seven points and five rebounds. The Cougars shot 51.7 percent from the field and outrebounded the Pirates 22-10.
The Pirates closed to nine, 44-35, on a three-pointer by Josh Ogundele at the 18:30 mark. But a 17-6 Cougar run made it 61-41 with 14:23 to go. In the first seven minutes of the second half, Hampton shot a sizzling 70.0 percent from the field only to be outdone by the Cougars, who shot 72.7 percent.
The Pirates continued to chip away at the Cougar lead and scored 10 straight points to close to 76-68 with 3:17 to go. But Charleston responded by scoring four straight points and finished with an 85-71 win over the Pirates.
Long finished with 14 points and nine board while Daniel Johnson added 13 points and Josh Ogundele finished with 12, including the first two three-pointers of the season.
Hampton hosts Northeastern on Saturday, Feb. 28 at 7 pm when the Pirates celebrate Senior Day. Hampton's seven seniors will be playing their final home game at the Convocation Center They will be honored in pregame ceremonies. The seniors include Michael Eley, Elijah Kennedy, Xzavier Long, Peter Oduro, Josh Ogundele, Christian Watson and Kody Williams.
