Wednesday, December 19
Charlottesville, Va.
7:00 p.m.
Hampton University
65
at
79
Virginia
Simpson Scored Game High 22 points as Pirates fall 79-65 to Virginia
12.20.07 | Men's Basketball
Charlottesville, Va. – Sophomore guard Vincent Simpson scored a game-high 22 points as the Hampton University Pirates fell 79-65 to the University of Virginia on the road. With the loss, the Pirates dropped to 5-5 on the season while the Cavaliers of UVA improved to 8-2.
“Coming into this game, if you would have told me that Sean Singletary scores 12 points, they have 21 turnovers and we lose by 14, I would have said that was impossible,” said HU Head Coach Kevin Nickelberry.
In the first half, it seemed as if the Pirates had everything going their way. Hampton led most of the half and by as many as five points at one stage. The Pirates scored 20 points off the bench alone, but it was not enough for Hampton to maintain the lead at the break as Virginia went ahead 36-32 to end the first half.
The Pirates could not get things going in their favor in the second half of play as they only made 12-of-33 shots and shot a mere 53% (8-of-15) from the charity stripe.
“We had opportunities to score inside, but we missed layups and shots under the basket,” said Nickelberry. “They made their layups and it hurt us down the stretch.”
Hampton scored 28 points in the paint, 30 off the bench, and 27 off 21 Virginia turnovers on the night. Virginia would go up by as many as 15 points at one point in the second, but the Pirates battled back to get as close as eight points. Hampton went more than seven minutes in the second half without a field goal. The Cavaliers out-rebounded the Pirates 42-32 on the night.
“Our goal coming into the game was to not allow Singletary and Diane to score. We have been doing a good job this year of stopping the two guys we want to stop and keeping teams down and winning it,” said Nickelberry. “There was a run in the second half and I don’t know what happened. We were able to hold Diane scoreless and Singletary was able to score 12 points, but he also had seven turnovers.”
Simpson led the Pirates with 22 points, but Rashad West and Adrian Woodard would get into the action as they scored 13 and 10 points, respectively. West scored all 13 of his points in the second half to go along with four assists and four steals for Hampton. Virginia was guided by Adrian Joseph, who had a team-high 19 points with 12 of those coming in the first few minutes of the second half. Also helping out was Mike Scott, who dropped 15.
The Pirates head back home to prepare for the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. Hampton will travel to Baltimore, Md. on Saturday, December 21 for a 2:00 pm tip-off. For more information on the Pirates, go to www.hamptonpirates.com or contact the HU Office of Sports Information at 757-728-5811
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