HAMPTON, Va. (Feb. 29, 2024) … Hampton (8-22, 3-14) celebrated Senior Night in a big way with a 64-56 win over Monmouth (16-14, 9-8) in the final home game the season. Daniel Banister scored a career-high 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field. He hit a trio of three-pointers in the first half to put the Pirates ahead and made a key trey with 9:56 left in the contest to boost Hampton to a 12-point, 50-38 lead.

Although Hampton held the lead for 32:32 of the contest, there were some close calls along the way. After Hampton scored first to open the game before Monmouth reeled off eight straight points to lead 8-2. But a 16-0 run by the Pirates over the next 5:56, gave Hampton an 18-10 advantage, a lead it would never relinquish.

The Pirate lead grew to 24-12 with 7:24 to go as Banister scored 12 points in the opening half. An 8-0 Monmouth run closed the gap to 27-26 at intermission as Hampton made just one of its last 10 shots from the field. Hampton limited Monmouth to 25 percent shooting from the field in the opening stanza.  

Things heated up in the second half and Hampton tallied seven consecutive points on a trey by Ford Cooper, and baskets by Joshua Lusane and Jordan Nesbitt to take a 34-26 lead. The lead grew to 12 --- equaling Hampton's largest lead of the night --- on a three-pointer by Banister midway through the second half boosting the Pirates to a 50-38 advantage.

But the Hawks had a 7-2 run to cut the deficit to 52-45 with 5:06 left. A Jerry Deng three-pointer provided a cushion and Monmouth was unable to get any closer than six points in the game's final five minutes.

In addition to Banister's 18-point salvo, Deng chipped in 12 points and Tedrick Wilcox Jr. added 10 for the Pirates. Monmouth's Jack Collins led all scorers with 19 points. Xander Rice scored 16 and Cornelius Robinson Jr. Nakita Konstantynovskyi had 14 rebounds as the Hawks outrebounded the Pirates, 49-42. Hampton's tough inside defense resulted in 11 blocked shots and limited Monmouth to 27 percent shooting from the field.

Jordan Nesbit was honored prior to the game for reaching the 1,000-point plateau. He scored his 1,000trh point at Northeastern a week earlier.

The victory was the third in the last four outings for the Pirates. Monmouth is just 1-13 on the road this season with the lone win against West Virginia.