HU Pírates' Season Ends With Loss at Penn State

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pennsylvania -- The Hampton University men's basketball team made a battle of it for 40 minutes Wednesday night at the Bryce Jordan Center, but Penn State escaped with a 69-65 win in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational (CBI).

The Pirates finish the 2013-14 season with an 18-13 record.

Sophomore guard Brian Darden (Hampton, Va.) led the Pirates with a career-high 22 points, hitting four of his six 3-pointers and eight of 11 free throws. Sophomore guard Deron Powers (Williamsburg, Va.) added 19 points, going 8-for-12 from the floor.

The Pirates took their only lead of the night with 11:17 left in the second half, when sophomore guard Breon Key (Hampton, Va.) stuffed home a breakaway dunk off a Penn State miss to give the Pirates a 43-41 lead.

That basket capped off a 14-2 run for Hampton – a run that started after the Nittany Lions took a 39-29 lead with 16:19 left to play.

After Key's dunk, D.J. Newbill answered with a jumper to tie the game at 43-43, before a pair of Tim Frazier free throws put Penn State up 45-43 with 9:19 left.

The Nittany Lions ultimately went on a 10-2 run to take a 55-45 lead with 5:43 left after a pair of free throw from Geno Thorpe. But the Pirates hung tough, slowly chipping at the deficit until Powers drained a layup with 29 seconds left to cut the lead to 64-61.

Thorpe answered with two free throws, before Powers again hit a layup to cut the lead to 66-63 with 16 seconds left. Another Powers layup 10 seconds later cut Penn State's lead to 67-65.

But Thrope hit two free throws with four seconds left to clinch the game.

The Nittany Lions scored the first eight points of the game, before the Pirates went on an 8-2 run to cut the lead to 10-8 on a 3-pointer from Darden at the 14:07 mark. Penn State scored the next eight points, taking an 18-8 lead, before another Darden trey at the 12:10 mark stopped the run.

Penn State later led 21-11, before Darden scored six straight points – on three free throws and a trey – to cut the lead to 21-17, before senior guard Ramon Mercado (Hollywood, Fla.) added a trey of his own to cut the lead to 21-20 with 9:57 left in the half.

The game was a one-possession affair for the next roughly four minutes, before Penn State extended its lead to 30-21 at the 3:43 mark on a layup from John Johnson. Hampton scored the next four points, cutting the lead to 30-25 on a fastbreak layup from Powers.

But the Nittany Lions took a 33-25 lead into the half thanks to a 3-pointer from Graham Woodward.

Darden had 15 points at the break, hitting all four of his 3-pointers in the opening 20 minutes.

The Pirates shot 41.3 percent (19-for-46) from the floor and hit six of 14 3-pointers (42.9 percent).

Penn State (16-17) shot 40.5 percent (17-for-42) from the floor and held a 42-18 edge in rebounds.

Newbill led four Nittany Lions in double figures with 19 points.

For more information on Hampton University basketball, please call the Office of Sports Information at (757) 727-5811, or visit the official Pirates website at www.hamptonpirates.com.
Hampton also shot 72.4 percent (21-for-29) from the free throw line and committed just seven turnovers.

COURTESY HAMPTON UNIVERSITY PIRATES SPORTS INFORMATION