Hampton Lady Pirates Beat Rhode Island in OT, Win FIT Tourney

MIAMI, Florida – It took an extra five minutes, but the Hampton University women's basketball team defended its FIU post-Christmas tournament crown on Tuesday, defeating Rhode Island 59-54 at the FIU Arena in the FIU Surfing Santa Classic title game.

The Lady Pirates (3-9) have won back-to-back games for the first time this season.

Junior guard Malia Tate-DeFreitas dropped a season-high 33 points to lead the Lady Pirates, going 10-for-33 from the floor and making five 3-pointers. She was also a perfect 8-for-8 from the free throw line, on top of grabbing six rebounds and registering two steals.

Senior guard Ryan Jordan added a season-high 14 points on 5-for-11 shooting. Sophomore forward Kaylah Lupoe tied her career high with 13 rebounds.

Tate-DeFreitas was named Tournament MVP for the second straight year, while Jordan was named to the All-Tournament Team.

Hampton struggled from the floor, shooting just 27.4 percent (20-for-73) from the floor for the game. The Lady Pirates made eight of their 24 3-pointers (33.3 percent), and they were a season-best 11-for-12 (91.7 percent) from the free throw line.

The Lady Pirates out-rebounded Rhode Island 44-38 and scored 16 points off of 22 Ram turnovers.

Symone Bullard sank a layup with 44 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 50-50, and the Lady Pirates had two looks in the final second – one from Tate-DeFreitas and the other from Lupoe. But both shots were off the mark, sending Hampton into its second overtime game of the season.

The Rams scored the first four points of the overtime, including a trey from Charlise Wilson, to take a 54-50 lead. But that was Rhode Island's only field goal of overtime, and the Lady Pirates scored the last nine points of the game.

Tate-DeFreitas scored seven of those points, including four free throws in the final 20 seconds to ice the game.

Lupoe's stickback layup with 59 seconds left gave Hampton its first lead of the extra session.

Rhode Island opened up an 11-3 lead in the first quarter after a 3-pointer from Kallie Banker, and Morgan Johnson hit a trey at the 2:44 mark to give the Rams a 16-5 lead. A layup from Samantha Tabakman at the 1:39 mark put Rhode Island up 18-7.

The Rams led 20-9 after the first quarter, but the Lady Pirates scored the first five points of the second quarter to cut the lead to 20-14 after two free throws from Tate-DeFreitas. Rhode Island built the lead back up to 24-14, before Hampton went on an 11-1 run to tie the game at 25-25 after a fastbreak layup from Tate-DeFreitas.

The Rams closed the half on a 7-0 run to take a 32-25 lead at the break.

Tate-DeFreitas had 15 points at the half.

Hampton held Rhode Island to nine points in both the third and fourth quarters, and the Lady Pirates opened the third quarter with an 8-2 run – cutting the lead to 34-33 at the 4:26 mark with a jumper from Tate-DeFreitas.

Hampton's first lead came with 2:54 left in the third quarter, when redshirt-junior forward Shaleise Boyd converted a putback to give the Lady Pirates a 37-36 lead.

A jumper from Jordan at the 2:10 mark put Hampton up 39-38.

Kiara Palmer converted a 3-point play with 1:01 left in the quarter to give Rhode Island a 41-39 lead, but that was the Rams' last field goal until the 3:44 mark of the fourth quarter. An 8-3 Hampton run ensued in the interim, giving the Lady Pirates a 47-44 lead with 4:08 left in regulation following a Jordan jumper.

A 6-3 Rhode Island run closed the fourth quarter and forced overtime.

The Rams (6-6) shot 36.7 percent (18-for-49) from the floor, despite making just seven field goals in the second half and only one in the overtime session. Rhode Island went 5-for-14 (35.7 percent) from behind the arc and made just 13 of 19 free throws (68.4 percent).

Wilson and Tabakman each had 14 points for the Rams.

The Lady Pirates will be in DeLand, Fla. on Friday to take on Stetson at 2:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN3. For more information on Hampton University basketball, please call the Office of Sports Information at (757) 727-5811, or visit the officialwww.hamptonpirates.com.
Pirates website at

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TSU Lady Tigers Face Youngstown State on Wednesday

TENNESSEE STATE (5-7) vs. YOUNGSTOWN STATE (9-2)
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 30 | 6:00 P.M. CT | YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO | BEEGHLY CENTER

GAME NOTES: TENNESSEE STATE
VIDEO: ESPN3
LIVE STATS: YSUSPORTS.COM

GAMEDAY
The Tennessee State University women’s basketball team will continue its road swing and play in the final non-conference game of the season on Wednesday, Dec. 30 at Youngstown State. Game time is set for 6:00 p.m. CT in Beeghly Center. The match-up will be TSU’s second game in three days.

THE LADY TIGERS AT A GLANCE
Tennessee State has dropped three consecutive games and lost four of its last five. The Lady Tigers are most recently coming off an, 81-39, loss to No. 7 Kentucky on Monday.

Juniors I’mani Davis (13.2 ppg) and Jayda Johnson (13.1 ppg) lead TSU in scoring while senior Brianna Lawrence (10.1 ppg) rounds out the top three scorers. These three upperclassmen also lead the Lady Tigers in rebounding.

As a team, TSU is averaging 60.7 points per game and shooting 34.0 percent from the field, including 28.0 percent from beyond the arc and 67.6 percent from the free-throw line.

The Lady Tigers are led by fourth year head coach and Hall of Famer, Larry Joe Inman.

LAST TIME OUT
Tennessee State fell to No. 7 Kentucky, 81-39, Monday night in Memorial Coliseum. The non-conference match-up against the SEC opponent was the team’s first action after a week off. Jayda Johnson was the only Lady Tiger able to reach double-digits with a team-high 19 points while I’mani Davis just missed a double-double with nine points and nine rebounds. TSU committed 24 turnovers and only shot 26.7 percent from the field in the contest.

ABOUT YOUNGSTOWN STATE
Youngstown State (9-2) had won three-straight before falling to Akron on the road, 74-49, in the last outing. Sarah Cash (15) and Alison Smolinski (10) led the team in scoring in the loss.

The Horizon League members are led in scoring and rebounding by Cash with 12.9 points and 7.0 rebounds per outing. Nikki Arbanas’ 11.6 points per game.

As a team, Youngstown State is averaging 67.6 points per game while shooting 40.2 percent from the field and 34.3 percent from three-point range.

SERIES INFORMATION
TSU will match up with Youngstown State for the fourth time with YSU leading the series 3-0. In the last meeting, the Penguins defeated the Lady Tigers, 73-66 in the inaugural Teresa Phillips Thanksgiving Classic (11/30/14).

COVERAGE
Updates on the game will be available throughout the game on the official twitter page via @TSU_Tigers. Links for live stats and live video will also be available on tsutigers.com under the schedule.

UP NEXT
The Lady Tigers will begin Ohio Valley Conference against Southeast Missouri on Saturday, January 2 on the road. Game time is set for 2 p.m. in the Show Me Center. TSU will meet SEMO for the 46th time with the Redhawks holding a 24-21 advantage. The Lady Tigers claimed the only match-up last season, 62-55 in the Gentry Center. TSU has won the last three meetings.

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Mizzou Hoops Puts Clamps on Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Wins 78-25

COLUMBIA, Missouri - Mizzou Men's Basketball (6-6) earned a 53-point victory over Arkansas Pine-Bluff (2-12) Tuesday, 78-25, its largest margin of victory since Dec. 18, 2010 when the Tigers defeated Central Arkansas by the same margin. The 25 points given up is the lowest total Mizzou has allowed since Jan. 3 1947, when Mizzou beat Iowa State, 36-25.

Freshman forward Kevin Puryear (Blue Springs, Mo.) led all scorers with 13 points, while matching his season-high rebound total with eight. Junior guard Wes Clark (Detroit, Mich.) also scored in double figures, posting 11 points, all in the first half. Sophomore forward Jakeenan Gant (Springfield, Ga.) recorded career-highs in rebounds and blocks, with 11 and four, respectively.



As a team, Mizzou posted season-highs in free-throw percentage, rebounds, blocks and steals. The Tigers connected on 18-of-22 shots from the free throw line and outrebounded the Golden Lions 56-30. Mizzou had seven players tally blocks for 11 total, while the Tigers also grabbed 12 steals.

The Tigers attacked the basket right from the start of the game, earning seven of its first 16 points from the free throw line. Gant made good on four early trips to the line. Later in the half, the Tigers scored 21 consecutive points, led by three three-pointers from Clark. Gant and senior forward Ryan Rosburg (Chesterfield, Mo.) each had thunderous dunks during the stretch. Rosburg's dunk came on a fast break which began after a block on the defensive end from freshman guard Terrence Phillips (Orange County, Calif.). Mizzou led 39-12 at halftime, its largest lead of the season at halftime.

An 18-1 run in the second half helped Mizzou increase its lead. Six different Tigers contributed during the run, led by six points from Puryear. Freshman forward Adam Wolf (Beaver Dam, Wis.) saw action for the second time this season in the second half, contributing six points on 3-of-4 shooting from the field, as well as three rebounds and two blocks.

Mizzou will wrap up nonconference play on Saturday, Jan. 2, against Savannah State. Tipoff from Mizzou Arena is slated for 2 p.m. and will be televised on SEC Network+.

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Baylor Cruises Past Texas Southern, 72-59

WACO, Texas -- Al Freeman scored 21 points and ignited a key run that finally put No. 23 Baylor in control on way to a 72-59 victory over Texas Southern on Tuesday.

The Bears (10-2), in their final game before opening Big 12 Conference play, led only 44-40 in the second half before Freeman made a layup and then hit a 3-pointer to start a 10-0 run. By time Johnathan Motley made a short jumper for his first points and Lester Medford made a 3, it was 54-40 with 11:11 left.

Rico Gathers had 11 points and 10 rebounds for his 30th career double-double for Baylor. Terry Maston had 14 points and Medford 12.

Malcolm Riley scored 18 for Texas Southern (1-11).

TSU was scheduled to host Hampton at home on Dec. 31st but the contest has been cancelled.

The Tigers will face the Southern Jaguars at home on Saturday, Jan. 2nd at the HPE Arena at 7:30 pm.

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TEXAS SOUTHERN POSTGAME QUOTES

Head Coach Mike Davis
On what positives he saw in the team…
“I liked our effort. We talked about giving great effort to get ready for our conference play. We hadn’t played the big name schools that we played last year, but Stephen F. Austin is really good. They won their conference last year. Central Michigan won their conference last year, so we replaced the mid major schools for the big names that we played last year. I’ll take this loss because we’ve been working so hard on the zone offense over Christmas break. We really haven’t worked on man offense lately, so when they went to that man defense it really changed our rhythm. We weren’t patient in our man offense the way we were in our zone offense. I want to see us play better while giving this much effort.”

On maintaining a good zone offense…
“We did a good job of preparing for the zone and being patient in our offense. When they went to the man defense it got us out of our rhythm. Then when they went back to the zone defense and we lost our rhythm against the zone because of what Coach Drew did by switching to man. It was a great game plan. We hadn’t worked on man offense in a while, so we didn’t get the ball moving from side to side like we wanted to. So, when he went back to the zone we still didn’t have any ball movement. However, I think we gave the best effort that we’ve given all year. We just ran out of gas. That’s no excuse, but because we had to play at such a high level, we ran out of gas. But, that’s the level that I want us to play at.”

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AAMU Bulldogs drop close one at Ball State

MUNCIE, Indiana -- During a six-minute stretch in the second half of Ball State’s basketball game Tuesday, star Alabama A&M player Ladarius Tabb had his way with the Cardinals’ defense.

Specifically Ball State wing Franko House. Tabb fired in 15 consecutive points for the Bulldogs in that span with House guarding him most of the time, lifting A&M to an eight-point lead.

The final salvo in that flurry was a 3-point basket with 4:31 to play. The Cardinals quickly called timeout and coach James Whitford showed his ire with House when the players reached the bench.

“He looked at me and said, ‘Coach, we’ve still got this, we’re good,’ ” Whitford said. “It was good to hear him say that. We just had to make sure it wouldn’t happen again, that was my point.

“But he answered the bell and we went to him every time down the stretch, and he scored or got fouled or had an assist.”

Video

House was a rock for the Cardinals (8-4) in the final four minutes, including a smothering defensive effort on Tabb on the final play of the game, as he sparked them to a 63-62 victory in Worthen Arena.

Predictably, Tabb got the ball on the left wing as the final seconds ticked down. He drove to the basket with House hounding him all the way. When double-team help arrived as Tabb neared the lane, all he could do was uncork a shot that hit the side of the basket, and House rebounded the ball as the buzzer sounded.

The field-goal attempt was Tabb’s only one in the final 4:31 of the game.

House said his goal on the play was to push Tabb off the 3-point line.

“I wanted to force him to drive into my guys (inside) who had my back,” he said. “I anticipated a drive to the baseline and I stayed in front of him pretty well.”

Tabb, the Bulldogs’ season scoring leader with a 23.4 average and the preseason Southwestern Athletic Conference player of the year, finished with 29 points, making 12 of 17 shot attempts.

House did damage on offense, too. He scored seven of his 15 points in the final 7:45, including 5-for-6 at the free-throw line in the final 4:05.

Ball State claimed the victory on a night when it had trouble shooting from the perimeter. Alabama A&M (4-5) played a 2-3 zone for most of the first 30 minutes of the game, and Ball State finished just 6-of-27 from the arc.

The Cardinals were 4-of-19 overall and 1-for-10 from the 3-point line in the second half when the Bulldogs abandoned the zone and went man-to-man with about 9 minutes remaining.

That move probably benefited Ball State as it scored 18 points in the final 8 minutes, 40 seconds.

“Maybe in some respects, yes, but I didn’t feel we were lacking with our shot attempts,” Whitford said. “I’m not saying all 27 were great, but enough of them were pretty good.”

The Cardinals simply didn’t hit shots. Their four best shooters from the arc – Jeremie Tyler, Francis Kiapway, Sean Sellers and Ryan Weber, who Whitford said were “four guys I’d put in the category of elite college shooters” – combined to make just 6-of-23.

“We had the right looks from the right guys, and we didn’t have a good shooting night,” Whitford said.

Added Sellers, “We shot poorly from the 3-point line, but for the most part we got good looks.”

Ball State hit only 40.4 percent overall from the floor and shot a season-low 22.2 percent from the 3-point line. Alabama A&M helped offset that by making just 4-of-13 free throws.

Bo Calhoun led the Cardinals with 16 points (7-of-10 shooting) and nine rebounds. House added 15 and eight. Weber and Kiapway scored 10 points each, and Naiel Smith tied his season high with six assists.

The Cardinals will play their final non-conference game at 2 p.m. Thursday against Chicago State in Worthen Arena. The Cougars are coached by former Ball State assistant Tracy Dildy.

The Bulldogs begin their SWAC schedule next weekend at Grambling State.

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TSU Tigers Take Tennessee to The Wire in 74-69 Loss

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee -- ayne Martin (Brooklyn, N.Y.) registered 19 points and nine rebounds, but the Tennessee State men's basketball team suffered a 74-69 road loss at Tennessee on Tuesday afternoon at Thompson-Boling Arena in the non-conference finale.

Playing in front of 13,214 fans, the Tigers (9-4) led for 28:19 of the game, but could not hold on as Tennessee (7-5) improved to 7-0 at home.

“I think our guys made a decision to compete, how we define what competing is,” second-year Tennessee State Head Coach Dana Ford said. “They really helped each other defensively and tried to give a valiant effort on the glass. I think our ability to stop them in the first half really kept us in the game.”

TSU held a 43-36 halftime edge and had a three-point lead at 66-63 with 3:26 to play before the Volunteers utilized a 9-0 run to take a six-point edge, 72-66, with just over a minute left. Martin converted a three-point play to put the score at 72-69 with 49.0 seconds left, but that was as close as TSU would get the rest of the way.

TSU forced Tennessee into four turnovers in the opening five minutes and held an 11-8 lead with six points coming from Martin.

Later in the half, Tennessee led by as many as four points before TSU was able to battle back. After a stop on the defensive end, Christian Griggs-Williams (Milwaukee, Wisc.) hit a layup to tie it up at 17-17, and a Marcus Roper (Walton Beach, Fla.) dunk off a steal led to a 19-17 lead with 10:37 left before the half.

Keron DeShields (Baltimore, Md.), who finished with 13 points and six assists, converted a layup as the first-half buzzer sounded to give the Tigers a 43-36 halftime advantage.

Tennessee shot 8-for-14 (57.1 percent) on three pointers in the first half, but TSU finished 17-for-31 (54.8 percent) from the field in the opening 20 minutes and forced UT into 10 turnovers.

The Tigers continued to lead for most of the second half and posted a six-point edge at 62-56 on a layup from Griggs-Williams with 7:10 showing on the clock.

The Volunteers swung the game back in their favor and eventually took the lead for good with their 9-0 run late in the contest.

For UT, Kevin Punter led all scorers with 23 points, while Armani Moore posted eight points, 14 rebounds, six assists and three blocks. On the other end, Roper continued his strong play with 10 points off the bench for TSU.

Up next, the Tigers take on Southeast Missouri on the road on Jan. 2 in the team’s Ohio Valley Conference opener.

GAME NOTES: Tennessee State concludes non-conference play with nine wins, which are the most since moving to the OVC prior to the 1987-88 season... TSU falls to 0-6 in the all-time series versus UT…. TSU is now 1-33 versus teams that currently make up the Southeastern Conference…. The Tigers used their fifth different starting lineup of the season with Demontez Loman, Wayne Martin, Darreon Reddick, Keron DeShields and Xavier Richards making up the starting five.

Tennessee State Head Coach Dana Ford

“There’s so much going on in that game, I just can’t put my finger on what it was right now. I have to go back and watch the tape and be able to evaluate it. I was glad to see our guys come back and compete a little bit harder than they did before Christmas break.”

- On what contributed to the defeat

“He’s coming along. He’s getting in better shape. Our whole plan was to get him ready by the time OVC gets here. I think he’s making progress. It will be good to have two guys down there that can score. On the other end, the defensive rebounding end he’s getting a little bit better; still has a little ways to go. He’s definitely someone we feel will be able to help us the next two months.”

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Albany State University Golden Rams Marching Band headed to Pasadena

The Band will march in the Tournament of Roses Parade on Jan. 1

ALBANY, Georgia — “Excited” was the word of the day as 122 members of the Albany State University Marching Band crowded onto two buses early Monday morning to begin their journey to Pasadena, Calif., and the Tournament of Roses Parade on Jan. 1.

The buses carried the band to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to catch two flights to Los Angeles International Airport.

“We’re all very excited,” Assistant Band Director David Decuir said. “I am actually looking forward to seeing a game in the Rose Bowl. I’ve seen it on TV but have never been there. I’m also looking forward to the opportunity to expose our band to America on national television.”

Jordan Lee, a trumpet player from Ellenwood, was also eager to get the journey started.

“I’m excited about performing at the Tournament of Roses Parade and getting the chance to visit California again,” Lee said. “The entire band is excited about representing Georgia and we are also the only HBCU (historically black college or university) in the parade.”

Prior to their departure for the Albany State campus, the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce distributed specially designed “Rams in the Roses” bags to band members. In October the Chamber Foundation presented a check for $25,000 to ASU in support of the “Rams in the Roses and Beyond” campaign.

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