MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Hampton team saw its run in the WNIT end on Tuesday night at the WVU Coliseum, as West Virginia came away with a 57-39 win in the second round.
The Lady Pirates ended the season at 19-13.
Sophomore guard Malia Tate-DeFreitas , the MEAC Player of the Year, led the Lady Pirates with 21 points and was the only Hampton player in double figures. Redshirt junior forward Brielle Ward grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.
Junior forward Tyler Hobgood came off the bench to grab seven rebounds.
The Lady Pirates struggled offensively for the third straight game, shooting 26.4 percent from the floor – including a 21.2 percent clip in the first half. Hampton went without a 3-pointer and was out-rebounded 40-37.
Much like the Lady Pirates’ first-round game at Drexel, the first half of Tuesday’s game saw offense come at a premium; after West Virginia scored the game’s first five points, Hampton went on an 8-2 run to take an 8-7 lead at the 12:54 mark on a layup from freshman forward Kaylah Lupoe
Hobgood gave the Lady Pirates a 13-11 lead with 7:53 left in the half with a jumper, but the Mountaineers closed out the half on an 11-2 run to take a 22-15 lead into the half. Hampton went the last 5:03 of the half without a field goal.
Tate-DeFreitas had seven points at the half to lead all scorers.
A 3-pointer from Bria Holmes gave the Mountaineers their first double-digit lead of the night, 27-17, with 17:59 left in the second half. A layup from Lupoe just over four minutes later cut West Virginia’s lead to 29-23, and Tate-DeFreitas cut the lead to 31-25 at the 12:44 mark with a jumper.
A 6-2 spurt from West Virginia gave the Mountaineers a 37-27 lead with 10:10 to play, thanks to a layup from Lanay Montgomery, and Averee Fields gave West Virginia a 40-30 lead with 6:37 remaining.
Tate-DeFreitas cut the lead to 40-32 with a pair of free throws with 6:09 remaining, before the Mountaineers went on a 10-3 run to take a 50-35 lead at the 2:16 mark after a trey from Linda Stepney.
Stepney added two free throws with 33 seconds left to reach the game’s final margin.
West Virginia (20-14) shot 40.4 percent from the floor, hit four 3-pointers, and outscored the Lady Pirates 22-16 in the paint. The Mountaineers, after shooting just 36 percent in the first half, shot 45.5 percent from the floor in the second half.
Fields led three Mountaineers in double figures with 16 points.
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