NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. – A Russell Dean floater with 1.3 seconds left gave visiting Hampton a two-game sweep of its opening Big South Conference series with a 70-68 win at Charleston Southern on Tuesday night.
“It was a definite gut check for us tonight to get a pair of wins on the road,” said Hampton head coach Edward “Buck” Joyner, Jr. “This is a great league with strong teams and to get a pair of wins on the road should give us confidence in snapping that losing streak and heading into a tough Gardner-Webb squad.”
Hampton carried over its defensive pressure from the second half of Monday’s 67-55 win by holding the host Buccaneers to 24.1% from the field (7-of-29) and racing to a 34-18 halftime lead on a Dean jumper with 34 seconds left in the half.
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The lead grew to 20 points early in the second half on a 3-ball by Chris Shelton with 17 minutes left for a 41-21 lead. Charleston Southern caught its second wind and chipped away to take an eventual 59-58 lead off a Melvin Edwards, Jr. layup with 4:13 left.
Both teams traded buckets as Davion Warren hit a jumper and Phlandrous Flemming, Jr. drained a 3-ball for CSU to put them up 62-61 with 3:31 remaining. Hampton regained the lead on a pair of Warren free throws, along with one from Dean and a 3-ball from Shelton for a 66-62 advantage at the 2:23 mark.
A pair of Fleming buckets tied the game at 68 with 26 seconds left before Dean’s floater in the lane with 1.3 seconds remaining.
Warren smashed his career-high with 29 points, going a career-best 11-of-12 from the line and adding eight rebounds. Dean also set a career-high of 19 points and nine rebounds with five assists. Chris Shelton added nine points on 3-of-6 from behind the arc and Dajour Dickens chipped in with eight points and eight rebounds.
Hampton returns home on December 30 to face Gardner-Webb in a two-game set starting at 2 pm.
Courtesy: Hampton Athletics
