Rock Hill, S.C.— Winthrop men's basketball suffered an 87-81 loss to Hampton, Saturday afternoon at the Winthrop Coliseum.
 
WINTHROP (19-10, 13-3 BIG SOUTH)
SCORING LEADERS

• D.J. Burns Jr. (19 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block, 2 steals)
• Hunter Hale (18 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals)
• Josh Ferguson (9 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block)

 
HAMPTON (13-15, 8-7 BIG SOUTH)
SCORING LEADERS

• Jermaine Marrow (23 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal)
• Ben Stanley (31 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block)
• Davion Warren (18 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block, 2 steals)

 
FIRST HALF

• D.J. Burns Jr. scored the first six points for the Eagles, who had the early 6-2 lead just over two minutes into the game
• A Kyle Zunic three with 13:48 left had the Eagles in front 17-13
• Hampton outscored the Eagles 9-2 as it jumped ahead 22-19 with 10:42 remaining after a tough basket from Ben Stanley
• Eagles led 24-22 after a Charles Falden three with 9:09 to play, but Hampton went on a run to open up a double-figure lead
• The run started with two free throws from Jermaine Marrow and then he buried a three for a 27-24 advantage with 8:18 left
• The two buckets by Marrow sparked a 12-0 run that put Hampton up 34-24 with 4:25 left in the half, forcing the Eagles to call timeout
• Winthrop trimmed the deficit to seven points with 2:37 remaining on a three from Chandler Vaudrin off the inbound pass from the baseline
• Hampton scored the final seven points of the half to lead 43-29 at the break
• The Pirates shot 53 percent in the first half while the Eagles shot just 36 percent

 
SECOND HALF

• Hampton opened up the second half with two free throws from Stanley to increase the lead to 16 in the early going
• Eagles answered with a Burns Jr. jumper on a second chance opportunity but Hampton pushed the lead back to 15 immediately with a jumper from Stanley
• Winthrop reeled off five straight points to make it a 10 point game as Hunter Hale knocked down a three and then scored off the drive
• Eagles tried to chip away at the deficit but Hampton continued to shoot the ball well and fend off any run by the Eagles until just under six minutes to play
• Trailing 75-62 the Eagles began closing the game with two free throws from Vaudrin and then free throws from Jones Jr. got it to single-digits
• With 4:21 left Burns Jr. blocked Russell Dean's shot and scored on the other end to get the Hampton lead down to 75-68
• After forcing a turnover, Micheal Anumba pulled the Eagles within five as he drove and scored with 3:39 to play
• Winthrop made it a single-possession game with 3:03 left as Josh Ferguson was fouled on a defensive rebound
• Ferguson converted the two free throws and Hampton's lead was 75-72 as the free throws completed a 10-0 run
• Hampton pushed the lead back to seven points after Stanley made two jumpers, forcing a Winthrop timeout
• Three free throws with 1:32 left by Hale made it a single-possession game again
• Eagles got the stop they needed and called timeout to set up a play to either tie or pull within a point
• Hale got a look from three, but missed as Vaudrin scrambled for the miss and 13 seconds later had a look from three but it didn't fall and Eagles were forced to foul
• Hampton went 6-for-6 at the foul line to hold off the Eagles over the final 28 seconds

 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Winthrop finished the game shooting 42 percent while Hampton hit 54 percent from the field
• Hampton won the battle of the boards 38-33 and outscored the Eagles 36-30 inside the paint
• The Pirates were 22-for-28 at the foul line while the Eagles were 16-for-23
• Falden led the Eagles bench with nine of the team's 24 bench points

 
NOTABLES

• Winthrop falls to 6-2 at home in league play and 10-4 on the year
• Eagles now have 271 threes on the year, seventh most in program history and seventh team to reach 270 in a season
• Ferguson finished with six rebounds in the game as he surpasses 700 in his career, becoming the 3^rd Winthrop player to do so and the 36^th player in league history
• With two regular season league games remaining the Eagles still have a chance to match the program record for league wins (15)

 
UP NEXT
Winthrop has its final road test of the regular season on Thursday, Feb. 27 when I travels to Spartanburg, S.C. to take on USC Upstate at 6 p.m.