Box Score
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Kwame Morgan scored a game-high 30 points and Darrion Pellum added 18 to lead second-seeded Hampton to an 85-61 win over No. 6 Norfolk State on Friday night in a MEAC Tournament semifinal at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Hampton (23-8) advances to Saturday's 2 p.m. championship game against No. 4 Morgan State. The Spartans' season ends at 12-20.
The Pirates, who led 37-33 at the half, held NSU without a field goal for a stretch of nine and a half minutes of the second half to pull away. That was a stark contrast to the first half. The Spartans came out hot, hitting eight of their first 14 shots, including a quartet of 3-pointers. The last of those, by reserve forward Marcos Tamares, gave the Spartans a 24-14 lead with 7:27 remaining in the half.
But NSU cooled off, and Hampton closed the half on a 12-2 run. A 3-pointer by Morgan 1:54 before halftime gave the Pirates a 33-31 lead, their first advantage since they led 7-6. Bakari Taylor hit a baseline jumper at the buzzer to cap the spurt and send the Pirates into the locker room with a 37-33 lead.
Rob Hampton and Kyle O'Quinn led NSU with 10 points apiece in the first half, with Tim Zephyr adding eight. Pellum led HU with 13 points and Morgan added 12 in the opening stanza.
The Pirates kept hitting from the outside after the intermission. Brandon Tunnell's trey gave Hampton its largest lead to that point, 44-35, with 16:28 left in the game. Zephyr brought NSU within seven at 48-41 with a jumper with 13:40 remaining. But that was the Spartans' last field goal until O'Quinn's layup along the baseline with 4:10 left. In between those field goals, Hampton outscored NSU 20-5, with the Spartans' only points coming from the free throw line as the Pirates' lead expanded to beyond 20 points.
Turnovers played a big part in this one, just as they did in Hampton's two regular-season wins over NSU. The Spartans committed 18 turnovers which led to 33 Pirate points. Hampton, however, committed just nine turnovers in winning its fourth straight game over NSU and eliminating the Spartans from the MEAC Tournament for the second year in a row. NSU dropped to 0-5 all-time against its archrival in MEAC Tournament history.
O'Quinn led NSU with 19 points, 17 rebounds and six blocked shots. He tallied double-doubles in all three tournament games, averaging 18 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks.
In their final games at NSU, Rob Hampton scored 15 points and Zephyr a season-high 10. NSU's other senior, Aleek Pauline, had a game-high nine assists. Junior Brandon Wheeless scored 11 off the bench.
