(Hampton, Va.) – Saturday afternoon, the Delaware State women's basketball team (5-20, 2-10 MEAC) nearly erased a 19-point halftime deficit on the road to the five-time defending MEAC Tournament champion Hampton Pirates (14-11, 10-2 MEAC), but a season-high 38 turnovers were too much to overcome resulting in a 74-61 defeat.
With this loss, DSU dropped its fourth in a row, in addition to falling to HU for the 13th consecutive time.
To begin the game, HU ripped off 12 unanswered points before DSU's Tierra Hawkins connected down low for her squad's first bucket at the 15:17 mark. As the half progressed, HU's Malia Tate-DeFreitas (21.4 ppg), who was the MEAC's leading scorer coming in, drained a three to give the Pirates their largest lead of the opening stanza at that point, 27-11, forcing a DSU timeout with 9:24 left.
Limited to 35 percent (16-of-46) shooting in the first 20 minutes, Hampton took a 43-24 lead into the locker room, headlined by 18 points off 19 DSU turnovers. In addition to struggling to take care of the ball, the Lady Hornets were just 8-for-24 (.333) from the floor.
However, despite trailing by 18 with 11:08 to play, the Lady Hornets roared back with a 12-0 run, spearheaded by the frontline tandem of forward Amber Bogard registering eight of her career-high 24 points (8-of-12) and Hawkins tallying four points, including hitting a pair at the line to make it a 60-54 contest with 7:25 left.
Unfortunately, DSU's next two possessions resulted in back-to-back turnovers by Hawkins, whereas the Pirates capitalized on the other end both times to push their lead back to double digits. The rest of the way, Delaware State failed to recover, as Hampton held on for its fourth consecutive victory.
When the final buzzer sounded, Tate-DeFreitas finished with a game-high 25 points (10-of-23), while the Pirates shot just 34 percent (30-of-89). On the other end, Hampton collected 24 steals, including guard Kyani White finishing with a game-high six and Tate-DeFreitas coming away with five.
For Delaware State, Hawkins recorded her 11th double-double of the season, the most by any player in the MEAC, with 18 points (7-of-12) and 12 boards. Also on the glass, forward/center Nikkei Blackburn pulled down a career-high 19 rebounds, which is the seventh best in DSU single-game history.
Coming up, the Columbia Blue & Red will stay in Virginia to face Norfolk State on Monday (4 p.m.). Last season, NSU came away with a 57-48 road win over Delaware State in the two squad's lone matchup.
Stingers
Guard Jade Washington (foot), who returned to action after missing the last 10 games, moved into second all-time on DSU's assists list (283)… DSU pulled down a season-high 50 rebounds, which was the most since registering 51 against Wilmington on Nov. 12, 2011… Tierra Hawkins eclipsed the 1700-point (1715) and 800-rebound (803) career mark… Nikkei Blackburn's 19-rebound outing marked the fifth time she's reached double digits… The Lady Hornets were held to 46 percent (18-of-39) shooting.
