(Hampton, Va.) – Monday night, the Delaware State women's basketball team (9-19, 6-9 MEAC) dethroned the five-time defending Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) regular season champion Hampton Pirates (13-15, 11-5 MEAC) for the first time since Feb. 9, 2008 (58-36), 89-81, behind four players scoring at least 18 points and two Lady Hornets recording double-doubles.

This victory for DSU not only snapped a 15-game slide to the Pirates, but it was its first win at Hampton since pulling off a 53-51 triumph on Feb. 28, 2005.

“We just really wanted to focus on running our offense and containing them on defense, which was something we didn't do the first time around,” said head coach Barbara Burgess of her team's victory to avenge a 63-54 home loss to Hampton last Monday.  “This win did wonders for our confidence going forward because we were struggling lately against some pretty beatable teams.”

With the exception of the final period, DSU outscored the Pirates in every quarter, highlighted by a 25-point effort in the second.  During this span, the Lady Hornets held HU to just four points in the final 5:14.  As a result, DSU led by as many as 13 to take a 46-34 advantage into the locker room, while guard N'Kayah Kersey scored nine of her game's19 points (3-of-6) , in addition to draining six of her team's 11 free throws during the quarter. 

“At the beginning of the game, I told the team that we needed to get this for Coach Burgess,” said Kersey, who matched a career-high in points (19).  “I'm just so proud of our team effort to finally get the monkey off our backs.”

Forward/center Nikkei Blackburn also had a big second period, totaling seven points of her career-high 19 points (5-of-10), to go along with pulling down six of her career-high 20 boards.  Ironically, Blackburn's previous career-high in rebounds (19) came at Hampton last season in DSU's 74-61 loss.

“I really don't know what it is about playing against Hampton,” said Blackburn laughing, who was averaging 9.6 rebounds over her last eight games coming in.  “Tonight, I was just ready to rebound and I knew that we had to win the boards and that's what gets me going on both ends of the floor.”

After intermission, Delaware State continued its strong play in the third quarter with a 50 percent (8-of-15) output from the floor, which resulted in its largest lead of the night (66-48).  However, the Lady Hornets suffered a huge blow with leading scorer (12.3 ppg) and the MEAC's best free throw shooter (.841), Mikah Aldridge, fouling out with 19 points (6-of-12) at the 1:36 mark.

As expected, the Pirates did not go away quietly. 

To begin the fourth quarter, HU ripped off eight unanswered points, capped off by MEAC leading scorer Malia Tate-DeFreitas (20.6 ppg) draining one of her game-high six 3-pointers with 7:27 remaining.  After DSU pushed its lead back to double-digits (77-65) with a Blackburn layup at the 5:01 mark, the Pirates responded with a 10-3 run to make it a five-point contest (80-75) with 1:58 to play. 

“I knew the pressing was coming,” said Burgess.  “I knew the trapping was coming and we needed to take care of the ball, but we were able to weather the storm to get the win.”

The rest of the way, it turned to be a free throw shooting contest with only two field goals being made down the stretch.  For DSU, freshman Ivana Negron swished a huge pair at the line to make it a six-point game (85-79) ball game with 24 seconds left, after going 1-for-3 (.333) earlier in the quarter.  Six seconds later, the Lady Hornets caught a break with Hampton head coach David Six getting tossed after picking up his second technical foul.  Thankfully, Kersey swished another pair at the charity stripe to pretty much put the game out of reach.

The Lady Hornets finished the evening with season-highs in points (89), along with free throws made and attempted (33-for-44).  On the glass, the Lady Hornets pulled down 54 boards, thanks to the dominating efforts by Blackburn (20) and forward NaJai Pollard (14).

“Our mindset today was to just go hard and play all four quarters,” said Pollard, who finished with 18 points (7-of-13) to record her team-leading seventh double-double of the season.  “Me personally, I just wanted to keep pushing my team because we all wanted to win for Coach Burgess.”

The Pirates, meanwhile, scored a whopping 33 points off 27 DSU turnovers, whereas Tate-DeFreitas poured in a game-high 35 points (11-of-19), but only went 7-for-12 (.583) from free throw line.  Guard K'lynn Willis, who torched the Lady Hornets last week for 22 points (6-of-17), was held to nine points on a dismal 2-for-13 (.154) effort from the floor before fouling out.  

“We knew that we needed to contain Malia and K'lynn as best as possible,” added Burgess, who spent the previous six seasons as an assistant at HU under Six. “We started off in a zone and then we ended going to a triangle-and-two for the remainder of the second half. We were able to contain them from scoring, while we were able to generate some offense.” 

Coming up, the Columbia Blue & Red will return home to face Coppin State this Thursday night (5:30 p.m.), in what will be the regular season finale for both teams.  On Feb. 15, the Eagles handed Delaware State an 84-79 road loss to secure their sixth consecutive victory over the Lady Hornets.

Stingers

DSU's 54 rebounds marked the second time it has tallied 50 or more boards this season… Nikkei Blackburn's 20 rebounds were the fourth most in DSU single-game history… Guard Aaliyah Davis dished out a team-high five assists… Blackburn also drained a career-best nine free throws… Both teams totaled 26 points in the paint, while DSU had 15 second-chance points to HU's six… Delaware State now has matched its highest MEAC win total since 2012-13… Monday's contest marked the first time two Lady Hornets have notched double-doubles in the same game since Amber Bogard (17 points – 10 rebounds) and Tierra Hawkins (22 points – 10 rebounds) did it last season against Binghamton… Monday's victory also snapped a four-game road slide… DSU is now 13-35 all-time against Hampton.