MEAC Leader Hampton Defeats SC State Women 78-47

Dayshaun Richbow

Box Score ORANGEBURG, SC – Hampton's Malia Tate-DeFreitas tossed in 27 points and Alyssa Bennett added 17 to lead the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference-leading Lady Pirates to a 78-47 win over South Carolina State Monday.

Nicole Hamilton added 10 points and nine rebounds and Brielle Ward had a game-high 10 rebounds to go along with eight points for Hampton which improved to 16-4 and stayed perfect in the MEAC at 7-0. The win was the ninth in a row for the Lady Pirates.

SC State lost its third straight contest, all in league action, to dip to 5-12 and 3-4 in the MEAC. The host Lady Bulldogs, who had no player to reach double digits, were paced by DayShaun Richbow with nine points and Cherisha Floyd and reserve Lynasia Frazier with eight each.

Lady Bulldog leading scorer (18.3 ppg) Kourtney Williams had just six points before leaving the game with a late injury. Her injury-status was not available immediately after the game. Floyd had nine rebounds for SC State, which was beaten on the boards 45 to 31 by the visitors.

Hampton, the four-time defending MEAC tournament champion, and owner of an impressive worksheet that include wins over Virginia Tech, Southern Mississippi State, Kansas State, Santa Clara and Utah State, raced to a 35-22 lead at the half and was never threaten thereafter.

The Lady Pirates started the final half on a 21-10 spree to build a 24-point 56-22 lead with less than eight minutes remaining on a jumper by Tate-DeFreitas. The closest SC State came after that was 20 points twice, the last time at 61-41 with 5:28 to play.

"We knew Hampton would be a challenge," said SC State head coach Doug Robertson. "They are an extremely talented team and it would have taken a nearly perfect game for us to stay with them. The last seven minutes of the game, however, I thought we played much better against them although the score may not indicate it."

Hampton connected on 46.8 percent (29-62) of its shots from the field to just 31.6 percent (18-57) by the Lady Bulldogs.

SC State, which went 1-3 in its four-game home stand, hits the road for three contests, beginning with Saturday's MEAC doubleheader at Florida A&M. The journey continues Monday at Bethune-Cookman and concludes Feb. 8 at Delaware State.

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