By Brandon Walker for Urban Media Today
Zennia Thomas led the Lady Bison with 11 points and 10 rebounds as Howard University Lady Bison earned a hard-fought 64-60 victory over the Hampton Lady Pirates in “The battle of real HU” at the CareFirst Arena on Saturday afternoon.
Howard (8-5) led 8-6 after the first media timeout in a first quarter that provided solid defense by both teams. The pace picked up towards the end of the quarter, with Howard leading 17-13 at the end of the first quarter.
As the first half progressed, Howard got its perimeter offense going with shooting Zoe Stewart and Destiny Bynum-Johnson. Hampton (6-4) started struggling from the floor as Howard began working its size advantage in the post, and Howard increased its lead to as much as 12 points. Howard, however, started committing turnovers to keep the Lady Pirates in the game. Howard implemented an interesting strategy, making a complete line substitution as the first half wound down, and went on a 10-3 run to send the half.
Howard led 39-26 at halftime.
Howard steadily increased its lead in the third quarter by playing a solid full-court press and a 1-2-2 in the half-court. Hampton, however, is still keeping itself in the game by forcing turnovers, cutting the lead to 7 at the end of the third quarter, 53-46.
Hampton continued its comeback to begin the fourth quarter as the defensive struggle continued, as neither team could get any offense going until Hampton’s Aaryn Battle hit a three-pointer to cut the lead to three. Thomas hit a jumper to put Howard back up by five with over a minute left to put the game effectively out of reach.
The key differences in the game were that Howard shot 42.1% while Hampton shot 31.3%, and the Lady Bison held a 26-12 points advantage in the paint and 10 second-chance points compared to only 2 for the Lady Pirates.
Battle led Hampton with 16 points, while Kierra Mcelrath and Kayla Lezama each added 12 for the Pirates.
Howard will go on the road to face Cincinnati on Tuesday evening, while Hampton will go back home to play Radford on Thursday evening.
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