HAMPTON, Va. — Junior Jermaine Marrow paced five starters in double figures with 20 points as Hampton rallied from a 11-point second half deficit to defeat Charleston Southern 73-67 in the second round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament Tuesday night.
With the win, Hampton (17-16) advances to face New Jersey Inst. Of Technology (22-12) on Thursday night in Newark, N.J. at 7 pm.
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After trailing 35-29 at the half, Hampton saw the Buccaneers jump out to an 11-point advantage on a layup by Duncan Alexander to lead 40-29 with 18:24 left. The Pirates scored the next six points as free throws by Kalin Fisher and Marrow proceeded a Fisher layup with 16:59 remaining as the hosts trailed 40-35.
Once again, a run of six points hit this time by Charleston Southern as a Philandrous Fleming layup with 15:13 showing on the clock put the guests back up 46-35.
Hampton trailed 62-53 with just under six minutes left but responded with a 12-2 run to take its first lead of the second half at 65-64 on a Greg Heckstall 3-ball with 2:31 left. A pair of Travis McConico free throws put Charleston Southern (18-16) back ahead 66-65 with 1:52 remaining, but a pair of Fisher free throws gave the Pirates a 67-66 advantage with 29 seconds left.
The Pirates started the game strong hitting 8 of their first 13 shots, but in their final 22 possessions of the opening half they were 3-of-14 with eight turnovers as they trailed 35-29. While they were 10-of-31 from the floor in the second half, Hampton was 22-of-23 from the foul line to help ice the win.
Fisher was next in line with 14 points, eight rebounds and four assists for Hampton. Akim Mitchell (13 points, six rebounds) and Trevond Barnes (13 points, 13 rebounds) followed with Heckstall adding 12 points, seven boards and four assists.
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