A Russell Dean floater with 1.3 seconds left gave visiting Hampton a two-game sweep of its opening Big South Conference series with a 70-68 win at Charleston Southern on Tuesday night.
“It was a definite gut check for us tonight to get a pair of wins on the road,” said Hampton head coach Edward “Buck” Joyner, Jr. “This is a great league with strong teams and to get a pair of wins on the road should give us confidence in snapping that losing streak and heading into a tough Gardner-Webb squad.”
Hampton carried over its defensive pressure from the second half of Monday’s 67-55 win by holding the hosts Buccaneers to 24.1% from the field (7-of-29) and racing to a 34-18 halftime lead on a Dean jumper with 34 seconds left in the half.
The lead grew to 20 points early in the second half on a 3-ball by Chris Shelton with 17 minutes left for a 41-21 lead. Charleston Southern caught its second wind and chipped away to take an eventual 59-58 lead off a Melvin Edwards, Jr. layup with 4:13 left.
Both teams traded buckets as Davion Warren hit a jumper and Phlandrous Flemming, Jr. drained a 3-ball for CSU to put them up 62-61 with 3:31 remaining. Hampton regained the lead on a pair of Warren free throws, along with one from Dean and a 3-ball from Shelton for a 66-62 advantage at the 2:23 mark.
A pair of Fleming buckets tied the game at 68 with 26 seconds left before Dean’s floater in the lane with 1.3 seconds remaining.
Warren smashed his career high with 29 points, going a career best 11-of-12 from the line and adding eight rebounds. Dean also set a career-highs of 19 points and nine rebounds with five assists. Chris Shelton added nine points on 3-of-6 from behind the arc and Dajour Dickens chipped in with eight points and eight rebounds.
Hampton returns home on December 30 to face Gardner-Webb in a two-game set starting at 2pm.
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