HARRISONBURG, VA (January 31, 2008)—The prospects of returning to the friendly confines of S. Douglas Fleet Gymnasium have probably never looked so good to the Hampden-Sydney Tigers.
Fueled by a dominating 51-27 second half, Eastern Mennonite (12-7, 6-4 ODAC) earned a season sweep of the Tigers with an 85-55 victory in front of 594 vocal fans at Yoder Arena in Harrisonburg.
Hampden-Sydney (9-11, 4-7 ODAC) dropped all three games on their road trip, and on a day when upsets were the story in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, the Tigers were unable to write their own version.
Eastern Mennonite needed a George Johnson three-pointer with 1:17 left to defeat Hampden-Sydney 70-69 at Fleet Gym back on January 3, but this game lacked all the nail-biting drama of its predecessor.
The Royals turned a tight game after 20 minutes into a second half rout with intense defensive pressure that forced 23 total turnovers and held Hampden-Sydney to 25 percent shooting in the second frame. Eastern Mennonite was no less merciful on the other end of the floor, shooting 52.5 percent for the game, 62.1 in the final stanza, and assisting on 19 of its 32 field goals.
Coming into the game, Eastern Mennonite was being out-rebounded by its opponents by over six boards-per-game. The Royals out-rebounded Hampden-Sydney 38-36.
The offensive struggles continued for the Tigers on Saturday night. Hampden-Sydney leading scorerTurner King (Roanoke, VA/Roanoke Catholic) scored nine points on 3-of-6 shooting in the first half as the Tigers played relatively even with the Royals, but was held without a point in the second half with just one shot attempt.
Meanwhile, Eastern Mennonite's second-leading scorer, D.J. Hinson, caught fire during the game-clinching run in the second half. After being held to just two points in the first half, the 6-foot-4 Hinson scored all 10 of his second half points during a 15-3 Royals' run that gave EMU a 64-39 lead with 9:33 remaining. Hinson finished with 12 points while blocking three shots.
The Tigers fell behind early, spotting the Royals a 10-2 lead four minutes into the game, but battled back with an 8-0 spurt over the next four minutes to knot the game at 10 on a Ben Jessee (Midlothian, VA/Cosby) three-pointer at the 12:04 mark of the first half. A King three-point play tied the game at 27 with 1:50 to play in the half, but the Royals closed the period on a 7-1 run to grab a 34-28 edge at the break.
Hampden-Sydney held Johnson, the Royals' scoring leader, in check for much of the contest, limiting the sharp-shooter to just nine points, but Eastern Mennonite utilized contributions from LeRoger Parrish (13 points), Todd Phillips (11) and Orie Pancione (10) to keep the Tigers guessing defensively.
Jessee led the Tigers with 12 points, knocking down 3-of-5 three-point attempts on the night. Shane Payne (Weston, FL/Sagemont) finished with nine points and a game-high eight rebounds for Hampden-Sydney, which shot just 4-of-17 as a team from beyond-the-arc.
Hampden-Sydney will return to the hardwood Wednesday, February 4 at 7:00 pm when it takes on Guilford College. All fans planning to be in attendance are encouraged to participate in the "White Out" by wearing white shirts to the game and also to bring $1 to purchase a raffle ticket for a chance to win one of ten great prizes and have a chance to shoot for $100 cash at halftime. All proceeds will benefit the Hampden-Sydney Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and their annual canned food drive. Drawings will begin at 6:30 pm.
