DOVER, DE - Hampden-Sydney Basketball trailed by one at the half but pulled away late in the second half to defeat Wesley College 83-75 in Dover, DE, for a non-conference victory Tuesday night.
With the game tied 6-6 three minutes in, Harrison George (Raleigh, NC / Leesville) scored nine points in a 12-2 Tigers run to take an 18-8 lead at 15:05. Wesley's Jacquard Hagan drained a three on their next possession, and David Lagan followed with a layup to cut the deficit to five. H-SC scored the next six points, capped off by a Khobi Williamson (Norfolk, VA / Maury) dunk, to give Hampden-Sydney a 24-13 lead at the 12:23 mark.
With the Tigers still maintaining an 11-point lead with half the first stanza completed, Wesley gradually began to chip away at the lead over the next four minutes as they scored the games next 10 points to make it just a 29-28 Tigers lead with 4:34 left in the half.
Alex Potapov (Moscow, Russia / Florida Air) ended the scoreless drought with a jumper on the next possession, and Kodie Critzer(Charlottesville, VA / St. Anne's-Belfield) hit a three-pointer to give H-SC a six-point cushion. JJ Bryant replied with his own trifecta, and a Devon Davidson layup cut the lead back down to one, 34-33, with 2:12 to go. Potapov converted on another jump shot, but two Bryant free throws and a Paul Reynolds jump shot at the buzzer gave Wesley their first and only lead of the half, 37-36.
The second-half proved to be a back-and-forth contest for a large portion of the 20 minutes with neither team leading by more than three points over the first six minutes. The Tigers began to gradually create some separation starting in the 13th minute as a trio of three-point shots helped key a 12-2 run that put the Tigers up 60-51 at the 11:51 mark. However, Wesley battled back and cut their deficit down to just 64-62 at 6:58. Critzer splashed in another three pointer and delivered a post feed to George for a layup to take back a seven-point advantage with 4:45 to go. The Tigers maintained the healthy margin the rest of the game and would go on to lead by as many as 12.
George scored a team-high 24 points in 24 minutes, making all 10 of his two-point attempts while going 1-4 from three range with six rebounds, three assists, and two steals. Williamson posted a double-double with 10 points and a game and season-high 12 rebounds. Greg Lewis(Mechanicsville, VA / Hanover) contributed nine points and six assists. Cam Anderson (Charlottesville, VA / Blue Ridge) added 13 points, eight rebounds, and two blocks while shooting 4-6 overall and 4-5 from the free throw line.
Paul Reynolds scored a game-high 25 points for Wesley and filled the stat sheet with seven rebounds, four assists, and four steals. Quincy Pettiford posted 17 points while Bryant and Hagan each tacked on 11 points.
Each team shot 53% from the floor with H-SC going 7-19 (36.8%) from three while Wesley was 4-13 (30.8%) from deep range. The Tigers outrebounded Wesley 35-29. The bench came up big once again for the Tigers, contributing 33 points compared to just 16 for Wesley.
Hampden-Sydney returns home to play Methodist University on Friday at 7 pm.