HU Women’s Basketball Falls to Monmouth in CAA Second Round

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a tale of two runs, the last one proved decisive in Thursday’s Coastal Athletic Association Women’s Basketball Second Round contest.

Fifth-seeded Monmouth went 8-for-9 from the field in the fourth quarter and held Hampton to 19% shooting as they defeated the Pirates 62-54 at CareFirst Arena. With the win Monmouth (16-14) advances to play fourth-seeded Drexel on Friday.

“Down the stretch we played well in the second and third quarters. In the first and fourth quarters when they went into a zone defense, we got a little bit stagnant. We played very hard and made some very big defensive plays. The difference in the game was the last couple of minutes when they executed better than we did,” said Hampton University Head Coach Tamisha Augustin.

The first quarter saw Hampton opened completely opposite their regular season meeting at Monmouth. On February 16, the Pirates hit their first 10 shots from the field. They missed their first 11 on Thursday before Aisha Dabo stuck back a missed shot with 3:33 left to trail 6-2. Amyah Reaves had a baseline jumper a minute later and Jasha Clinton stole the ball before finding Dabo for a layup for Hampton’s points in the opening quarter as they trailed 18-6. The Pirates were 3-for-22 from the floor, while Monmouth was 7-for-17 from the field.

In the second quarter, Bella Kranbuhl free throw put Monmouth up 24-6 at the 8:06 mark. Diamond Wiggins hit a three-pointer from the right corner at 7:01 to start a run of 15 straight points for Hampton (8-23). She closed that with a steal and layup with 4:03 to trail 24-21.

Divine Dibula broke that run with a three-point play at the 3:37 mark. Clinton and Foreman answered with layups to pull Hampton to 27-25 with 2:40 left. Kemari Reynolds put Monmouth up 29-25 with a driving layup 23 seconds later, but the Pirates scored the last six points to close the half on a 25-5 run. Dabo hit a pair of buckets, the last one to tie and a Foreman layup with 23 seconds left put Hampton up for the first time at 31-29.

After a back and forth third period, Monmouth opened the fourth scoring the first eight points to take a 49-42 lead on a Belle Kranbuhl jumper with 7:43 on the clock.

CeCe Thomas broke that run with a three-pointer from the top of the key at the 7:26 mark. Rodriguez answered with a layup to push the advantage to 51-45 with 7:06 left. The lead went to eight on a Kranbuhl jumper before Wiggins hit a 3-ball and Reaves with a driving layup brought Hampton to 57-54 with 2:59 left. That was as close as Hampton could get.

Dabo was the leading scorer with 12 points and eight rebounds, while Reaves, Clinton, Foreman and Wiggins had eight points apiece. Reaves added eight boards, five assists and a season-high seven steals which was one off the tournament record.