The Spartans Men basketball team (3-0) fights past the Hampton Pirates (1-2) with a great showing from the free throw line. Jamarii Thomas led the way with 20 points, 3 assists, and shot 12/16 from the charity strike.
This marks the third consecutive year the Spartans beat the Pirates for the Battle of the Bay. “They play lazy on defense,” Jamarii Thomas says “It’s real unorganized, it’s no structure we were getting open looks just not knocking down the shots”.
The Spartans started off the game with a nice three from Nyzaiah Chambers, but there were not many to come after this. The Spartans shot only 17.6 percent from the three-point line all game. “We didn’t make the three very well all game but maybe that will be good for us, teams will think we can’t make the threes,” said Coach Jones.
Chambers picked up 2 early fouls with 17:15 left in the first half and checked out early. The foul calls were a growing theme. “There are some new rules this year that everyone is getting used to including the referees.” Coach Jones said. “So I’m not trying to get overly mad at them right now, but there are some strange new rules, I’m not blaming the refs right now”
At the first media timeout, the Spartans led 9-8. After the Media timeout, Jamarii Thomas began to catch fire. Hitting two back-to-back three-pointers. As different players began to come in Christian Ings produced off the bench hitting 2 free throws, and stealing the ball the next possession leading to a Kuluel Mading slam making the score 26-20 in the Spartans favor.
To end the first half the Spartans went on a 11-6 run where multiple players contributed to the efforts, ending the score at halftime 41-32 NSU leading.
The Spartans began the half with a 6-0 run for 1 minute and 22 seconds of the half, but the Pirates began to fight back. Hampton went on a 9-0 run for 2 minutes and 22 seconds as the Spartans offense sputtered, making the score 46-38.
“We just missed some shots,” Coach Jones said. “Some of those shots would have been back breaker shots when the crowd would’ve gone crazy but we just missed them. We had a lot of open shots that we just missed”.
The Spartans struggled offensively but they were able to make free throws throughout the second half to keep the offense available. They went 20 for 24 at the charity strike in the second half.
With 2:15 left the Pirates were down 67-64. The Spartan offense was none existent, then the Spartans went on a run. Starting with a layup from Nyzaiah Chambers, then a made free throw from Christian Ings, and Jamarii Thomas. Thomas came back with another steal leading to a slam from Jaylani Darden putting the Spartans on a 6-0 run at the end of the game.
After some Pirate fouls the Spartans came out on top 75-68. They travel to the US Virgin Islands for the Paradise Jam where they play Fordham in pool play on Friday, November 17, 2023, at 1:00pm on ESPN Plus.
Spartan Echo 