Jan. 14, 2008

Box Score

Washington, D.C. (AP) - Randy Hampton scored 8 of his team-high 15 points in the second half but it was Curtis White who made two key plays down the stretch that helped Howard edge Bethune-Cookman, 54-53 in a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference men's game at Burr Gymnasium. It was the first conference win of the season for the Bison and it snapped an eight-game losing streak.

In a game that was played at a slow pace by the undermanned Wildcats, who played with only 8 players in uniform, the Bison had problems early. The tempo favored the visitors as they took a 27-21 lead at halftime. B-CU's John Holmes led the way with 16 of his team's points.

Howard (4-12 overall, 1-2 in the MEAC) came out in the second half and slowly worked its way into the lead with a 19-5 run over the first 11 minutes of the second half to take a 40-32 advantage. Hampton, reserve forward Kandi Mukole, who scored all 5 of his points after intermission and Paul Kirkpatrick helped fuel the rally.

But the undersized Wildcats (6-10 overall, 1-2 in the MEAC) put together a rally of their own, reeling off a 15-6 run to briefly take a 47-46 lead on a Jimmy Hudson three-point basket.

Hampton then canned two free throws at the other end to give the lead back to the Bison with 2:06 left on the clock. Eugene Myatt made a big block on defense and Curtis White, who earlier hit a key basket with the shot clock winding down, made a nice feed to Mukole for a basket to extend the lead to 50-47 with 57 seconds remaining. Hampton added two free more insurance free throws that proved to be the difference as Hudson nailed a three-pointer at the buzzer to close out the scoring.

Holmes led all scorers with 21 points while Dewayne Pettus and Hudson added 12 and 11, respectively.

NEXT UP: Bethune-Cookman travels to Baltimore, MD to play Coppin State on Saturday, January 19 at 4 pm while the Bison take on the Rams of Winston-Salem State on January 19 at 4 pm.