Box Score

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA (November 30, 2005)—Hampden-Sydney’s basketball team shot 63 percent (25-for-40) from the floor and canned 8-of-10 from beyond the arc en route to a 74-62 win over 23^rd-ranked Virginia Wesleyan College Wednesday night in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference opener for both teams.  With the win, the Tigers improve to 4-0 overall and 1-0 in the ODAC, while the Marlins dropped their second consecutive game and fell to 2-3 overall and 0-1 in conference play. 

Tiger sophomores Drew Prehmus (Atlanta, GA/Wesleyan) and Troy Kaase (Roanoke, VA/Cave Spring) scored 19 points each and combined to make 14-of-21 shots from the floor, while Prehmus nailed all five of his three-point attempts.  Meanwhile, junior guard Matt Green (Richmond, VA/Thomas Dale) scored 14 points off the bench as he dropped in a pair of three pointers to improve to 10-of-11 from beyond the arc on the season and connected on 6-of-7 free throw attempts down the stretch to put the game on ice. 

“I felt that Virginia Wesleyan was going to come out with a lot of passion and energy in this game after coming off a loss Monday night,” said Tiger head coach Bubba Smith.  “Our team did a good job of responding to Virginia Wesleyan with tough physical play.  Every run they (VWC) made we handled well and we did a great job of defending the three point shot and out-rebounding them and those were the keys to our victory tonight.” 

It was a game of spurts in the first half as the Tigers ran out to a 12-2 run in the first 4:42 of play as Mike Edwards (Richmond, VA/Steward) and Prehmus each connected from three-point land, while Kaase filled up the basket with four points.  Brandon Adair scored six of his game-high 21 points over the next three minutes to help the Marlins’ 13-2 run that gave VWC its first lead, 15-14, with 11:22 to play in the half. 

The two teams battled back and forth of the next seven minutes before the Tigers used a 9-1 run over the final 4:32 to pull out to a nine point advantage, 36-27, at halftime.  A Drew Prehmus three pointer quickly pushed the Tiger advantage to ten, 39-29, in the opening minute of play in the second half, but Virginia Wesleyan battled back, cutting the Tiger lead to as little as four points, 46-42, with 11:10 to play. 

Three pointers by Matt Green and Prehmus and six points from Kaase pushed the Tiger lead to 12, 60-48, at the 6:21 mark of the half.  Just under four minutes later the Tiger lead swelled to 16 points (68-52) after the fifth of seven consecutive points by Green. 

Green and Prehmus then sealed the game for the Tigers as they connected on five of six free throws over the final 1:58 to give Hampden-Sydney its second consecutive win over Virginia Wesleyan in Virginia Beach. 

The Tigers connected on 14-of-22 (63.6%) of their shots in the first half and 11-of-18 (61.1%) in the second half, canned 80 percent of their three point attempts including all three in the second half, and made 16-of-24 from the foul line in the contest.  Meanwhile, Hampden-Sydney out-rebounded the Marlins, 30-29, and limited Virginia Wesleyan to 42.6 percent (26-of-61) shooting from the floor and 15.4 percent (2-for-13) from three point range. 

Hampden-Sydney returns to action Saturday as the Tigers play their 2005-06 home opener against ODAC-foe Emory and Henry at 2 pm in S. Douglas Fleet Gymnasium.  The Farmville-area Jaycees will host Santa Day at the game and fans are asked to bring a new unwrapped toy or provide a monetary donation in lieu of an admittance fee to the game.