Hampden-Sydney to Meet Virginia Wesleyan in Semifinals

SALEM, Va. --- The fourth seeded Hampden-Sydney basketball defeated #5 seed Lynchburg College 82-60 on Friday afternoon. The Tigers will play top seeded Virginia Wesleyan on Saturday at 6 pm.

The Hornets took an early 4-2 lead, but a three pointer from Ru White on the ensuing possession sparked a 12-0 run over a five-minute span that put H-SC up 14-4 at the 13-11 mark. Lynchburg scored nine of the next 11 points to cut the deficit to just three, 16-13, at the 10-minute mark.

Following a Tigers' timeout, Hampden-Sydney scored on a two straight White layups and a three pointer from Sasha Obradovic capped a 10-1 spurt to go up 28-14 with 6:05 left in the first half.

H-SC continued to lead by 14 three minutes later, but five straight Manny Hernandez points cut the Tiger lead to 34-25 with just over two minutes left before intermission. Harrison George converted a layup on the next possession while LC's Austin Chillemi made one of two free throws to keep it a 10-point game.

Ben Jessee drained two straight from deep range followed by two Chillemi free throws to give the Tigers the last possession of the half with 33 seconds remaining. H-SC ran the clock nearly to zero as Randall Ward hit a dagger trifecta with three ticks left. George picked off the ensuing in-bounds pass and hit a fadeaway jumper just inside the three point arc on the left baseline to give Hampden-Sydney a 47-28 halftime lead.

Brandon Connor helped open the half strongly for the Hornets with a three pointer on the opening possession. After a Tucker Lucas turnover, George caught a pass in transition one-handed and, in the same motion, fired a bullet to White in stride for a layup. The Tigers would not score for four minutes but the defense kept H-SC in the game as they held on to a 51-36 advantage with 14:50 remaining.

A Hernandez free throw along with a layup and jumper from Michael Wims cut the LC deficit down to 10 just over a minute later. A Cam Anderson dunk jumpstarted a big Tiger run. A turnover resulted in a Jessee three pointer, and then Jessee picked off an inbounds pass for a layup. White then finished off the 9-0 run with a tip-in to put Hampden-Sydney up 60-41 at the 11:25 mark.

Lucas cut down the lead to 15 points at 10:24, but Hampden-Sydney used another 9-0 run to go up by 24 points with 7:03 remaining. H-SC led by 20 or more points the rest of the game.

White had a game-high 15 points as he shot 7-of-9 from the floor. Jessee added 14 points while shooting 5-of-10 including a 4-of-8 performance from three point range. Obradovic added on nine points courtesy of three trifectas while Randall Ward contributed eight points.

First-Team All-ODAC honoree Nate Campbell was limited to four points while going just 2-of-9 from the field. Chillemi tied for the game's high in points with 15 markers.  He added a game-best seven rebounds while Lucas chipped 14 points and six caroms.

H-SC shot 52% for the contest while LC shot under 30% each half to finish 28%. The Tigers went 12-of-27 from three and LC was 6-of-20 from downtown.

--- This release is courtesy of the Hampden-Sydney College sports information department. ---
www.hscathletics.com