Hampden Sydney, VA -- The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford men's basketball team's historic season came to an end on Saturday evening as the Panthers fell to Hampden-Sydney 81-75 in the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament.
A day after winning the program's first NCAA tournament game, the Panthers tipped off their 2nd round game against the pod hosts from Hampden-Sydney. The Panthers showed early that the stage was not too big. On their first offensive possession, Xavion Boone got Pitt-Bradford started, grabbing an offensive rebound off a missed three and then converting it into a layup. The Tigers scored the next baskets before Braylen Salters made a mid-range jumper to end a 2-minute drought. The freshman guard stayed hot in the first half, answering two Hampden-Sydney layups with a three and a driving layup which gave the Panthers a 9-8 lead shortly after the first media timeout. Following another Tiger layup, Salters hit his second three of the game, and Coby Farley converted a turnover into a jumpshot, putting the Panthers ahead by 4. The hosts responded, and took a 15-14 lead, but Jesse Laster made consecutive corner threes to give the Panthers a 20-15 lead with 10 minutes left in the half.
Farley answered a layup with a three from the wing to give the Panthers a 6-point advantage, but Hampden-Sydney countered with a long ball of their own. The Panthers stayed in front with two baskets by Salters and a layup from Rodd Yarbrough. Following a pair of Yarbrough free throws, Rodriguez made a jumper through contact and converted the three-point play to give Pitt-Bradford their largest lead of the game at 34-27. The hosts locked down defensively over the final 5 minutes of the half, allowing the Panthers to score on a Rodriguez floater and a Boone layup, all while scoring 13 points of their own to take a 42-38 lead into the break.
Hampden-Sydney scored on their first possession of the opening half, but the Panthers were able to answer through a Jamarion Butler layup. Over the next fr minutes, the Panthers stayed within four of the Tigers until Xander Norris made a three which cut the deficit to one. Unfortunately for the Panthers, his shot was followed by a 10-0 Hampden sydney run which saw the hosts jump ahead 60-50 with 12:40 to play. Laster ended the streak with a free throw, and then after a Tiger layup pushed the lead to 12, the Panthers made their run. Salters started the rally with a three, and then after a chaotic exchange Rodriguez hit another to cut the lead in half. Pit-Bradford forced a missed layup on the defensive end, and Butler raced down the court for a layup, which resulted in a Hampden-Sydney timeout.
The timeout slowed the run, as the hosts made a layup to go ahead by six, but Salters and Rodriguez made two threes around a Hampden-Sydney turnover to erase the lead and tie the game at 64. The Tigers came right back and retook the lead with a three before the teams exchanged short jumpers, sending the game to the 8-minute media timeout with Pitt-Bradford trailing 69-66.
The timeout cooled off both squads, as the game went scoreless for the next two minutes before a short Tiger jumper pushed the lead to 5. Butler took the inbound pass and raced to the basket for a layup to nullify the score and allow the Panthers to call a timeout and plan for the final 4:38. Hampden Sydney made a three out of the break, but the effort was immediately matched by another Salters longball, putting Pitt-Bradford behind 74-71 at the final media timeout.
Hampden-Sydney began running their four minute offense out of the break, converting two layups late in the shot clock around a Butler basket to go ahead by 5 while taking 90 seconds off the clock. The Panthers hit another cold stretch over the next minute and a half, but were able to rely on their defense to turn the Tigers over three times to keep the deficit at 5. With 50 seconds to go, the hosts made one of two free throws to go ahead 79-73, and Rodriguez grabbed the rebound, drove to the basket and made the layup to put Pitt-Bradford behind by 4 with 36 seconds to go. Pitt-Bradford tried to trap and turn the Tigers over one final time, but could not get the ball and sent the hosts to the free throw line with 21 seconds to go. Hampden-Sydney made one of two again, giving the Panthers a chance, but a pair of long threes missed the mark and the hosts were able to get the final rebound and put the game away.
Braylen Salters finished as the Panthers' leading scorer, finishing with 23 points in 29 minutes of action off the bench. He made 9-14 from the field, including 5-9 from three. Jeremy Rodriguez finished with 13 points and also totaled 4 steals. Jamarion Butler had another all-around game, finishing with 10 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals.
Pitt-Bradford finishes the season with a 24-4 record. Despite the loss, the Panthers can hold their heads high as they secured their place as one of the best teams in program history. This year's squad set the new program benchmark for wins in a season(24) , won the program's first AMCC regular season title in 23 years, the first AMCC Tournament title in 22 years, and won their first ever NCAA Tournament game. The team had 3 players earn All-AMCC Honors and saw Jamarion Butler named AMCC Player of the Year and Jesse DeLoof named AMCC Coach of the Year.
