HAMPDEN-SYDNEY – The Hampden-Sydney basketball team rolled to a pair of homecourt victories over the weekend, defeating Methodist 88-51 on Friday night, before cruising to a 100-62 victory over Piedmont on Sunday afternoon.

The Tigers, who have won four straight since a 77-76 setback on a shot at the buzzer at NC Wesleyan in the South Region Challenge, mimicked their hot start to the season by rolling out to a 23-2 lead, before the Lions heated up from behind the three point line to cut the Tigers' advantage to 41-29 at the four minute mark.

H-SC finished the half with a 14-2 run to lead 54-31 at the break.

“We talked at halftime about how to play when we got that big lead early on,” said H-SC head coach Dee Vick. “It's easy to get complacent. You're fighting human nature. It's easy to let up, but you have to continue to work hard and not play the scoreboard.

“We came out in the second half and played good basketball, and I feel we kept the pedal mashed.”

The Tigers took Vick's words to heart. Senior Harrison George started a 21-7 run over the first six-and-a-half minutes of the second half with a hook shot.

Ahead 58-36, H-SC basically put any chance at the Lions shooting their way back into the game with a quick 8-0 burst. Piedmont was unable to inbound the ball against the Tigers' full-court press.

A stickback by Fletcher Lumpkin with 17:16 left, was followed by a Greg Lewis steal and layup, which was then followed by another steal and a layup by Leon Hargrove to give H-SC a 66-36 lead.

In their halfcourt set, the Tigers did a good job of taking what the Lions were willing to give them.

“They ran a zone against us the entire way,” said Vick. “We don't see that too often, so it was good to work against it.”

H-SC substituted liberally down the stretch, and took its biggest lead of the game at 93-49 on a steal and layup by Randall Ward at the 7:46 mark.

George scored a game-high of 24 points, and just missed on a double-double with nine rebounds. Greg Lewis was the only other H-SC player to reach double-figures with 16 points that included 4-5 shooting from behind the three-point line.

The Lions were led by Jesse Jenkins, who scored 17 points, while Dylan Delaney scored 14.

Hampden-Sydney shot 52.5 percent from the floor, while the Tigers held Piedmont to just 38.6 percent shooting. H-SC outrebounded Piedmont 44-32, and forced 24 turnovers, while committing just 12 of its own.

Against Methodist on Friday night, the Tigers broke open an 18-13 lead with a little over 10 minutes remaining in the first half with an 11-3 run to lead at 29-16 at the 6:58 mark.

The Tigers continued to roll on both ends of the floor, more than doubling up the Monarchs on two separate occasions in the first half, 35-17 and 42-20, before going into halftime leading 45-26. The second half proved to be much of the same as the Tigers won the stanza 43-25.

Kodie Critzer, George, and Lewis each posted a team-high 11 points while Khobi Williamson tallied 10 points.

Critzer was 4-6 overall and 2-3 from three while George went 5-8 from the field. Lewis posted two three pointers and made four of his six shot attempts, and Williamson went 4-6.

Mike Murray scored five points with a game-high six assists, and Cam Anderson corralled eight rebounds.

James Whitehead lead Methodist with a game-high 14 points, and Bryan Hockaday scored 12 off the bench.

Hampden-Sydney finished 36-65 (55.4 percent) from the field, 10-18 (55.6 percent) from three, and 6-11 (54.5 percent) from the foul line. Methodist was limited to just 18-53 (34 percent) overall, 3-16 (18.8) from deep range, and 12-17 (70.6 percent) from the charity stripe.

H-SC held a 39-29 advantage on the boards and handed out 26 assists to 14 turnovers, compared to 10 assists on 19 turnovers for the Monarchs. H-SC held an enormous 33-4 advantage in points off turnovers and also outscored Methodist 44-26 in the paint. The bench continued their strong play with 47 points.

The Tigers will play two ODAC contests this week. Hampden-Sydney travels to first-year member Shenandoah on Wednesday night for a 7 p.m. game, and will return home to host Roanoke on Saturday for a 2 p.m. contest.