CANTON, Mo. - Harris-Stowe State University men's basketball opened their 2025-26 campaign with a hard fought 89-88 win at Culver-Stockton on Tuesday night. With the win, the Hornets are 1-0 and the Wildcats are 0-1. The Coach Adam Hooker era begins with a win.

The Hornets and Wildcats will match up again on Saturday, November 8th at 3 pm at Emerson Performance Center.

Junior guard Shamar Carter (Inglewood, Calif./Moberly Area CC) would knock down a three to give the Hornets a 3-0 lead. The Wildcats would go on an 11-0 run before senior forward Ty Lampley (Belleville, Ill./Rend Lake Community College) would make a jumper to cut the deficit to 11-5. Junior guard Adolphus Cast (Detroit, Mich./Schoolcraft College) would make a layup that cut the Wildcats lead to 11-7. A three by Lampley and a layup by cast cut the deficit to two at 14-12 Wildcats. Sophomore guard Umar Lawson (Sumter, S.C./Voorhees University) would score five straight points with back-to-back jumpers and a made free throw to cut the Wildcats lead to 19-17 with just over 12 minutes to play in the first half. A layup and a jumper by Lawson tied the game at 21.

Freshman forward Nashawn Davis (St. Louis, Mo./Columbia College) would score seven straight points with a free throw, a jump and back-to-back layups to give the Hornets a 28-21 lead with 9:17 left in the half. A layup by Lawson and a three by Carter gave the Hornets a 33-23 lead. Sophomore guard Antonio Trotter (Nashville, Tenn./Williams Baptist Unviersity) pushed the lead to 38-30 after making two free throws. Layups by Cast and Trotter as well as a layup and a free throw by Carter pushed the lead to 45-34 with just over minutes left in the half. A jumper by Lampley extended the lead to 51-38. A jumper and two free throws by senior forward Jalen Watson (East St. Louis, Ill./St. Louis Community College) extended the lead to 55-41. Trotter would make two more free throws to push the Hornets lead to 57-42 going into halftime.

Lawson made a layup to open the second half and extend the lead to 17 which was the largest Hornets lead of the night. A layup by Watson gave the Hornets a 61-46 lead with just under 17 minutes in the game. A dunk by Carter made it 63-50 with 14:47 left to play. A 9-0 Wildcats run cut the Hornets lead to 63-59. A jumper by Davis and a free throw made it 66-59. A three by Carter pushed the lead to 71-66. The Wildcats would tie the game at 71 with just over 10 and a half minutes left in the game.

A jumper by Lampley and a jumper by senior center Greg Wilson (Kansas City, Kan./Voorhees University) gave the Hornets a 75-71 lead. A three by Cast gave the Hornets a 78-76 lead with just over seven minutes to play. A jumper by Davis gave the Hornets an 81-79 lead. A jumper by senior center Dimitije Stojanovic (Nis, Serbia/Bethel University) pushed the lead to 83-80. A layup by Davis pushed the lead to 85-82 with just under three minutes to play. Two free throws by Cast gave the Hornets an 89-85 lead before the Hornets would win 89-88.

The Hornets went 32-64 (50.0%) from the field, 6-14 (42.9%) from three point range and 19-23 (82.6%) at the free throw line. The Hornets defense held the Wildcats to 7-25 (28%) from three.

The Hornets had five players score in double figures and they were Carter with a team-high 19 points, Davis had 17 points off the bench, Cast and Lawson recorded 13 apiece and Lampley added 11 off the bench. Lampley and Stojanovic each recorded eight rebounds. Cast led the way with four assists. Lampley recorded two of the five blocks. Trotter and Carter recorded two steals each.

The Hornets return to action on Saturday, November 1st as they open their home portion of the schedule as they host Rust College at 3 pm at Emerson Performance Center.