Box Score SAVANNAH, Ga. – Savannah State suffered a 42-3 loss to Hampton University on Saturday at Theodore A. Wright Stadium.

A crowd of 2,940 at Wright Stadium watched as the Tigers lost their fifth consecutive game since beating Florida A&M, 37-27.

"We came out flat and that carried on throughout the whole game," said SSU linebacker Marquis Smith, who made a game-high eight tackles, including two for a loss of 16 yards. "Last week, we came out with more enthusiasm. It starts at the beginning of the game, how you come out, how prepared you are, setting the tone, how your energy level is. We were flat. We didn't have that enthusiasm like we did last week."

Hampton (6-5, 5-3 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference), playing its final game this season, improved to 7-0 in the series and finished above .500 for the first time since 2011. SSU (1-8 overall, 1-6 ) will end its season against South Carolina State at 1 p.m. next Saturday at T.A. Wright Stadium.

"You don't want to lose in front of your home crowd," said Arshon Spaulding, who finished 10-of-28 passing for 91 yards and ran for a team-high 54 yards on 11 carries. "I really don't know what happened. We had good practices this week. We just came out so dry. I don't know what happened mentally, physically and emotionally with everybody today. We just came out so dry, including myself."

With 3:14 left in the first quarter, Hampton quarterback David Watford connected with Twarn Mixson for a 40-yard touchdown pass. Adam Brown kicked the first of his six extra points for a 7-0 lead. Mixson finished with nine catches for 172 yards.

Watford, a 6-foot-2, 212-pound graduate student from Hampton, Va., made it 14-0 when he found SeQuan Gooding for a 5-yard touchdown strike with 11 minutes remaining before halftime.

Watford finished the game 17-of-30 passing for 263 yards and four touchdowns. He was intercepted by SSU free safety Isaiah Bennett, who snared a pass in the end zone in the third quarter. Watford transferred from the University of Virginia, where he started all 12 games for the Cavaliers in 2013.

With 5:19 left before halftime, Watford completed a 5-yard pass to Mixson but SSU linebacker Marcus Lee stripped the ball and recovered it, giving the Tigers possession at the Pirates' 42-yard line. SSU running back Keynnard Campbell threw an incomplete halfback pass. Then Spaulding ran for a 4-yard loss and fumbled, but SSU right tackle Sean Fogarty recovered the ball. Spaulding was sacked on third down for a 12-yard loss, forcing the Tigers to punt.

Hampton led, 14-0, at halftime. SSU produced only two first downs in the first half compared to the Pirates' 10. The Tigers had 34 yards of total offense on 28 plays in the first half, while Hampton had 179 yards of total offense on 35 plays.

With 2:09 left in the third quarter, Hampton defensive back Brendan Cole intercepted Spaulding's pass and returned the ball for a 32-yard touchdown, hurdling over an SSU defender in the process. The Pirates led, 21-0.

Late in the third quarter, Hampton's Rayshad Riddick fumbled during a punt return and SSU's Uriah Oliver recovered at the Pirates' 12-yard line. SSU's John Barron kicked a 28-yard field goal, cutting it to 21-3 with 14:20 remaining in the game.

SSU allowed 21 points in the final 5:03. The Pirates went up 28-3when Watford connected with Gooding for a 30-yard touchdown. They made it 35-3 when Watford hit Riddick for a 10-yard touchdown pass with 2:23 left. With 6 seconds remaining, Riddick returned a punt for a 72-yard touchdown to make it 42-3.

"What kills me is we're not playing smart," said SSU third-year head coach Earnest Wilson III, who was Hampton's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2012-13.

"We're not playing basic football. We know we have a strength problem. But we must emphasize to our young players that they've got to play lower (for better leverage when blocking).

"We didn't play smart football," Wilson continued. "We had bad snaps. You start out your practice working on snaps. The things that are going on, people are not reading coverages, etc., etc. That's playing smarter. We've got to understand our concepts and whatnot. I don't care if we don't have the hours (an NCAA penalty resulting from an insufficient Academic Progress Rating) that everybody else has. Somewhere in your head, you've got to start playing smarter. Let me play lower. Coaches have got to call good plays. Let me work on the reads. It's just playing smarter. We're up (one week) and then we're down (the next). We're not playing smart. We're not improving like we want to. And that's what is disappointing to me. And that's what I let them know. We apologize for the game."

Wilson, who was visibly frustrated, said he expects his players to put forth better effort for SSU's season finale against South Carolina State. He also said he wants his Tigers to show initiative and spend more time studying game film on their own time.

"They need to become students of the game," he said. "And that's what really eats me. We're not students of the game."