DAYTON, Ohio -- Edward Joyner picked up his phone and made the call he suggested he would.

It doesn’t appear like his friend on the other end of the line thinks much of the Hampton Pirates coach’s chances against the top-seeded Kentucky Wildcats.

After joking about having Jesus on speed dial after arriving in Dayton for the First Four of the NCAA tournament, his Pirates delivered a 74-64 win over the Manhattan Jaspers that set up a monumentally more difficult challenge on Thursday. But it appears Joyner’s sense of humor is still intact.

“Hold on, I told you all I had Jesus on speed dial,” Joyner said with a phone to his ear in his postgame news conference. “Hey, Jesus, first of all, you can't play so I ain't worried about you being hot. They want to know how much of a mountain and what our odds are. Hello? Hello?

“I guess he'll get back to me.”

The Pirates may well need some divine interference against the undefeated, top-ranked Wildcats, but they lived to fight another day in the Midwest Region thanks to a gritty outing from Quinton Chievous, who scored 15 points and had 13 rebounds.

The veteran guard may need some prayer over the next two days just to get in the lineup against the Wildcats after suffering a sprained ankle late in the victory that could leave Hampton without two of its top four scorers thanks to another ankle injury for Dwight Meikle.

“It's a heck of a mountain, you know what I'm saying?” Joyner said. “We know that. We're going to go try to play, we're going to go compete and let the chips fall where they may.

“They're a great team and we know that. But, hey, it is where it is. We're happy to be here and we're going to go fight tooth and nail. You can believe that.”