Feb. 26, 2005

Box Score

BALTIMORE, MD - The University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) Lady Hawks played conference leaders Coppin tough but wound up losing a heartbreaking contest to the Lady Eagles, 61-56, in front of a packed house at Coppin Arena. The Lady Eagles (19-7, 14-3 MEAC) remain a half game ahead of Hampton for first place in the conference, while the loss drops UMES (11-15, 9-8 MEAC) to sixth.

The Lady Hawks stormed out of the gates to start the game, going on a 10-0 run in the first 13:00 of the matchup. Freshman Brittany Adkins (Millsboro, DE/Sussex Technical HS) hit two consecutive lay-ups at 11:24 to give UMES their first double digit lead of the night, a 20-10 advantage, with 11:09 left in the half.

The Lady Eagles responded with a 9-0 run, closing the gap to 20-17 but a Jamila Griffith (Barbados, West Indies/Tallahassee CC) three point opportunity at 6:30 put the Lady Hawks up by nine, 28-19.

Junior Toni Kennedy (Baltimore, MD/Grayson County College) took advantage of the depleted Coppin squad and hit two treys to push the lead back up to 10 at 2:35. The Lady Eagles, who were without top players Rashida Suber and Talia Sutton due to injuries, fell into foul trouble early in the game and were not able to rebound in the first half as UMES took the 33-23 lead going into the locker room.

The Lady Hawks played good defense to open the second half, forcing four Lady Eagle turnovers in the first 4:00 of the period. A jumper by Denita Plain ended the Coppin drought at 15:30, but Qiana Cheatham (Baltimore, MD/Milford Mill Academy) and Ashley Chase (Baltimore, MD/Dunbar HS) hit back to back treys to give UMES their largest lead of the night, a 15 point advantage at 13:21, 46-31.

Coppin answered with a 13-0 run over the next seven minutes, and LaKesha Wills drilled a basket at 6:43 to shorten the Lady Hawk advantage to two. Five minutes later, Wills converted on a lay-up to give the Lady Eagles their first lead in 14 minutes, a 58-56 advantage with 1:54 left in the game.

Roneice Williams hit a pair of free throws with 19 seconds remaining in the contest to put Coppin up by four. The Lady Eagles held on to the cushion and went on to win their homecoming matchup against UMES, edging the Lady Hawks 61-56 behind a 26-6 run in the last 12:00 of the game.

Cheatham led UMES for the second straight game, scoring a team high 18 points. Wills scored 25 to lead Coppin.

The Lady Hawks will play their final game of the season at Morgan State on Monday, February 28 in a 5:30pm contest.