Feb. 6, 2006
Box Score
Princess Anne, MD - The University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) Women's Basketball team won their fourth game in their last five tries, defeating the Lady Spartans of Norfolk State University (NSU) 65-56. The Lady Hawks got the first double double of Natalia Benton's career with 11 points and 10 rebounds, both career highs, while Toni Kennedy chipped in 16 points of her own to improve UMES to 9-10, 7-4 in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC).
Benton scored the game's first seven points to get UMES going. "Coach always tries to get me to be aggressive," said Benton. "Tonight I was in the right situation and I felt it, so it was good to be aggressive and get a hot start," she added.
The Hawks committed 23 turnovers and allowed Norfolk State (6-14 (3-8 MEAC) to hang around most of the game despite leading by 14 points with 17 minutes to play in the second half. Norfolk State was done in by their poor shooting (31.3%) while UMES stayed in it with theirs, shooting an even 48 percent from the field.
As they have done most of the season UMES won the battle of the boards 47-39, taking advantage of their size. Tiffany Reid snatched down eight of those 47 and chipped in 10 points to make it four Lady Hawks in double figures. Kristi Veltkamp had 12 points to go along with three blocks and four rebounds.
UMES jumped out to an early lead. It was seven nothing, all from Benton, at the 16:41 mark until Ashley Green got the Spartans on the board to make it 7-2. The Lady Hawks got a balanced attack and led by as many as ten in the opening frame. UMES never trailed in the game as NSU got as close as three at the 8:32 mark on the second frame on another jumper by Green.
In a slow paced contest UMES kept playing its game, getting big shots from Kennedy and big defensive plays from Benton and Veltkamp. Veltkamp and Kennedy were the story in the second half, scoring 11 and 13 respectively in the second frame.
"We needed this win," said Head Coach Fred Batchelor. "We tried to get the team to attack and be aggressive. Tonight we got that aggressiveness from Natalia in the first half and Kristi in the second and solid games from [Kennedy] and [Reid]. I am happy with the effort we showed tonight," he added.
Norfolk State was led by Green who tallied 21 points and 10 rebounds. Ashley Bowman added 15 points while Areya Walker grabbed 11 rebounds.
UMES now sits perched in a tie for second place in the MEAC and looks to keep their momentum going into next Monday, February 13, 2006 when they travel to Dover, Del. for their only road game of the month. They take on the Hornets of Delaware State at 5:30 pm.
