March 13, 2008
Box Score
RALEIGH, N.C. - The Lady Hawks tied a program record for wins in a season and won numerous awards in the 2007-08 campaign. Still the momentum couldn't carry them any farther then the quarterfinals of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Tournament as the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) fell to Hampton University (HU) 56-49.
"It's not about making history," said sophomore forward April McBride. "It is about how we played. We were fortunate to go through a seven game winning streak, but it got snapped but we still can't take away any of our accolades because we still played hard, this game and this season."
"This loss doesn't take away from anything we have accomplished this season," added Head Coach Fred Batchelor.
The game was back and forth the entire time. It featured 11 lead changes and eight ties between the conference's fourth and fifth seeded teams. "I thought it was a tough game, a good defensive game," said Batchelor.
Statistically it was also even. UMES shot 33.3 percent from the field, Hampton, 32 percent. HU had five more rebounds, turnovers were 15-13 in favor of UMES, three-pointers were three to two with the Lady Hawks making the one additional.
The one glaring category was fouls and in turn, free-throws. Hampton was called for just 11 player fouls, UMES had 21 and that translated into 30 free throw attempts for the Lady Pirates. They made 16. In sharp contrast were the UMES numbers, nine attempts, six makes. Six of those attempts were in the first half.
"It is very difficult to compete with a team that gets three times as many free throws attempts as you. In a close game like that, other than a few rebounds, the shooting, the turnovers, there was no bigger gap in any other area of the floor in stats other than they went to the line 30 times to our nine," added Batchelor.
The game started cold for both teams, who had the longest lay-off of any team. Waiting around four days was tough for both programs, as both arrived in town on Sunday night. The two teams combined to start 0-14 from the floor. No one scored a field goal until Queenique Tyler drained a three from the wing to make it 4-1, the other points coming on free throws.
The Hampton defense was solid, forcing UMES to make back to back shot clock violations before and after the under eight media timeout. That defense translated to Hampton's first lead of the game at 5:57 when they went up 18-16 on a Quanneisha Perry lay-up. Another shot clock violation occurred for UMES and Hampton used it to take a 20-16 lead. McBride snapped a 6-0 scoring streak with a runner to bring the lead back to two.
UMES took the lead back with 2:30 to play on a Brittany Adkins lay-up but Hampton would tie it and take the lead seconds later 22-21 on free throws. With time expiring Casey Morton would go to the basket and hit a runner that gave the Lady Hawks the lead, 23-22 and some momentum heading into half-time.
UMES appeared to have the momentum coming out of the locker room. They got two buckets from Chena Parker and had a 27-24 lead. From there Hampton would get rolling, hitting jumpers, getting old-fashioned three point plays and lay-ups to build their lead to as many as four. The next 14 minutes saw the two teams battle back and forth until Hampton extended their lead to five with 3:48 to play. Over the final 18 minutes of the game the Lady Pirates shot 17 free throws to the Hawks' three.
Despite attacking the basket and taking jumpers, the HU defense allowed UMES to make just one field goal, a three pointer from Tiffany Reid, over the last 10:16 of the game.
"They did the little things they needed to do and the difference was Rachel Butler stepping up and having the type of game she needed to have," said Batchelor.
McBride led UMES with 18 points and nine rebounds. Tyler was the only other Lady Hawk in double figures with 10. UMES seniors Brittany Adkins, Kristi Veltkamp and Jelia Abdul-Bassit all saw time in the game. Adkins had four points and eight boards while Veltkamp added two points while Abdul-Bassit grabbed one rebound.
MEAC Rookie of the Year Casey Morton was held to two points on 1-13 shooting while All-MEAC Second Team member Tiffany Reid had three points and four rebounds on 1-7 shooting.
Hampton was led by Butler who had 20 points and nine boards. Chinyere Ukoh had 10 rebounds. No other Lady Pirate was in double figures in any category.
"I love this teams' foundation," summarized Batchelor. "We have a great foundation; more importantly with the seniors that are leaving, we established a foundation, those three kids are graduating. They helped lay that foundation where our team has no issues, no discipline problems, they have good grades. I am really excited about our team, and building on our foundation, and, I think we can play some basketball."
