Feb. 28, 2009
Box Score
BALTIMORE, Md. - The University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) was short handed at the Coppin Center as the Hawks took a 79-57 loss in men's hoops action on Saturday, February 28. To make matters worse, it was the Coppin State (CSU) Eagle's homecoming and the crowd of 1,740 was loud and boisterous and kept UMES a little off balance. The Hawks also played without the services of guards Jaime Boyer (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Josh Bright (Salisbury, Md.) and the lack of another ball-handler took its toll on the team.
Nonetheless the Hawks fought on. They took their only lead of the game less than four minutes in as a Keishawn Mayes (Warrenton, N.C.) lay-in gave UMES (7-21, 3-12 MEAC) the 6-5 lead. From there the Eagle's Michael Harper drained a three to give the lead right back and Coppin State (12-17, 9-6 MEAC) led by as many as 11 in the frame. UMES would get no closer than two the rest of the half.
Harper was on fire for the Eagles. He went on to drain seven field goals, five from three and tally 22 points to lead all scorers. CSU put four more players in double figures as Mike Buckley and Lenny Young each had 14.
UMES did what it could, getting a team high 18 points from freshmen guard Chris Conner (Powell, Tenn.). Neal Pitt (Ft. Washington, Md.) was his usual self, scoring another double double, the ninth of the season for the junior, with 10 points and 10 boards. His 10 rebounds were a game high. Senior Gary Lee (Flint, Mich.) was solid as well, grabbing nine caroms and netting eight points. Marc Davis (Baltimore, Md.) also added eight points.
The Eagles jumped all over UMES in the second half, building their lead to as many as 22 late in the game, the final deficit. The Hawks got as close as eight, 50-42 with 12:41 to play on a Mayes lay-in. The lead was pushed right back to 10 on a Young lay-up on the other end just seconds later. The Hawks would get it back under single digits two more times, cutting it to nine on both occasions. The last would be at the 9:29 mark on an Aleksandar Popovic (Novi Sad, Serbia) lay-in.
Coppin State really dominated most categories. They outshot the Hawks 49 percent to 35 percent, forced twice as many turnovers (16-8), scored 25 points on those miscues to just four for the Hawks and got 20 points from the bench compared to just six for UMES. The one bright spot was on the boards as UMES dominated, getting 41 caroms to CSU's 29. Twenty-one of those came on the offensive glass.
With one last regular season game to go UMES will try to build some momentum heading into the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament. They host rival Delaware State on Thursday, March 5 at 7:30 p.m. That game is senior night for Jarrod Randall (Finksburg, Md.), Lee and Popovic and the last home game of the season for the Hawks.
