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PRINCESS ANNE, Md. - The University of Maryland Eastern Shore men's basketball team got back in the win column with a 72-66 victory on Saturday afternoon. UMES (2-6) defeated Fordham University for their second win on an eight-game trip away from Princess Anne to start the regular season.

UMES came into the Bronx having lost several tight contests in a row. Once again, the Hawks jumped in front, leading from the opening minutes. With a three-point play by Mike Myers, UMES built a seven-point lead at 17-10. The Hawks' advantage grew to eight points when Ryan Andino nailed a three-pointer to make it 32-24 with 1:11 left in the first half. Ryan Rhoomes of Fordham laid in a putback off an airball to go into halftime with the score at 32-26 in the Hawks' favor.

In the second half, the Hawks pushed their lead even further over Fordham. After a bucket and foul shot by Ishaq Pitt, UMES led 46-34 with 14:09 remaining. The Rams immediately responded with an 8-0 run to trim the Hawks' lead back four points. Fordham cut the UMES lead to two points multiple times, but the Rams could never get over the hump to deadlock the game.

On several occasions, UMES came up with a big play to keep distance ahead of Fordham. Eric Paschall hit a three-pointer to cut the Hawks' lead to 61-59 with 3:33 to go. Devin Martin missed a three for UMES, but he followed his miss for an offensive rebound, setting up a three-point play by Myers. Christian Sengfelder hit a jumper to make it a three-point game within a minute, but Myers and Dominique Elliott converted their free throws to lock down the win.

The frontcourt duo of Myers and Elliott led the UMES offense, with Myers scoring 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the floor. Elliott contributed a season-high 12 points and a team-high seven rebounds. Freshman Ryan Andino hit some timely three-pointers, ending up with a career-high 12 points as well. Point guard Isaac Smith III matched his career-high by dishing six assists.

The Hawks' defense mixed things up between man-to-man, 2-3 zone and a full-court press. As a result, UMES forced 20 Fordham turnovers, leading to 24 points off turnovers and 12 fast break points. Effective defense turned into efficient offense as UMES shot 52.4% as a team, including 6-of-14 from beyond the arc. Solid free throw shooting proved to be the difference from earlier close defeat, as UMES went 22-of-28 from the line with big makes down the stretch.

Before the season, the Hawks had gone four years in between road non-conference wins. Under first year head coach Bobby Collins, UMES has notched two such wins already this season with Saturday's win in addition to the earlier victory at Mount St. Mary's.

On Tuesday, UMES returns to Princess Anne for their regular season home opener against UMBC. The Hawks will try to win back-to-back games for the first time since March 2011. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m at W.P. Hytche Athletic Center. Fans can tune into the Hawks Radio Network powered by SFMSports.net and Fox Sports 960 AM for all coverage, starting pregame at 7:10 p.m.