Radio: Hawks Radio Network (Brendan Gulick) | Game Notes: UMBC

PRINCESS ANNE, Md. - The University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) may be playing it's best basketball of the season, winning two straight and then returning after six days off to suffer a tough 78-68 loss at St. Joseph's.

The Hawks (3-11, 0-2 MEAC) now face a New Year's Eve afternoon matinee at RAC Arena in Baltimore.

Senior co-captain Devin Martin (Baltimore, Maryland) will be looking to stay red hot during the homecoming contest.

He continued his hot shooting at St. Joe's putting up a team-high 23 points, on the heels of 37 against Central Penn and 34 against American. Martin leads the Hawks with 17.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game.

Senior forward, and co-captain, Dominique Elliott (Savannah, Georgia) is second on the team with 11.6 points and leads in rebounds with 6.2 per game. Bakari Copeland is averaging 7.5 points and 4.2 rebounds, but has scored double figures in each of the Hawks' last three games.

Ryan Andino, the 2014-15 Mid-Eastern Conference Rookie of the Year, had a slow start to the season battling an ankle injury, but scored 14 points at St. Joes's.

The Retrievers (3-10) are trying to put back-to-back home victories together after a 75-63 victory over Mount St. Mary's on Dec. 12.

UMBC dropped a pair of local road contests since the triumph over the Mountaineers, falling at Howard (103-93) on Dec. 19 and at Towson (91-65) on Dec. 23. The team has not played over the 7 days since the loss.

Despite the losses, sophomore VCU transfer guard Jairus Lyles debuted with a flourish, scoring 51 points in the two contests. Lyles' 27 points at Howard was the most ever by a UMBC Division I player in a debut and he became the first Retriever to score 20 or more points in his first two appearances in the black and gold.

Freshman wing Joe Sherburne has scored in double figures in 10 of his first 13 intercollegiate games and averages 13.8 points per contest. Sherburne's 35 treys lead UMBC and the total is already the ninth-most by a Retriever freshman in school history.

Redshirt sophomore guard Rodney Elliott is scoring 12.8 points per game, while junior wing Will Darley is the fourth Retriever in double figures at 11.3 points per contest. Darley leads UMBC in field goal percentage at 54.7 percent.

As a team, the Retrievers shooting 31.9 percent from behind the arc and 41.2 percent from the field.
Last year, UMES jumped out to an early 27-7 and the Retrievers could not recover, falling, 65-52, to the host Hawks on Dec. 2, 2014. The Hawks won the rebounding battle that game, 40-25, with Mike Myers grabbing eight and scoring 15 points.

UMBC has won four of six previous meetings, including all three contests in Baltimore. A year before last year's setback in Princess Anne, UMBC triumphed, 64-59, at the RAC Arena on Dec. 2, 2013. UMBC trailed, 28-24, at the half, but scored the first seven points of the second stanza and never trailed after that point. Elliott scored in double figures with 10 points.

After the contest, the Hawks will be heading to Pittsburgh to face the Panthers on Jan. 2 and then on to Columbia (New York) on Jan. 6. UEMS does not return home until a Jan. 11 men's and women's doubleheader against Morgan State.

All games can be heard locally on Fox Sports Radio 960 AM WTGM or on www.umeshawks.com. Brendan Gulick will have the call at UMBC on the Hawks Sports Radio Network.