Playing in a hostile Tiger Arena against a Savannah State team that was ready to scratch and bite for it's second Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference victory, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) dug itself a deep hole in the first half and never recovered falling 68-61 Saturday.

"They take on the coach's personality," Collins said of the Tigers and coach Horace Broadnax. "We knew we were in for a fight and we told our guys that we had to be tougher than they were. We just just didn't make the tough plays that we needed to make. I can't blame the officials I can't blame anybody but our team."

Savannah State (6-9, 2-2 MEAC) came out with aggressiveness in the first half and the Hawks failed to match their intensity. Unfortunately, that style fit the way the game was officiated in the first half as the Tigers marched to the line over and over hitting 14-of-17 from the line, while the Hawks were 6-of-8.

Senior co-captain Devin Martin (Baltimore, Maryland) was hit with a pair of early fouls and played just nine first-half minutes, but continued to struggle in the second half finishing the game 3-of-12 from the field with nine points, a rebound, a block and a steal before fouling out after 23 minutes.

"We ran a couple of plays to get Devin going and he just didn't have it tonight unfortunately," Collins said.

Dominique Elliott (Savannah, Georgia) picked up double-double of 14 points and 11 rebounds, but was hindered in the second half by foul trouble as well and also had five turnovers. The Hawks had 21 turnovers a team to the Tigers' 10.

"Dom was kind of pressing because he had been at home and having over 100 fans here tonight, I know he wanted to play well," Collins said. "Unfortunately the foul situation didn't allow him to play well. We just have to do better as a team because when those two guys are struggling we have got to have somebody else stepping up."

Bakari Copeland (Decatur, Georgia) nearly had a double-double with 14 points and nine board in 34 minutes, but had four turnovers of his own.

Thomas Rivera (Harlem, New York) scored eight of his 11 points during eight minutes of play in the second half.

"We have got to get better at playing in tough situations," Collins said. "We were battle tested. We've been there and we have played against the high majors, so we should not have been out of control and we were totally out of control. I have to do a better job of getting my team under control in those situations."

UMES will next play at South Carolina State (7-10, 2-1 MEAC) on Monday, Jan. 18. It returns home for a game against Bethune Cookman on Saturday, Jan. 23 at 4 p.m.

"Savannah State has an unbelievable crowd and unbelievable support," Collins said. "When you have as many fans as they do here tonight cheering the way they were cheering that is a special home advantage. Every little thing they did, the crowd was into it. That is the way we have got to get our crowd back home, so that when we play on our home court we'll play as hard and be able to do the same thing and have the outcome be with a win."

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