The schedule has not been kind to the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) so far this season, with the team struggling to find the success of last year's resurgent squad. But the one place the Hawks have been able to find success this season is at home where they return for a Saturday (Jan. 23) matchup with Bethune-Cookman.

The Hawks have picked up three of their four victories in the friendly confines and are 3-1 at home this season.

The game, which was moved up to 2 p.m. because of the impending weather, will match the Hawks (4-16, 1-4 MEAC) up with the Wildcats (6-13, 3-2 MEAC).

Bethune-Cookman is led by redshirt junior point guard Jordan Potts, who leads the team in scoring with 16.2 points per game and also dishes out 4.3 assists a game.

On the defensive end, the Wildcats boast one of the top shot blockers not only in the MEAC, but in the country in junior Laron Smith. Smith, who is coming off his second MEAC Defensive Player of the Week award of the season, is No. 7 in the country with 3.05 blocks per game. The 6-foot-8, 215-pound transfer from Georgia State also leads the team in rebounding at 7.5 per game.

Senior forward Mario Moody (6-7, 215) is second on the team in scoring at 12.5 points per game.

Senior Ricky Johnson is averaging nearly double digits himself at 9.9 points per game. Johnson has a professional pedigree as his uncle Gus Johnson played nine seasons in the NBA and won an ABA championship with the Indiana Pacers. Johnson also graduated from the same high school -- Saint Vincent-Saint Mary's -- as Lebron James.

Each of the four team leaders have started at least 15 games for the Wildcats.

UMES has been led all season by the senior duo of Devin Martin and Dominique Elliott. The pair averages a combined 30.7 point, 3.6 assists and 11.2 rebounds.

For much of the season, the coaches were waiting for someone else to step up and that seemed to happen with Bakari Copeland, who had scored double figures in eight straight games and raised his season averages to 9.7 points and 4.3 rebounds. But Copeland had a rough night in a loss at South Carolina State with just two points.

While Martin said the team is still looking for a focus that last year's team had, head coach Bobby Collins thinks he knows what it should be.

"Last year's team had a purpose and that was to exceed double figures in win's and make a tournament championship run," Collins said. "We didn't finish. This year our purpose is to finish."

The Hawks have 11 regular season games remaining. All are MId-Eastern Athletic Conference games and seven of those are at home including two in the next week.

All games can be heard locally on Fox Sports Radio 960 AM WTGM or on www.umeshawks.com. Brendan Gulick and David Byrd will have the call from the William P. Hytche Athletic Center on the Hawks Sports Radio Network.