UMES Game Notes

PRINCESS ANNE, Md. - The University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) will welcome the the nation's leading scorer to the William P. Hytche Center on Monday (Feb. 1) when Howard comes to town for a 7 p.m. matchup that can be seen live nationally on ESPNU.

James Daniel III averages an NCAA Division I-leading 27.5 points per contest for the Bison (10-11, 4-2 MEAC).

The Hawks (6-16, 3-4 MEAC) will be looking to build on the momentum created by consecutive victories against Bethune-Cookman (Jan. 23) and Coppin State on Saturday. Freshman guard Dontae Caldwell (Los Angeles, California) scored a career-high 25 points in that game, which the Hawks won in overtime 83-81.

Next up is Howard led by Daniel, James Collins (10.6 ppg.) and Marcel Boyd (9.9 ppg.).
"We just need to continue to play with the effort, continue to stay focused, stay hungry," UMES head coach Bobby Collins said. "We know that we have our work cut out. There is a lot of parody in this league and you have got to play every night."

The Bison are coming off an 83-63 loss to Morgan State where the Bears may have given other team in the MEAC something to think about when it comes to slowing down Daniel.

"Their game plan was to cut the head and it was effective," Howard head coach Kevin Nickelberry said. "They focused all their efforts on trapping Daniel and Marcel. They had 13 turnovers between them so that is something we have to fix."

Daniel was held to 18 points in that contest, while Boyd finished with 17 and nine rebounds.
The Bison committed a season-high 25 turnovers against Morgan as well.

UMES will need to cut down on the 18 turnovers at Coppin State, but the Hawks would like to continue the strong play of the bench, which outscored the starters 50-33 against the Eagles.
They also need to do a much better job at the free-throw line where they went 12-of-25 (48 percent).

Devin Martin (Baltimore, Maryland) leads the Hawks in scoring at 16.8 points per game, while Dominique Elliott (Savannah, Georgia) adds 13.2 points per game and 7.0 rebounds.

Monday's battle with Howard will not be available via the team's online live stream because ESPN has the right to the broadcast. It can however be seen online via the Watch ESPN App and on ESPN.com at http://es.pn/1Qo1tK4

After Howard, the Hawks will welcome next welcome Hampton on Feb. 6, at 4 p.m. Then Norfolk State visits Feb. 8 at 7:30 p.m. Both are the second half of a men's and women's doubleheader.

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 Hytche Center on the Hawks Sports Radio Network.