Final Stats

University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) jumped all over Howard, taking an early 13-2 lead on Monday (Feb. 1) and then running away with an 85-67 victory in front of a large home crowd and a national television audience.

"This is the time of year you want to build comradery, you want to come together," senior co-captain Devin Martin (Baltimore, Maryland) said. "I think we did that tonight."

Martin finished with 21 points on 6-of-12 shooting and hit 5-of-6 from the line.

It was a big night for Dominique Elliott (Savannah, Georgia) and Bakari Copeland (Decatur, Georgia) as well. Elliott finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds, while Copeland poured in 21 points. Freshman Ahmad Frost, Cincinnati, Ohio) chipped in eight points and five assists.

Copeland, a JUCO transfer, had seen his consecutive double digit scoring streak end with a few tough games, but turned it around against the Bison (10-12, 4-3 MEAC).

"My coach told me I wasn't being aggressive enough on the offensive and defensive end," Copeland said. "I did a lot of just moving without the ball and getting myself open."

Seven Hawks played double digit minutes, and all 14 players saw the floor. UMES won the rebounding battle 37-31, turned the ball over just eight times.

The team also hit 84 percent from the line and 35 percent from behind the arc and the Hawks' bench outscored Howard's 19-2.

"This was the night that we had a complete team effort," Collins said. "I thought we played with a lot of effort. We played hard."

Taking on the nation's leading scorer in James Daniel III, the Hawks concentrated on making him work for everything he got.

"We just wanted to limit his open shots," Martin said. "We know he'll take a shot with two or three people on him, but we wanted to limit open looks and pick him up as soon as he crossed half court. Coach said the best defense is not to let him catch it and he struggled tonight catching it."

He still managed to score 28 points, but it took 18 shots to do so. He was 7-of-18 from the field overall, 2-of-8 from 3-points land and 12-of-14 from the free throw line.

"We took them out of what they wanted to do," Hawks coach Bobby Collins said. "He still got his points, but nobody else hurt us, so we were O.K. with that. It kind of took them out of their rhythm."

UMES (7-16, 4-4 MEAC) held Howard to 44 percent shooting from the field in the game and forced 13 turnovers. The Hawks scored 17 points off Bison turnovers.

"I'm just pleased that the guys followed the game plan and proud of the effort," Collins said. "Especially in front of our hostile crowd."

The Hawks will remain home for a matchup with Hampton on Saturday (Feb. 6) at 4 p.m., and then host Norfolk on Monday (Feb. 8) at 7:30 p.m.

"If we continue to have this kind of crowd and support, good things are going to happen for this team," Collins said. "We played some tough teams and tonight showed that that paid off for us. We are going to continue to play hard."

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.