PRINCESS ANNE, Maryland — At the 1:02 mark of the second half, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore men's basketball team was down 61-49 against the Longwood University Lancers on Tuesday night (Nov. 13).
Eastern Shore would score 14 points during the final minute of the contest, but the Lancers were able to hold the Hawks off and escape the William P. Hytche Athletic Center with a 66-63 win.
"I am really proud of the effort and the energy that we played with tonight," head coach Clifford Reed said. "The guys took the game one possession at a time and didn't focus on the score but just kept working."
Injuries have hurt the Hawks early in the season as they had only eight available players on Tuesday. However, Eastern Shore is not using their lack of health as a crutch early in the season.
"We are not going to make excuses about injuries," Reed said. "We will continue to play hard, but I do think we missed some loose balls late due to fatigue."
During the second half, the game was tied four times and had six lead changes. The back-and-forth affair saw Longwood gain control following a 10-2 run late in the second half that led to the rally from Eastern Shore in the last minute.
A personal and flagrant foul by the Lancers led to three made free throws from the Hawks with 56 seconds remaining. After the free throws, junior Ahmad Frost (Cincinnati, OH) made a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 61-55.
Longwood's Isaiah Walton traveled a few seconds later due to the Hawks' pressure defense and after an inbound play from Maryland Eastern Shore, graduate student Ryan Andino (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) made another three for the Hawks to bring the score to 61-58.
After two made free throws, junior guard Bryan Urrutia (Chihuahua, Mexico) came down quickly and found junior AJ Cheeseman (Snellville, GA) underneath for a layup to bring the score to 63-60. The Lancers would hit two more foul shots, but would foul Andino on a shot behind the arc on the ensuing possession. Andino made all three shots from the line with nine seconds remaining.
Lancers' guard Lorenzo Phillips split a pair of free throws to make the score 66-63 with eight seconds left. Urrutia speed up the court and swung the ball to Cheeseman. He looked for Andino but could not get the ball to him, so he threw it to an open Tyler Jones (Atlantic City, NJ) in the left corner. The junior got a good look at a three to tie the game, but it hit the front iron as the buzzer sounded and the game was over.
"I saw that the defender was lunging for it so I held it a little longer, but when it left my hands I thought it was good," Jones said. "I will definitely learn from that situation."
The game saw four Hawks get into double figures. Cheeseman led the Hawks in scoring again with 17 points as 15 came in the second half. Frost scored his first points of the season and finished the game with 13. Andino and Jones had 12 apiece. Urrutia struggled from the floor, but was able to dish out 10 assists to just four turnovers in nearly 40 minutes of play.
Longwood was led by Walton's game-high 20 points. Jordan Cintron had 14 for the Lancers and Sean Flood had 12 points on 4-6 shooting from three point range.
The Shore will be back on the road this weekend as they travel to Denton, TX to face North Texas on Saturday (Nov. 17). Eastern Shore will face Mercer next Tuesday (Nov. 20) in Macon, GA before returning home to play Central Penn on Nov. 24.
For more information on Eastern Shore Athletics visit http://www.easternshorehawks.com/.
