TALLAHASSEE, Florida — After almost two years of coming up empty on the road, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore men's basketball team won their first road game since February 25, 2017, against the Florida A&M University Rattlers on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 19) in overtime 60-58.

"I want to applaud the young men on staying strong and working hard as they did a super job tonight," head coach Clifford Reed said. "This feels good for them because they don't realize they have a chance to be pretty good because we got beat up a lot with our early schedule."

The Hawks victory was their first Division I and conference win of the season. Maryland Eastern Shore had not had a win versus an opponent in Division I since their win last February against Delaware State.

The Shore established themselves early on in the contest on the defensive end and got some hot shooting from team captain Ryan Andino (Ft. Lauderdale, FL). Andino scored all of his team high 14 points in the first half including a stretch of three consecutive shots from behind the arc. His shooting helped the Hawks carry a 31-26 lead into the locker room.

FAMU opened the second half on a 7-2 run to tie the game at 33 with 15:20 on the clock. From that point on, the game was a one possession affair with the exception of two minutes when the Hawks led by four.

Forwards Tyler Jones (Atlantic City, NJ) and Gabriel Gyamfi (Brampton, ON, Canada) provided the offensive sparks in the second half. Jones scored 10 of the Hawks first 12 points in the second half. Gyamfi followed that by scoring seven straight for Eastern Shore that was punctuated with a dunk with 5:49 left to give the Shore a 48-46 lead.

"Andino gave us the impetus to have the halftime lead," Reed said. "After that, other guys picked him up and that's what we need because we all need one another."

Point guard Bryan Urrutia (Chihuahua, Mexico) made a layup with 2:43 left in regulation. That would be the last points the Hawks would score before overtime. Florida A&M tied the game at 52 with 31 seconds left and after Urrutia and Andino got looks but fell short to end the game, overtime was set to begin.

Justin Ravenel hit two free throws for the Rattlers to begin overtime to give FAMU their biggest lead since the first half. Sophomore Canaan Bartley (Miami, FL) answered with a driving layup and made a free throw to complete a three point play for Eastern Shore. Florida A&M answered with a bucket to regain a 56-55 lead.

Isaac Taylor (Wachapreague, VA) made two from the line with 3:33 left to make the score 57-56. After Colen Gaynor (Berlin, MD) hit two more free throws for the Hawks, the Rattlers hit one free throw. Bartley committed a turnover and Florida A&M regained possession with 26 seconds left.

FAMU came down and set up a play and had an open man but he fumbled the ball out of bounds with nine seconds left. Bartley made one free throw to give Eastern Shore a 60-57 lead, but fouled MJ Randolph on a three point shot on the ensuing play.

Randolph missed the first, made the second and intentionally missed the third, but the Rattlers could not get the rebound to put up a shot and the Hawks escaped with the win.

Jones and Gyamfi each finished with 13 points. Taylor finished with eight and Bartley finished with six, but his biggest contribution was not in the box score.

"We gave Canaan the game ball because he set the tone defensively," Reed said. "I thought we were up in them on defense and Canaan's on-ball defense was the key to that."

The Hawks will now play Bethune-Cookman on Monday afternoon (Jan. 21). Reed will be returning to his alma mater, where he spent 10 years as a head coach from 2001-2011 and an additional four as an assistant. However, he is not thinking about that as he wants the focus to be on it being just one game.

"The game will be special because I will get to see family and I have great memories there," Reed said. "But most importantly, it's just one game and we need to take it one game at a time and concentrate on the little things."

For more information on Eastern Shore Athletics visit http://www.easternshorehawks.com/.