BALTIMORE, Maryland — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore men's basketball team played a back-and-forth affair with the Morgan State University Bears for 30 minutes on Saturday (Jan. 5), but they struggled down the stretch and fell 66-53 in their first conference matchup of the season.

The game had eight lead changes and seven ties until a late run went against Maryland Eastern Shore in the final ten minutes. Sophomore Canaan Bartley (Miami, FL) made a layup with 10:36 left in the second half to tie the game at 43. The Hawks would not make another field goal for over six minutes and the Bears built a double digit lead to seize control. Morgan State's lead grew to as many as 16 in the final minutes of the second half.

Eastern Shore (2-14, 0-1 MEAC) had trouble taking care of the ball all game against MSU. The Shore committed 22 turnovers and surrendered 12 offensive rebounds that led to Morgan State attempting 16 more shots in the contest.

"They had too many offensive rebounds and we concentrated on that as a staff and players but we didn't do the job we needed to," head coach Clifford Reed said. "As for the turnovers, they did a good job of really getting in close on us and playing tough defense and making hard on us."

All 10 players that saw time for the Hawks got into the scoring column. Junior Ahmad Frost (Cincinnati, OH) led the Hawks with 14 points including four makes from three point range. Fellow junior Tyler Jones (Atlantic City, NJ) finished second in scoring with nine points and added a team high seven rebounds to his stat line.

Grad student Ryan Andino (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) had another tough day shooting and finished with three points. He is averaging just three points per game in his last four outings following his 21 point performance at Winthrop on Dec. 20.

Andino is the Hawks leading scorer among active players as AJ Cheeseman (Snellville, GA), the team's leading scorer, appears to be a few more weeks away from returning after an injury has kept him out since Dec. 15.

The Bears (6-8, 1-0 MEAC) had four players reach double figures. Stanley Davis led MSU with 15 points and six rebounds. David Syfax finished with 11 points and a game high eight rebounds.

There will not be much time for Eastern Shore to dwell on their first conference loss as they welcome Howard University to the Hytche Center on Monday night (Jan. 7). Tip for that game will be at approximately 7:30 p.m.

"Howard is much different from Morgan State," Reed said. "They have the best guard play in the conference so we are going to have to play well at home against them because they are a very confident team."

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