UNIVERSITY PARK, Pennsylvania — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore men's basketball team opened their 2019-20 season on Tuesday evening (Nov. 5) against the Penn State University Nittany Lions. PSU won the game 84-46.

"I thought our guys gave a great effort for 40 minutes," head coach Jason Crafton said. "They are scrappy and play a hard-nosed, blue collar brand of basketball and those are the kinds of things we are trying to build here at Maryland Eastern Shore."

The Hawks (0-1) found themselves behind 9-0 before senior AJ Cheeseman (Snellville, Ga.) scored the team's first points of the game at the 17:18 mark of the first half. After that basket, Eastern Shore would find some success for the next few minutes and a basket from freshman Da'Shawn Phillip (Baltimore, Md.) forced a PSU timeout as the Nittany Lions lead stood at 18-10.

Over the next 10 minutes, Penn State would have a 15-2 run that began to lengthen their lead. The Hawks struggled to get baskets for the remainder of the half and a buzzer beating layup for PSU made the halftime score 37-17.

The offensive struggles would continue for Maryland Eastern Shore after coming out of the locker room. The Nittany Lions went on a 19-2 run in the first five minutes of the second half and pulled away for good.

"They had two big runs, between the 10 and six minute mark of the first half and the beginning of the second half," Crafton said. "If you put those minutes together that is where they got out in front to dominate the basketball game."

A bright spot for the Hawks came in the second half as they went on a 12-2 run from the 9:06 to 5:32 mark.

"When you find a way to go on a run like we did in this kind of environment against Big Ten talent, that is something positive we can take from this," Crafton said. "We stayed positive, stayed alive and had some pop for 40 minutes."

Cheeseman led the Hawks in scoring with nine points. Freshman Glen Anderson (Harlem, N.Y.), the smallest player on the squad, tied senior Gabriel Gyamfi (Brampton, Ontario, Canada) for the rebound lead with four and also dished out three assists.

Penn State had six players in double figures led by All-Big Ten performer Lamar Stevens' 17 points. Mike Watkins finished with a double-double as he had 12 points and 11 rebounds along with six blocks.

The Shore will now face Liberty on Sunday (Nov. 10) at 2 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.

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