NORFOLK, Virginia — In their last game before Christmas, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore men's basketball team dropped a Sunday afternoon (Dec. 22) contest 76-52 to the Old Dominion University Monarchs.

The Hawks (1-13) had just eight turnovers in the game after committing 21 in their last game against Charlotte on Dec. 19. The ability of the team to take care of the ball led to the team getting better looks at the basket, however the squad still saw some offensive lapses as they shot 33.9% from the field.

ODU jumped out to a 19-4 lead after eight minutes had been played in the first half. The Hawks then went on a 9-4 run over the next two minutes that was punctuated by a fast break dunk from senior AJ Cheeseman (Snellville, Georgia) that forced a Monarchs timeout.

Old Dominion answered back with seven straight points to stabilize their lead. They outscored Eastern Shore 23-13 over the final 10 minutes of the opening half to carry a 46-26 advantage into the locker room.

A layup from Glen Anderson (Harlem, New York) with 16 minutes left in the game got the Hawks within 15 as the score stood at 48-33. They would not get any closer than that for the remainder of the game. ODU would continue to pull away for the rest of the game as they saw their lead get as high as 26 in the final minute of regulation.

Junior Ty Gibson (Brooklyn, New York) led Maryland Eastern Shore in points and assists as he had 15 and 4 respectively. Freshman Da'Shawn Phillip (Baltimore, Maryland) had a stellar defensive game as he blocked six shots. That was the highest total for any Hawks player since Jan. 28, 2017, when Derrico Peck had five against South Carolina State.

The Monarchs finished with three players in double figures and were led by Aaron Carver as he finished with 16 points and 16 rebounds on just eight shots. Carver is the older brother of Mauri Carver, who is a middle blocker on the Hawks' volleyball team.

The Shore has just one more game before conference play begins. That game will be at Virginia Tech on Dec. 29. After that, they will open up conference play with a home game versus Howard on Jan. 4.

Eastern Shore is almost at the end of what has been a top 20 strength of schedule for the nonconference season according to KenPom rankings. However, head coach Jason Crafton is not thinking about that and is still focusing on the process.

"Even when we get to conference play we will be looking up at teams in terms of where some programs are in their rebuilding process," Crafton said. "What we have to do is stay focused on getting better and getting tougher every single day and not worry about the opponent, if we do that we will be fine."

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