GREENSBORO, North Carolina — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore men's basketball team held a lead at halftime, but were unable to hold on to it as the North Carolina A&T State Aggies defeated the Hawks 68-61 on Monday night (Feb. 11).

"The guys are to be commended on playing really hard the entire game," head coach Clifford Reed said. "We did a super job but I would have like to see us execute a little bit better in the second half when they turned up their pressure."

A 3-pointer from Ryan Andino (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) with 11:47 left in the first half gave the Hawks a 13-11 lead. A balanced attack in the first 20 minutes was the catalyst to Eastern Shore holding a 31-23 lead at the half. Andino, redshirt junior Dontae Caldwell (Santa Ana, CA) and sophomore Canaan Bartley (Miami, FL) each had six points in the opening half.

The Shore would not surrender their lead until the six minutes into the second half. After halftime, the game became a back and forth affair once the Aggies tied the game with 14:30 left. North Carolina A&T did not earn a three possession lead on Eastern Shore until the final 90 seconds of the contest.

Maryland Eastern Shore had nine players score against A&T. Andino led the way with 11 points. Caldwell and Gabriel Gyamfi (Brampton, ON, Canada) each had nine points. Bartley finished with eight points and three steals.

North Carolina A&T had three players reach double figures. Ibrahim Sylla and Andre Jackson each had 14 points for the Aggies to lead the way.

Eastern Shore will now have three of their final four regular season games inside the W.P. Hytche Athletic Center. The first game of that stretch will be this Saturday (Feb. 16) against in-state rival Coppin State.

Saturday's game will be homecoming at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Reed has a very simple message for his guys in regards to their impending game with the Eagles.

"We just need to score more points than Coppin State does," Reed said.

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