DOVER, Delaware — Every time victory was beginning to look out of reach for the University of Maryland Eastern Shore on Saturday at Delaware State, the Hawks found a way to give themselves a chance.

Even after trailing by seven with 2 minutes left, The Shore still clawed back to within two points with the ball and 23 seconds left. But senior Ciani Byrom (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) came up empty on a runner on the left side. Then a held ball on the rebound gave it to the Hornets who made one of four free throws before the Hawks would get the ball back with six seconds left for a last gasp.

But, in the end, senior Ra'Jean Martin's (Jacksonville, Florida) game-tying attempt at a 3-pointer came off the rim as the Hawks (15-12, 11-3 MEAC) suffered a 65-62 loss.

"I thought Del State played well and I didn't think we played very well," Hawks coach Fred Batchelor said. "I thought we had some kids who played probably some of the toughest basketball they played all year long and (The Hornets) took advantage of it. And, as bad as we played, we still had a chance at the end to tie the game. It was really unfortunate that we didn't take advantage of the opportunity we had to come in here and win the game today."

Byrom scored 24 points on 7-of-18 shooting and moved into No. 6 on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,156 points. She passed Phyliss Hendricks' (1983-87) and is now behind No. 5 Angela Fowler (1889-92) and her 1,179 points.

The Hawks shot just 34 percent from the field and turned the ball over 18 times. They also made just 14 of 21 from the free throw line (67 percent) and were 6-of-24 from behind the arc (25 percent).

Starters Keyera Eaton (Winston-Salem, North Carolina), Bairesha Gill-Miles (Lexington, Kentucky) and Ksenia Popovich (Moscow, Russia) and super sub Dominique Walker (Bel Air, Maryland) combined to go 4-of-20 from the field.

Martin scored 16 points on 6-of-15 shooting from the field.

DSU jumped out to an early 15-4 advantage to start the game as The Shore struggled to score. Eastern Shore tied the game at 21-21 with 5:24 left in the second quarter and then took the lead 24-21 on a Martin 3-pointer. But that was short-lived as the Hornets went back up by five minutes later. They led 33-28 at the half.

"I thought they played a good game," Batchelor said. "I know they hit two 3s off the glass today and we couldn't buy one and a couple kids really struggled. I thought CeCe gave us a fight and I thought we continued to fight. I was proud that we continued to fight and we were disappointed and very frustrated with the way we played today.

But you have to find a way to come in with the right mindset and I don't think we had the right mindset to start the game and that's why we had that first quarter."

Walker, Gill-Miles and Martin had seven rebounds each to lead the Hawks as they outrebounded Del State 42-33.

Senior and Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Preseason Player of the Year NaJai Pollard had 20 points and 10 rebounds for the Hornets, but it was the unexpected 21 points from classmate Lanayjha Ashe that really hurt The Shore. The duo did their damage while shooting 16-of-35 from the field (46 percent).

Eastern Shore missed an opportunity to clinch the No. 2 seed in the MEAC Tournament with a victory, but may have learned a lesson about what other teams will bring at them in Norfolk.

"We talked about that," Batchelor said. "If this was the tournament, we'd be going home. It doesn't matter what seed you are at that point, so hopefully we learned something for that and we'll find a way to be a better team and more tournament ready."

The Hawks will be off for nine days and will then play their final two games of the season at home — March 4 vs. Morgan State and March 7 vs. Delaware State again.

"We had a long delay and now we have another long delay, but I don't think we'll need to find anything to be motivated about come Monday," Batchelor said.