NORFOLK, Virginia — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore men's basketball team showed resilience on Tuesday night (March 12) in their MEAC Tournament game versus the South Carolina State University Bulldogs, but the No. 9 seed Bulldogs held on to win 63-54.

"I give all the credit to South Carolina State as they had a really good plan," head coach Clifford Reed said. "But I want to really thank my outstanding group of young men that fought to the end."

The Hawks fell behind by as many as 19 points in the second half and closed that lead down to two at one point.

SC State opened the game with hot shooting early as they shot 50 percent in the first half to just 31 percent for the Hawks. The Bulldogs also outrebounded Eastern Shore 21-14 in the first 20 minutes.

At the 19:04 mark of the second half, SCSU held a 41-22 lead. The Shore would answer that by scoring the next 15 points. A layup by Bryan Urrutia (Chihuahua, Mexico) with 13:58 left made the Bulldog lead 41-37 and the game would go back and forth after that.

As the Bulldogs led 51-44 with 5:34 left, guard Ryan Andino (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) hit a 3-pointer and center Isaac Taylor (Wachapreague, VA) made a hook two possessions later to bring the Hawks within two with 2:16 left. However, the Hawks would give up the next six points and would never truly threaten again.

Urrutia led Maryland Eastern Shore with 14 points, six rebounds and five assists. Taylor finished with 12 points.

Andino had a tough shooting night but would finish with nine points on three makes from behind the arc. He finishes his career with 329 made 3-pointers which is the top all-time in Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference history.

"This has been a great experience playing here and I exceeded my own expectations in my career," Andino said. "This has been bigger than just basketball, it's been about life and I feel like the coaches have helped me grow as a player and as a man."

South Carolina State was led by Janai Raynor-Powell's game high 15 points. All-MEAC performer Damani Applewhite finished with a double-double as he had 10 points and 12 rebounds.

Eastern Shore finishes the season with a 7-25 (5-11 MEAC) record.

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