NORFOLK, Virginia — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore entered Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament play as the No. 2 seed and had to wait to see who their Wednesday afternoon opponent would be. Tuesday's South Carolina State win against Savannah state placed the Bulldogs into that 2 p.m. battle and left the Hawks focused on their next steps.

"I think playing at an up-tempo pace is going to be key," Eastern Shore coach Fred Batchelor said. "From what I saw against Savannah, they were very effective sitting in a zone, which is really a good strategy at tournament time — forcing teams to shoot from the perimeter. We need to make sure we don't get caught up in trying to win the game from the perimeter. We want to get inside and dictate the tempo with our defense."

This season, the Hawks have hit from behind the arc at a 31 percent clip this season, but have shot better from the outside when teams have tried to take away the drive rather than packing in the zone and forcing them to shoot over it.

"At our place when we played them, they kind of did a little bit of both, but we played well against them at our place," Batchelor said. "That weekend, was probably the best weekend of our season and it may have been one of their worst games. It is tournament time and everybody is 0-0 as they say. So, we need to be able to step up to the challenge."

The Shore took that game 63-43, holding the Bulldogs to five points in the first quarter and 16 in the first half. That win turned out to be the last of a seven-game win streak for the Hawks who went 2-3 over the final five games of the season.

The struggles lasted until the final against Delaware State when the Hawks seemed to find their game after a renewed focus in practice. The strong preparation work has continued this week.

"Tuesday, I thought we had a good focus," Batchelor said. "It was more of a walk-through of stuff. I thought our last couple of days were great. Even when it wasn't good, it helped us to show the difference between making shots and missing shots and what we need to do in between. I just thought we learned a lot over the last two weeks about the way we have to approach practice and the outcome of that. I think they learned their lesson about the type of mindset we need to have and I think we have prepared ourselves to play a solid tournament."

To make the kind of run they want to, Eastern Shore will need to deal with the ups and down and pressure of tournament play— from the unfamiliar arena, to the abnormal schedule.

"I think that is the difference in having upperclassmen and kids who have experienced it," Batchelor said. "They have a little better ability to adjust. Freshmen don't know. I think is the benefit of having a seasoned team that has played in tournaments. This group of kids have not gone deep into a tournament though. They have heard about it, but they have never experienced it."

That is something he hopes to change beginning Wednesday and then continuing a run all the way to Saturday's title game. But not of that happens without winning on Wednesday.