NORFOLK, Virginia — No. 2 seeded University of Maryland Eastern Shore has just one thing standing between it and a potential third meeting with Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference No. 1 North Carolina A&T State.
That one thing is a win against a Bethune-Cookman University squad that features last season's MEAC Player of the Year in senior Angel Golden. The Wildcats (19-10) are 21-1 when she scored 20 or more points and putting the rains on her will be a major focus of Eastern Shore's resurgent defensive effort.
Golden — a First Team All-MEAC selection this season — led all scorers with 26 points as the Wildcats advanced with a 55-49 win against No. 11 Coppin State. Amaya Scott had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, while Chasimmie Brown grabbed a team-high 11 boards.
Coppin had jumped out to an early advantage, but the Wildcats outscored the Eagles by an 18-4 count in the second quarter, holding Coppin State to 2-17 shooting from the field to regain control of the game. Bethune was in the driver's seat 29-17 and led 46-32 before the Eagles made a late run.
The Hawks (17-13), suffered through a nearly nine-minute scoring drought on Wednesday (March 13) to begin their second-round matchup with South Carolina State, but after only giving up nine points in the first quarter and 16 in the first half, The Shore had taken control by the break and ran away with a 24-point victory.
In the teams' previous meeting — Jan. 21 in Daytona Beach — Eastern Shore got big bench play from senior
Dominique Walker (Bel Air, Maryland) and freshman
Taylor Clayborne (Upper Marlboro, Maryland) after starter's
Bairesha Gill-Miles (Lexington, Kentucky) and
Ksenia Popovich (Moscow, Russia) found themselves in foul trouble.
Ciani Byrom (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) the Hawks' own First-Team All-MEAC selection led all scorers with 23 points.
Most importantly, the Hawks held the Wildcats to 37 percent shooting from the field and Golden scored just eight points on 3-of-10 shooting — thanks in large part to the defensive effort of senior
Ra'Jean Martin (Jacksonville, Florida).
The victory was the first against Bethune in four tries and tied the all-time series at 34-34. It also was the second victory in what would become a seven-game win streak where the Hawks used superior defensive effort and performance to come out on top.
They seemed to find a little more of that aggressive, cooperative defensive the last time and and if they can keep it going, nothing will be standing between them and the final. A&T will face off with Norfolk State in the noon matchup.
