NORFOLK, Virginia — Sometimes basketball comes down to one simple truth.

You have to make shots to win.

The University of Maryland Eastern Shore entered the fourth quarter of Friday's (Mar. 15) Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference semifinal tied with No. 3 seed Bethune-Cookman 37-37.

Wildcats guard Angel Golden began the fourth quarter with a 3-point field goal and was fouled adding the and-one to give her squad a 41-37 lead. That proved to be the turning point in the game.

The Hawks (17-14) went 3-of-21 (14 percent) in the final quarter as the Wildcats (20-10) didn't seem to miss, pulling away for a 58-47 victory and a spot in Saturday's final against Norfolk State.

"I thought Golden made some big plays," Hawks coach Fred Batchelor said. "That four-point play was big. We had a five-point lead at one point and as I look back it would have been a good decision probably to take a timeout earlier than we did. But hindsight is 20/20. I just thought they made the plays that they needed to make, but at the end of the day we didn't shoot the ball well enough to win."

The Hawks finished just 4-of-30 from behind the arc (13 percent) and 18-of-68 from the field (27 percent).

"Their defensive game-plan was very, very effective," Batchelor said. "To me that was the difference in the basketball game."

After senior point guard Ciani Byrom (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) burned Bethune in Daytona with 23 points on 50-percent shooting, the Wildcats' coaching staff was determined to make things difficult for the Hawks' leader.

"If I was going to coach against this team and against Cece, I'd do what they did," Batchelor said. "I'd load up the middle of the floor and not allow her to get in the middle and I'd put someone up top that was tall enough to really disrupt her rhythm as far as getting shots.

"I thought they did a good job of taking away our strength and we didn't capitalize of the fact that we did have a lot of open shots."
Byrom led the Hawks with 13 points, but was 4-of-17 from the field and 2-of-8 from 3-point range.

It was a tough day overall for the Hawks trio of four-year veterans.

Ra'Jean Martin (Jacksonville, Florida) finished with nine points on 3-of-11 shooting and grabbed five boards, while Keyera Eaton (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) had five points on 2-of-16 shooting and pulled down four rebounds.

North Carolina A&T State lost its semifinal matchup with Norfolk State leaving neither the No. 1 or No. 2 finisher in the regular season in the title game. The Aggies will now get the conference's Women's NIT berth leaving the Hawks in limbo for the moment.

If this should be the final game for this group of players, it was a ride that none will soon forget.

"This was a special experience," Batchelor said of the season with this team. "I have been very blessed to be in a position of coaching young people at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. It's a very rewarding job. This group is different because they just get it in real time. It has been a pleasure to coach them and I think they have elevated our program.

"This is probably the best chemistry team that I have ever seen and it starts with the leadership (as he pointed to Byrom beside him). It starts with the young lady who makes sacrifices every day for the team and serves others. She is going to be a great leader beyond here and I am fortunate to have been a part of her development and I look forward to our future."

Part of that future is sophomore Bairesha Gill-Miles (Lexington, Kentucky), who Batchelor said has grown as a leader this season
Gill-Miles turned in one of her best games of the season, going 5-of-8 from the field for 10 points and adding 14 rebounds, but struggled with the loss just like the rest of her teammates.

"I feel like our senior taught me a lot," she said. "CeCe, being our captain, showed me how to lead and how to be there for each other — encourage each other. I just feel like I am going to take everything they taught me into the next couple of years."

Junior Chioma Nkpuechina (Anambra, Nigeria) had another strong game off the bench grabbing seven rebounds in 17 minutes. In a way, the play of Nkpuechina as a reserve during the tournament is an example of the heart the Hawks have shown all season.

"We had a fantastic season," Byrom said. "I am very proud of everybody who contributed and the players who didn't play as much were still a big factor in our success. They still worked hard. Everybody worked hard and I feel like that is why we had a lot of success. I feel like we were very tough and we were just a resilient group of girls that feel like even if we are undersized, even if we are outnumbered we are going to give it everything we have got."